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SEND · ALN · Ages 4–18
✓ 16.6% of our pupils hold an EHCP, against a national average of 4.8%
✓ Support planned during admissions, not after a crisis and not held up waiting for a diagnosis
✓ Led by a Director of Inclusive Learning, with a named tutor checking in weekly
Inclusion at Sophia
of Sophia pupils hold an EHCP
National average 4.8% · Source: DfE
receive SEN support without an EHCP
National average 13.6% · Source: DfE
pupils in a core class, cameras on, taught by a subject specialist
Sophia class-size policy
permanently excluded Key Stage 3 pupils commissioned each year by local authority partners
Sophia, 2026
Who we support
✓ ADHD and attention or executive function needs
✓ Autistic pupils, including sensory needs
✓ Dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia
✓ Dyspraxia (developmental coordination disorder)
✓ Anxiety and school avoidance, including pupils long out of education
✓ Speech, language and communication needs, where appropriate
✓ EAL and ESL pupils needing scaffolding while English strengthens
How support works
01
We review the learning profile, prior reports, school history, strengths and barriers before a start date is agreed.
02
We agree priority goals with the family, the classroom strategies that go with them, and any targeted intervention.
03
Subject specialists apply the agreed adjustments in live lessons. Each pupil has a Pupil Passport that every teacher works from.
04
Progress, wellbeing and workload are reviewed with parents each term, and the plan changes as the pupil does.
We follow the PAWS framework, working with families and pupils to identify needs and agree ongoing adjustments.
The Safeguarding Team
Our Safeguarding team handles any sensitive issues, provides guidance, and liaises with authorities as needed.
Director of Inclusive Learning and Alternative Provision
Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
Prevent Lead
Designated Safeguarding Lead
ALN Coordinator
Esports Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
Data Protection Officer
In practice
Adjustments change how a pupil accesses the curriculum. The curriculum itself stays the same.
Visual agendas, instructions broken into steps, and a lesson shape that does not change week to week.
Extra processing time and deliberate checks for understanding rather than assumed comprehension.
Movement breaks and resets built into the day, and permission to use them without asking each time.
Guided notes, structured templates, and homework set with an explicit expected time.
Text-to-speech, reader tools, overlays and captioning, integrated into the lesson rather than bolted on.
One-to-one or small-group intervention where a specific barrier persists after classroom adjustments.
A pupil can sit a year above in a strong subject while receiving support in another. Reduced and phased timetables are available.
Daily Holistic Horizons PSHE sessions and a weekly tutor check-in covering wellbeing and academic load, not only progress.
Every lesson is recorded and posted to the online classroom the same day, so absence does not create a gap.
Adjustments are agreed individually during the assess and plan stages. This list describes what is available, not a package every pupil receives.
Fit-checking
We are an online school, not a therapeutic facility. Where a pupil needs on-site clinical provision, we will say so and point towards the right route.
We can provide targeted intervention and adjusted timetables. We cannot provide a full-time one-to-one adult through every lesson of every day.
Some needs require a building, specialist equipment or trained physical support. Those cannot be delivered remotely.
How support works
01
You provide the current plan, educational psychology reports and school history.
02
We assess whether our provision can safely meet the needs set out in the plan.
03
Where appropriate, we respond to the authority setting out exactly what we can deliver.
04
The authority agrees a placement, or we recommend an alternative route.
Educational psychology, autism or ADHD assessments, speech and language reports.
Often the most useful thing in the meeting.
No reports yet? That is common and not a barrier. We can work from what you have observed and advise on next steps.
Before enrolment
✓ A conversation with parents, and with the pupil where appropriate, about history and goals
✓ A review of reports — school, educational psychology, therapy summaries, EHCP
✓ Triggers and what helps — what causes stress and which strategies have actually worked
✓ A recommendation — year group, timetable shape and support level, or an honest no
Further reading
The SEND White Paper describes a model of early intervention and digital support plans, to be delivered by 2030. Why we already run it.
The Director of Inclusive Learning on pods, Pupil Passports, reduced timetables and reintegrating pupils long out of education.
Sensory load, predictability and why the online classroom removes barriers a building creates.
What a smaller, quieter, more predictable classroom changes for pupils with attention and executive function needs.
FAQs
For many pupils, yes. The online classroom removes crowds, corridors, sensory load and unstructured social time, which is where a great deal of difficulty sits. Small classes and a predictable routine do the rest. It is not suitable for every child, which is why the consultation exists.
