We seek to identify and support pupils who, at any time during their school career need additional help with their learning or with social, physical or emotional problems.  Consultation with parents is a vital feature of Special Needs work and we invite information that helps us to cater for each boy's individual situation.

We maintain close links with the Education Authority's Support Services, especially the Education Welfare Service, the Behaviour Support Service and the Psychological Services.

The school operates the procedures detailed in the Code of Practice and is incorporating the current round of changes.  Where necessary, support is given to pupils with statements of special education need, by Integration Assistants funded by the LEA.  In school, boys with identified needs are under the care of the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo) who works in collaboration with the subject teachers, form tutor and year head.   The register of pupils identified as having special educational needs is updated continuously.

On entry to the school, all boys are assessed in Reading, Spelling and Mathematics with additional support being provided for those found to have reading deficiencies.  Learning Support Assistants have a special link with each of the Year 7 tutor groups with the specific brief of helping all boys in the class to progress at a similar rate.

The SENCO and some of the Learning Support Assistants are trained to use the ARROW scheme which has substantially increased the reading ages of many boys after a few hours of individual attention.

Differentiated teaching is encouraged by the design of the curriculum, but this is supplemented by active development of differentiated teaching materials and approaches in the different subject areas, including the use of computers.

The Governors review the funding for pupils with Special Educational Needs and evaluate provision on an annual basis.