It was great to visit Godmanchester Bridge Academy for the first time yesterday.
The school faces similar challenges to others locally, and indeed nationally, around the recent surge in children with SEN requirements. The school has 13% of pupils with SEN requirements versus a national rate of around 3%.
There are significant issues with Cambridgeshire County Council’s approval rate of EHCPs, as I’ve mentioned on many occasions and raised repeatedly with the Government in Parliament. One pupil at the school has been waiting for over 90 weeks. There are real concerns around the efficiency of the processes in place at the council.
Further to this there are also concerns around the councils inability to conduct annual reviews of childrens’ EHCPs, with multiple examples of updates not having been made in several years despite reviews submitted by the school.
With huge reform to SEND policy to be announced shortly there are real concerns around what the Government plan to do with access to EHCPs in mainstream settings. I will continue to watch this closely and hold the Education Secretary to account for any decisions which have a negative impact.
My thanks to Vicky McAuley- Eccles (Deputy Headteacher and SENCo) and Headteacher Claire Pirrie for the tour of the school, showing me the and for laying out the challenges the school faces.
