SEND Information Event – Andover College | Wednesday 25th January 3.30pm-6pm

Please see information below regarding Andover College’s SEND event that is taking place next Wednesday the 25th of January. This event is open to all year groups; it would be especially benefitical for parents, carers and pupils in Year 9 and above.

Parent/Carer Event – January 25^th 3.30pm-6.00pm

The event will be set up as follows:

A cafe run by staff and some current students where people can get a drink and a biscuit/cake and chat to a student if they want to ask them questions 

Q&A drop in with some current parents/a member of the County SEN team so they can ask about transport/EHCPs/other concerns 

Half hourly talks on the curriculum with opportunity for questions – Suzie Oostendorp, Curriculum Leader, Foundation & Liz Wilson, Assistant Principal

Activities for any young people who may come along 

Tours of the campus every half hour 

This is now live, link to Eventbrite to book HERE

The event is primarily aimed at those students who would be looking to enrol on a Focus on Life Skills course where we can offer a more bespoke timetable. 

We are looking to strengthen relationships between local SEND schools/colleges and Andover College, especially regarding transition during the final year of school/college.  

We have seen that parents are extremely anxious about the transition out of school, understandably so given their young person has usually been in the same school since year 7, coupled with the fact that they are usually about to begin the unnerving shift into adult services.  Currently parents are able to attend open evenings at the college before their final year, and some have taken up this opportunity, but we also have parents who have communicated concerns about how their young person would cope at a general open evening and have therefore not attended an open event.

We feel that more is needed in order to help ease anxiety about transition earlier on, and that a general open evening does not give enough time and information to parents of students with complex needs. The college has decided to start an annual information event, this time just for parents of students with complex needs. In addition to giving information specifically regarding the support and curriculum for those students, we have asked some current parents as well as County to attend so that new parents can ask any further questions about this big transition not only from ourselves, but also from these other great sources of information.

As Gatsby and the EHCP reviews recommend that students from year 9 upwards begin thinking about the future, we would like to open the event to parents and students from year 9 upwards. In addition, inviting students before they are in year 13 for example, will help us to plan and adapt our provision better by knowing in advance the needs of future students.