Hillyfield Primary Academy has achieved the Inclusive School Award with Centre of Excellence status.
‘Brilliance in Every Child’
Brilliance means “What we are good at… trying our best then we are eventually good at them”. This comment was made by a Year 4 pupil about the Hillyfield Primary Academy’s vision and values encapsulated in the motto ‘Brilliance in Every Child, Excellence Every Day’. During the visit, our Assessor found this comment to be true evidenced by numerous examples of brilliance and excellence whether talking to pupils, staff, parents, or Governors. The Senior Leadership Team presented a cohesive picture of how the vision was implemented and its impact. There was a distinct passion and deep knowledge displayed by staff that facilitated these values.
The school’s dedication to inclusive practices was recognised in December 2018 by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted). The school is ‘Good’ and inspectors commented that ‘Leaders have a good understanding of those pupils with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEN/SEND). There are robust systems in place to both identify and support pupils. This enables teachers to focus on pupils’ individual needs. Good liaison with a full range of external agencies provides further support. Pupils with SEND make good progress because of effective teaching and support.’
Inclusive Practice Cohesively
The leaders of Hillyfield Primary Academy were committed to a vision of the school that provided inclusive practice cohesively across two sites and two differing communities. The school is organised as a single academy but has the Hill and Park sites, both large two to four-form sites housed in modern buildings with ample space within large grounds. Stakeholders from both communities were spoken to at every level including pupils, parents, staff, leaders, outside agencies and Governors. Recent changes in the leadership structure after the retirement of the Headteacher and one of the Deputies have been thoughtfully managed and the sense across the school was an acceptance and confidence in the new leadership structure and new Headteacher who joined the school just over two months ago. Senior staff ranged in their experience and time at the school but exuded a common purpose.
It was clear that everyone at the Hill and Park sites endeavoured to create an inclusive environment that valued the pupil’s whole experience. The rich curriculum linked foundation and creative subjects with core subjects and sought to optimise creativity and creative or critical thinking.
Clear structures and processes have been established across the two sites and a commitment to planning as a whole year group enables the school to utilise the economies of scale to maximise the quality of planning, adaptation and resourcing to support both. Processes were in place for raising a cause for concern in each broad area of needs that were rigorous and transparent. The weekly briefing was observed to include the elements discussed in meetings with stakeholders such as neurodiversity week and assessment.
Promoted Inclusion
The teachers promoted inclusion through very high quality planning made possible by teamwork across the year. The teams worked to provide adaptation via universal strategies and resources and employed symbols, colourful semantics and pneumatics for recalling skills to particularly good use.
The support staff had a confident demeanour, demonstrating their knowledge of each pupil’s profile of need and the provision to support them. They were knowledgeable about the interventions that they ran and were well trained to deliver them.
The pupils were polite and engaged in learning. Behaviour was consistently good even though the school catered to a wide range of needs profiles that include Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) issues including emotional dysregulation related to sensorial needs. The groups of pupils spoken to, three in total, and the individuals spoken to in learning walks were confident in an at ease manner consistent with being well used to speaking to adults. This was in line with the testimony of staff, parents and Governors who all cited the range of opportunities for public speaking and gathering pupil voice that were provided by the school. Pupils presented as happy and calm on both sites and during both assessment days.
The parents were enthused about the school, they felt heard and respected and were grateful that their children had places at a school that was so inclusive. All recounted openly their personal stories through concern, identification, diagnosis and their child receiving provision. They describe the effective communication they received from the school and their involvement with their child’s education.
Provide Challenge and Support
The Governors brought perspective from their life and as parents to the role to provide challenge and support in several forums. They spoke of termly full Governing Body meetings and committee meetings that have standing items relating to inclusion. They had attended monitoring visits where they saw practice on the ground, spoke to pupils and looked at the evidence in books.
During the learning walks the environment, resources and visual support were optimised to scaffold the pupil’s learning at every opportunity. Widgit symbols and colourful semantics were a universal norm, InPrint was routinely and creatively used and resourcing was well planned and provided for.
Class teachers built on the adaptation via planning and resourcing, making bespoke further adaptations for their class and individuals aided by Bsquared Connecting Steps data. This allows for individual teacher’s autonomy whilst ensuring a unified approach across large year groups. It has then been possible for the Alternative Resource Provision (ARP) to move from a separate class model to full integration into the mainstream classrooms as the inclusive practice was embedded to support that move. One parent was able to give their perspective on this journey as their child had been at the school during this process: they were very much in favour of the integrated approach and saw benefits for their child’s academic learning as well as their wider development.
The new Headteacher made a point of introducing themselves even though the process had been under the direction of the staff in place before their appointment in January 2024.
Find out more about the IQM Inclusive School Award
If your school is interested in obtaining the IQM Inclusive School Award or you wish to talk to a member of the IQM team please telephone:
028 7127 7857 (9.00 am to 5.00 pm)
or email: admin@iqmaward.com for further details.
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