King’s House School has achieved the Inclusive School Award.
Teacher Fights for Every Child
Pupils and parents are overwhelmingly positive about King’s House School. Parents mentioned that communication between the school and home is outstanding, with constant open dialogue. All members of staff work tirelessly on behalf of the pupils. One parent said that the Headteacher fights for every child.
Pupils all love school, with one parent telling our Assessor that her son punched the air when he heard that half-term was over because he missed his maths lessons.
Parents whose children are new to the country spoke about how the school helped the children settle in quickly, with one parent mentioning the fantastic support for her son from his classmates as he arrived from abroad. Parents also mentioned the Head’s PA and Senior Department’s Secretary who is always very supportive and helpful to all parents, always being welcoming.
Articulate Pupils
The school operates on three separate sites, the Nursery, the Junior and the Senior departments. Our Assessor was fortunate enough to spend time in all of the three settings. They had the opportunity to drop into a wide range of lessons from all age groups. Pupils were engaged and focused in all of them. It was interesting to listen to teachers in the Senior department offering stretch and challenge in their questioning, asking for more clarification, as well as asking the pupil to justify their answers.
Links to prior learning were also evident. In a Year 4 maths lesson, the pupils were getting accustomed to having a study buddy partner and working collaboratively before giving a response to the rest of the class. This is a good way to build up confidence and for pupils who find the question easy, a chance to explain how they got to the specific answer, making it an additional learning point. In another Year 8 maths lesson, the teacher used a misconception as a learning point that helped several boys.
A Year 6 PSHE lesson focused on the question of what makes us stressed. Pupils were very articulate and able to empathise with each other’s shared stresses! They were becoming more aware of what emotions the stresses caused as well as starting to look at things that can help mitigate the effects of the stress. A thought-provoking lesson for the boys.
Empathetic and Supportive of Pupils
The drama teacher was very empathetic and supportive of pupils rehearsing sections from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in preparation for their year group’s production. Each child takes part in drama productions for parents on a regular basis. The school use class dojos as a reward system as well as pastoral tokens which are given out to pupils who show the school’s values such as kindness, teamwork and resilience. All pastoral tokens are put in a glass bowl in the school entrance and one lucky winner gets an Amazon voucher.
The school is keen to refine their offer when required, making them very responsive to need. A good example of this was when the school became aware of several boys being colour-blind. The SENCo organised whole school training for everyone so that they could adapt their lessons. The PE department are now using black and white cones in their games sessions rather than the traditional orange and green as a reasonable adjustment.
Three Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSAs) have been appointed which has added more capacity to the school’s response for pupils who need some additional support in this area. They complement the work of the school counsellor who supports the pupils and staff at the school one day a week.
Levels of Responsibility
Pupils spoke to our Assessor about the increasing levels of responsibility they are given as they move up the school. All of the Year 8 boys have a specific role such as Head Boy, sports captain, charity monitor, or young enterprise leader to name but a few.
King’s House has a School Council as well as a Food Council which focuses on improving school lunches.
The Head Boy explained how Year 8 boys lead fortnightly school tours for prospective parents, a valuable life skill for their next school. Year 7 pupils also lead some tours. They spoke about the school House meetings and the inter-house sports, art and music competitions that regularly take place.
Examples of a strong pupil voice are ubiquitous throughout the school. Our Assessor enjoyed going to see a STEM lunch club which was run by a Year 8 boy for an enthusiastic group of Year 4 boys who were making models of cars.
Supported by the adult charity coordinator, they invite charity reps into the school to speak to everyone and then they vote on which charities to support. In addition, they voted on a name change for the Houses’ system which needed updating, even in nursery there was a vote on which book they wanted their teacher to read to them next!
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: [email protected] for further details.
Want more information on the IQM Award? Click here to request your free IQM information pack.