Little Heath School in Romford has achieved the Inclusive School Award with Centre of Excellence status.
Upskilled to Teach Effectively
Little Heath School is a specialist Special Educational Needs (SEN) secondary school with pupils who have a wide and varying range of needs. Increasingly more of the pupils have more and more complex needs and the cohort has been increasing year on year. The IQM Leads explained that in order to do the very best they can by pupils and ensure they do not compromise on learning, leaders at the school have ensured that staff are upskilled to teach effectively, and the curriculum is ready.
The curriculum has already been re-written over the past academic year and staff are now willing to take on the extra workload and responsibility of changing the curriculum again in order to ensure that pupils at the school have great learning opportunities. Alongside more formal learning opportunities there are also several therapeutic programmes in place, including specialist speech and language activities.
Children are “known” at Little Heath, with one of the parents our Assessor met with saying it is really easy to get feedback from all teachers and that; “all the teachers know my son here.” The IQM Leads said that everything they do at the school stems from their knowledge of the pupils and that “Inclusion is everything we do.”
Inclusive values and practices are embedded within the daily life of Little Heath School where the whole ethos of the school is about ensuring every child “has a voice” and are able to communicate using their preferred method of communication. Some pupils at the school are pre-verbal, so whilst some can use their actual voice, staff at the school ensure that all pupils can communicate whether that be by using technology or by being provided with visual prompts to help them.
Preparing Pupils for Adult Life
The other key element of the school that comes through very strongly is about preparing the pupils for “adulthood”, from the sensible and well thought through programme of Personal Social Health Education (PSHE) to the excellent opportunities for work experience in the community for KS5 pupils. Senior leaders are very clear that they; “want our pupils to be happy, engaged learners” who are prepared for adult life. The local authority SIP told our Assessor; “no child is left behind” and that if the; “school doesn’t know the answer, they will find someone who does.”
Pupils are grouped according to age but within each class they are split into “pre-formal, semi-formal and formal learners.” All former pupils do leave the school with some form of accreditation. All of the formal learners do entry level qualifications and the school always explores GCSEs entries if pupils are particularly gifted in a specific area, for example art. Most recently a whole KS4 cohort did both English and maths GCSE, a real achievement for some pupils.
Being grouped by stage means that teachers have to make sure if fully differentiated, but this a challenge they are more than willing to step up to, explaining that it; “feels great every time a child makes even a tiny improvement.”
Parents/carers spoke very highly of the school, all, without exception, explaining how happy their children are at the school, how they look forward to coming to school and how much progress they feel their children are making. One parent of a KS4 pupil told our Assessor that his behaviour was very “challenging” in his previous school and that he hated school, now; “he runs to school”. He is calmer, likes reading and writing and can feel how much he has changed, feeling so much more confident as a learner.
Pupils are Happy and Confident
Pupils at the school are happy and confident there, they feel they are being prepared for the future and the older children, in particular, talked with pride about the work experience they had completed in various businesses in the community. Lots of the older pupils spoken to had all been at mainstream schools in the past – several of them had had a very challenging time and “got into trouble all the time!” Without exception, these children all had to leave their previous schools who stated they couldn’t meet their needs, and without exception, all the children spoken to told our Assessor just how much happier they feel now they are at Little Heath. They all articulated how safe they felt at school and that they had trusted adults to whom they would go if there were issues at home or school.
The pupils have many opportunities to take part in extra-curricular activities, such as choir club, football competitions, joining the dance team, as well as taking part in sailing, canoeing, music therapy or visiting the local adventure playground. In keeping with the school’s aim of preparing the children for adult life, there is a strong element of enterprise that also runs across the curriculum. A great example of this is the healthy eating theme – the pupils learn about healthy eating in class, then practise budgeting in maths, followed by researching where to buy the food in IT, then pupils take a trip to a local supermarket where they buy the food, which they then cook in Food Tech and sell on site.
Our Assessor was delighted to take part in a Learning Walk across the phases. They saw a group rehearsing Oliver Twist for the end of term production, other pupils talking about their families, using a variety of communication techniques, including signing, iPads and visual support and finally a group taking part in a speech and language activity. All classrooms have a sensory pop-up tent and pupils have other options offered to them if they become dysregulated, for example, going for a walk or a timeout pass.
Pupils were obviously enjoying their learning and classrooms were decorated with “low arousal walls”, so although there were displays in the rooms (and corridors), staff made sure that there were minimal visual distractions around the displays, and colours/lighting in the room are carefully thought out to ensure pupils are comfortable in their setting.
Members of the extended leadership team told our Assessor that the vision of the school is that; “everybody has access to everything” and that they ensure resources match the needs of the pupils – this was certainly something that was borne out when they carried out the Learning Walk.
Overall, our Assessor found Little Heath to be a lovely, caring, patient, hard-working and resilient school where inclusion is clearly embedded in all aspects of school life.
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.
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