Mayplace Primary School has achieved the Inclusive School Award with Flagship status.
Strong Sense of Belonging
Mayplace Primary School continues to be a highly inclusive school, with a strong and dedicated Senior Leadership team leading a committed staff. Staff are very aware of all pupils’ needs and strive to make sure that they are doing all that they can for the pupils to achieve their full potential. Staff and children are proud of the school and everyone was very enthusiastic about showing our Assessor the great work that is taking place. The school is very reflective about its inclusive practice and uses up-to-date research and ideas to improve their offer to all children.
It is obvious through conversations that there is a strong sense of belonging and teamwork between staff members. Teachers have worked collaboratively to develop the knowledge organisers for all curriculum areas and all year groups. This will be of great benefit to the pupils and new teachers.
This is the first year of the nurture group being in operation and it has been a resounding success. Children are invited or self-refer to start the day in the room where they can talk to staff and play board games, table football or do colouring together. A parent volunteer who starts the day in the nurture group says it has been extremely beneficial for her daughter’s mental health and wellbeing. It has helped reduce anxiety and improved attendance for a particular pupil. This happens before the first lesson of the day, so pupils have a soft start to the day and are ready to start learning when they arrive in class at 9 o’clock.
Special Activities
A Year 2 pupil spoke about how he enjoys all the special activities that the school offers to the children. He was looking forward to the BMX sessions and said he really enjoyed the Forest School opportunities that he had been given last term.
A TA who speaks Russian, has been supporting the new Ukrainian intake as well as helping translate and interpret for parents. She has quickly settled in to working in a school setting due to the support from the highly experienced staff in the school.
The school value wellbeing highly. The Provision Lead has also been trained in Mental Health and is the whole school mental health lead. The school has 3 trained ELSA practitioners now, as well as a Wellbeing Teaching Assistant who works with the peer mentors. Mental Health First Aiders wear special lanyards so that children know who to speak to about any concerns. Children complete feelings questionnaires on a termly basis.
The Zones of Regulation programme has been successful in the provision, so the school rolled it out across the whole school this year. Staff had 2 training sessions to become familiar with the rationale. A parent workshop took place which is also available online for continual access. The school introduced it to the pupils in 2 sessions – one where pupils spoke about their feelings and the second session where they spoke about how to regulate these emotions. The Provision Lead held an assembly, using the book, ‘Felix After the Rain’ to introduce the new initiative.
All pupils devised their own toolbox and tried out a range of strategies and resources to see what suited them best. Personalisation fidget toys and sensory resources were purchased for the children. The new initiative has been very successful with children confident about talking about the Zones in relation to their own emotions. An ECT teacher spoke about a Ukrainian child in her class who will point at the colours to indicate which colour he is in.
New Resources
The Early Years’ Learning walk gave our Assessor the opportunity to see the new resources. New furniture in the Nursery and Reception rooms gives consistency and the new Astro turf for outside play made the outdoor environment much more user friendly. The Early Years is very well equipped now with a large area where specific pupils can use workstations or have some quiet time away from their peers. The staff in the Early Years are very experienced and their understanding of the early identification of needs was obvious, particularly when talking about specific girls who are showing social communication traits. The young children were all very engaged in a wide range of stimulating activities.
A group of children showed their work to the teacher and asked for it to be put on the wall, in the ‘Our Gallery’ display. This works well as it shows pride in their work but also lets staff see who is producing work and the other children who might be focussing on other activities.
The school premises are extensive, with the school able to conduct outdoor learning in the adjourning woods where they can access Forest School activities. Shelters around the green areas meant that pupils were having outdoor learning sessions, taking advantage of the good weather. The new building gives the pupils plenty of spaces for interventions and small group breakout sessions.
The whole school do the Little Wandle reading programme 3 times a week with sessions led by all the adults in the school, including the Senior Leadership team, all teachers and teaching assistants. This means that no group has more than 6 children. Teachers are very appreciative of the senior leadership leading groups too as they feel it helps them to be aware of pupils’ needs in a practical, on the ground manner. It also helps everyone see how Little Wandle is effective.
Calm, Working Environment
A group of year 2 pupils explained how they were using expanded noun phrases and adjectives in their account of their Forest visit earlier in the week. They were excited by the opportunities that they had had during the session, including tree rubbing and making pictures out of sticks. The teacher used photo prompts of them doing the activities as well as additional scaffolding for those who needed it. The whole class was fully engaged in the activity within a calm, working environment.
A year 4 class was deeply engrossed in a lesson based on “Around the World in 80 days”. Work was expertly scaffolded for those who needed it whilst other pupils were writing imaginative endings to the story. A year 4 girl had sewn a bag for the class to store their feeling cards in, linked to the Zones of Regulation work that takes place, she labelled it, ‘Our Pouch of Feelings.’
Year 6 pupils were busily preparing for their end of year production, which this year is ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ A year 6 boy with additional needs was very keen to read his narrator role to our Assessor. It is a great achievement for him to be involved this year!
Children’s University
Visiting the Rainbow provision for children with Autism, our Assessor saw pupils taking part in a ‘Brick’ lesson where they were following verbal and visual instructions to replicate the teacher’s brick design. All staff have a good understanding of the children’s needs.
Year 6 pupils spoke about how inclusive the school is and their roles as peer mentors and play leaders. They support the younger children with play and social skills as well as working with specific pupils who they develop a supportive relationship with.
They spoke about the Children’s University which is an extracurricular offer which involves out of school learning in a fun way. The school is part of a 2 year trial – it is very popular.
Children from other year groups showed our Assessor their books and talked about what they had learnt about a wide range of topics. All pupils were polite and welcoming and keen to talk about what they like about the school.
Two ECT teachers spoke about their experiences at the school. They are benefiting from the school CPD which reflects what they are learning on the ECT training sessions. They feel a part of the school and appreciate the support that they get from more experienced staff. They value the help and guidance that they get from the fortnightly SEN drop-ins with the SENCo.
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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