Oasis Academy Pinewood in Romford has achieved the Inclusive School Award with Flagship status.
Welcoming to All Children
Our Assessor was warmly welcomed by the reception staff at Oasis Academy. It was a 9 Habits Day and children, and staff were wearing different colours to indicate which of the 9 Habits they felt they had.
The first meeting of the day was with the Inclusion Coordinator/Deputy Head. Our Assessor has visited this school many times and felt they know it very well. However, the school population has changed over the years and the numbers of pupils with special educational needs has noticeably increased. Furthermore, there is now a more diverse cohort of children as compared to other local schools. This is probably due to the fact that it is so welcoming to all children.
The school’s reputation for meeting the needs of children with SEN is positive and it is recommended by professionals and by parents/carers who have children who attend the school. The numbers of pupils in the school have increased and there is one year group that is now made up of two whole classes. All the others are one and a half forms and children (except in EYFS) are taught in mixed age group classes.
Planning for the Future is Very Difficult
There are still vacancies across the school, not a great many but these do have an impact on the school budget. For instance, there are 47 children in Reception, and they have to be divided into two classes, which is great for the children but not great for the budget. The number of children in the local area is changing as families move out of London or have been sent back to their country of origin following Brexit. Getting correct population data and projections (for planning) is now almost impossible. This is a similar situation in many schools in London and indeed across the country. Planning for the future is very difficult.
Currently there are 14 children with EHCPs on roll and there are others in the pipeline. Their needs are often complex, and they need a lot of support. The number of pupils with EAL has grown to 35% with children at various language stages. This time last year there were only 6 pupils with EHCPs which is an indication of the need.
The increasing number of fixed term exclusions (22 over the year) was discussed, and it was noticed these were mostly based around two or three children with SEMH needs who have problems regulating their behavior. Managing these pupils is very heavy on staff as they require constant one-to-one supervision and some very skilled intervention and support.
The Inclusion Coordinator is also the DSL, and the Principal is the Deputy DSL and there are many others (a total of 7) who are trained at the same level who make up the safeguarding team. They use CPOMS to record and track reported concerns and actions taken to address them. The Inclusion Coordinator used to be the Oasis Regional Lead for Safeguarding but there is now a Lead Practitioner appointed to provide support for DSLs. Neither the DSL nor her Deputy have external supervision, but they do debrief with the team and try to share the load.
Different Strengths and Skills
The next meeting was with the Chair of the HUB Council that was set up a few years ago. The Assessor met a parent of two children who attend the school. She was clear the HUB was not a PTA (although there is an active PTA that raise a lot of funds for the school). She said the HUB meetings are attended by a number of parents/carers and 2/3 members of the community including the local vicar and some school staff including the Principal.
The members of the group bring different strengths and different skill sets and the aim is to capitalize on these in some way to help move the school forward. The agendas usually include updates from the academy and from community. The church representative usually leads a reflection and charity representative suggests ideas for fund raising. The HUBs are an Oasis invention and there are many across the MAT.
Warm Space for Families
The monthly ‘Our Living Room’ events provide a warm space for families with drinks and snacks, story time and games. They are considering activities such as cooking and movie nights but don’t have much money to spend. They need parents and volunteers to get involved and there are a few key members of staff who are keen to get involved.
This is an opportunity for children to play while their parents get to know other parents and community representatives. The aim is to highlight what the local community and local area can provide in the way of support. The HUB have also set up a Uniform Exchange as the cost-of-living crisis is biting and many families are already suffering. The PTA does raise additional funds and this organization has really grown since Covid, as parents want to support the school.
The Assessor asked if the HUB are able to input into setting the school priorities and was told that they are presented with the school improvement plan (the One Plan) and look at different strands of it. In particular, they are asked for feedback about planned community developments. They also consider how the HUB can contribute and make the plans a reality.
Meeting Child’s Emotional Needs
Next, our Assessor met with two members of support staff who are Teaching Assistants and one-to-one LSAs. The two support children with complex needs and are getting to grips with the new engagement models. Training has been provided and is ongoing although both came in without any formal qualifications and basically learned on the job. One colleague came in on a temporary contract and worked supporting children with high level needs. She had experience working in a special school and so was able to support the children.
She explained she works within the school ethos, and she knows how to attune to the children, and she instinctively knows what works. She always presents a calm approach, and she says it’s about modelling this approach to others. It’s mostly about meeting the child’s emotional needs. She tries to take the pressure off them and help them become more relaxed. The teachers learn from the way TAS/LSAs do it. Convincing people that it is not rewarding the children for bad behaviour is an uphill struggle although staff at Pinewood are now far more aware of what needs to be done. The children do understand that some children need to be treated differently in order to have their needs met. She is now in a permanent post.
The LSA works one day a week supporting a child. She is also a parent and was (still is) a Mid-Day Supervision which she says was great training for her. She has only stepped into this role in September when the opportunity arose. She is also involved in the Wrap Around Care offer and was an active member of the PTA. Her induction to the role was provided by other TAs/LSAs who were very kind in making sure she knew what was going on and how she should be working. She already knew the children from her role as a MDA. She has a similar approach to her colleague and is very calm. Training is provided by the SENCo and there are different courses and networks available for them to continue learning. Oasis also runs an annual conference for them to network and exchange ideas and to identify new resources and gather new ideas.
The two colleagues told me that everyone has a different way of working and they learn from the children they are working with. Seeing how the children manage their emotions is a learning experience and they learn from them. The TAs/LSAs are allowed to use their judgement if they think a child needs to be removed from the class for a short time (to regulate). They don’t have to ask permission and are trusted to make that decision. They use a number of different strategies to work with the children when they take them out.
Both colleagues told our Assessor that the senior team look after their wellbeing, and they are approachable, and they appreciate that things may go wrong at home, and they need some time to sort things out. They are family friendly and always do their best to support staff when they can.
The need for some sort of supervision for TAs/LSAs who are supporting children with extreme needs was discussed, it’s a stressful role and they face some real dilemmas throughout the day. They admit they worry about the children when they get home and it’s difficult to leave the anxiety behind. Our Assessor suggested the Inclusion Coordinator looks at Solution Circles as a way of supporting them and signposted her to another IQM school who use this practice to provide staff support.
The school understands the danger of having a one-to-one Velcro model for LSAs as the child can become dependent on that person, so they have changed the model to ensure that two or three people get to know the child and work with them.
When asked what would make a real difference to them and make their jobs more manageable, they said they would like the opportunity to meet as a group to exchange ideas and share resources and to do regular training from the SENCO or others. This was discussed with the Inclusion Coordinator who agreed this would be very useful but as usual it comes down to finance.
Behaviour was Exemplary
Our Assessor went on a walk around the school to see staff and children at work. They were all very busy but were very welcoming. The behaviour of children was exemplary, and the few children spotted around the school with particular needs were being well supported. One such pupil was being supported by the Principal, in order to give his class and staff some respite, after a previously particularly challenging day.
Following the assembly, our Assessor met with the Principal, and started the conversation by talking about finance. This is a major issue for headteachers around the country and it seemed to be highly relevant to the inclusion agenda. She told the Assessor that being part of a large MAT was helpful. The Trust is currently managing but are worried about the future.
She does have a finance officer in the school, and she has a limited say in how she spends her money as the majority of the budget goes on staffing. If she wants to make an appointment or wants to replace someone who has left, she needs to put a hiring request into the central team who gives permission (or not) to go ahead. There is an exception for agency staff.
The MAT has done the due diligence on a couple of agencies, and they use these to get supply staff when needed. Staff absence has been very high this term and they have had to use the agency staff very often eating into the budget. There are budget pots for different things, and they must juggle to ensure they are able to cover everything. Covering staff (especially TAs/LSAs) is like a jigsaw as they move people around (which is not always welcomed) in order to cover the neediest children. Staff are usually OK with this once they understand why they are being asked to change their work plans for the day.
Hands-on Principal
The Principal is very hands-on, and she does not like to be away from school if she can help it. She likes to help children with their emotional regulation, and she rarely goes out to training or conferences or meetings. However, she does network with other heads. The job has got harder over the Covid years and is no easier now. She says she goes through periods of self-doubt when she wonders why she still does the job, but it is clear she loves it.
She manages her own wellbeing and mental health by setting herself certain boundaries about when she works at home. Her family help her with this. She told me she has an amazing senior team and an amazing staff team who give her a huge amount of support. They always try to find “the joy of it all”. There is a network of Oasis Heads who meet online, and she is also part of a local heads network. Her commitment to the children and their families is second to none. Furthermore, her appreciation and respect for staff at all levels shapes the school culture and ethos. Collaboration, collegiality, and inclusivity are ingrained in the fabric of the school and the Principal leads on this.
Staff wellbeing is a priority and much of the recent absence of staff is down to parents being absent due to their child being sick. A number of staff are single parents, and the load falls on them. The school is as supportive as possible. Other members of staff have suffered from serious infections and illness. Immunity to many of the regular infections seems to have weaned during the Covid years and is now rearing its head. Generally, staff at all levels are very committed to the children and to each other. They don’t like to be away as it causes others so much additional work.
Staff Survey
Oasis sent out an annual staff survey in order to look at the things that impact on their wellbeing. The last one took place last year when the new curriculum had been introduced and staff were having difficulty getting to grips with it. Since then, they have done much to address staff workload, for instance, the marking policy has been revisited by teachers and is revised so it does not take so much staff time and does not impact on the children. They also give staff time for teachers to input the data following regular assessments. The school is going to do its own survey this year (anonymised) to see what staff perception is of their own wellbeing and mental health and how the school contributes to this.
Many of the policies that are in use in the school have come from the Oasis Trust. The new curriculum, introduced last year, is an example. The school put its hands up to be a pilot school as it wanted to be able to have input into shaping it. Whilst the curriculum is a good one, it was a big change for teachers and the first half term last year was tricky as they worked from one week to the next in seeing it and then implementing it. They are now in the second year of the pilot and things are easier. Teachers have got a much better handle on it now. Another policy to come from the Trust is the Behaviour Policy which is trauma informed and restorative in its approach. This was very similar to the policy the school had before it joined the Trust so did not involve too much change. The Trust is very committed to trauma informed practice and there is a lot of training and development in this area.
This year the school is working on achieving real consistency. Getting all staff to accept and understand that a child is a child, and many have had difficult adverse experiences that impact on their behaviour.
The school has reviewed its performance management processes and have simplified the system, which is not about lots of formal observations. Instead, it has developed a coaching model where teachers are paired with others. It’s an Instructional Coaching programme that is proving to be more positive for improving the quality of teaching and does not lead to increased stress and anxiety amongst staff.
Biggest Worry
The biggest worry for the Principal at the moment is the number of children on role and about future role numbers. The birth rate is going down in Havering and lots of families have moved out of the area due to the rising cost of housing. Currently there are only 45 children in reception. The school role directly effects the school budget which is already very stretched.
Our Assessor met with members of the Mini-Senior Leaders Team. They came along with the Principal who is the one who mostly works with them. Four members (all in Year 6) came to meet me. There are others in other year groups – about 7/8 in all.
The children explained they were elected to their posts, except for one young man who was nominated by the team as an additional assistant. They had to write and present a speech and were then elected by their peers. This all happened in mid-September, and they have met, formally and informally, about 10 or 11 times. Usually, the Principal facilitates their meetings, but they have occasional ‘rogue’ meetings themselves.
The agendas for the meetings are decided as a team.
The group discussed with our Assessor how other children in the school know about the work they do and even the fact that they exist as a ‘pupil voice’ group. They explained they are doing assemblies and are talking to children in their classrooms.
It was decided they need a badge or something that is easily recognisable so children can approach them to tell them their ideas and concerns. Also, they need a display board with their photos on for the same purposes.
The Mini-Leadership Team told me about their trip to London where they met with pupils from other Oasis School Mini Leadership Teams. This had been organised by the Oasis Regional Director.
The Mini-Leadership Team are emerging as a great asset for the school. They have loads of ideas for changes they would like to see and about ways they can help to make the school even better. Furthermore, their enthusiasm knows no bounds.
Welcomed and Supported
Next, our Assessor met with one of two new ECTs who joined the school formally in September. She explained she had been working there for many months the previous year as an unqualified supply teacher. Her previous experience in another school had been very negative. She had been very unhappy and unsupported. However, when she came to Oasis Pinewood, she felt welcomed, supported, and felt part of the team, even though she was a supply teacher. She was only supposed to be here for eight days, but the tie line kept being extended. She then approached the Principal to say she wanted to stay. She wishes she had done her teacher training in Pinewood as they have really supported her.
Everyone is stretched in a small school, and it comes as no surprise that the ECT is also a subject lead for Art. In addition, she is currently taking the lead in Year 2 as her partner teacher is away ill and there is a supply teacher taking the class. She sets work for the class (lesson plans already there) but differentiates for the lowest achieving pupils. This is fairly typical of the school climate and culture where people step up to support each other.
The curriculum is already in place and as a teacher she does not have the opportunity to change it. However, she does find additional things to add to it to make it more appealing to the children. She said she does have the freedom to do things differently at Pinewood whereas in her other (training) school everything was very rigid. She is confident enough to change her lesson if the children are not ‘getting it’. She has good relationship with the children in her class and they enjoy doing ‘silly things’ at appropriate times. She gets great support from her mentor who observes her every other week. She also gets the opportunity to see other teachers teach and to learn from them. It was great to see an ECT who is so well supported and one who is so happy in Oasis Pinewood.
Mental Health
Our Assessor got the opportunity to meet the new Mental Health Lead (the post was previously covered by the Inclusion Coordinator) who is also the EYFS lead. She has been working at the school for over seven years and she told me she volunteered to take on the role. She is a member of the Senior Leadership Team. She started her career as a one-to-one Learning Support Assistant before she trained as a teacher. She confirmed the need to have a mental health lead because so many children and staff were displaying signs of anxiety. This was increasing before the Covid pandemic but has certainly increased over the last three years.
The next step for the school is to appoint a number of Pupil Mental Health Champions. The school is using a programme called Flourishing Life which is an on-line questionnaire that asks children to answer a range of questions.
The children answer honestly, and the programme crunches the numbers, and the data tells the school what the issues are. This way it can plan the PHSE programme from the outcomes of the survey. It did the survey last year and will compare the data to see if things are getting better, or not. She did the training for this last year and now the school is looking to see how Flourishing Life fits in with Thrive.
In EYFS, Speech and language is emerging as a huge problem and eleven children have been identified with needs in this area whereas last year there were only two. Social and emotional needs are also noticeably on the increase. The transition from EYFS to Year 1 is carefully planned and continuous provision is introduced for part of Year 1.
Difficult Last Year
The final meeting of the day was with the Assistant Principal who also has oversight for the curriculum. Our Assessor had met her last year when they discussed the new curriculum and how the school had been coping with implementing it. The curriculum is something the Oasis Trust have introduced in all their schools, but Pinewood volunteered to be a pilot school so that they could influence it and find out what tweaks and changes it needed.
This was very difficult last year as the curriculum was being written as they were teaching it. Oasis insisted that it was implemented across the whole school rather than to one or two year groups as the school had suggested. It was tricky and staff were not very happy this time last year but are now happy with it. Our Assessor was told the school are now taking back more of the curriculum in English and maths and are making it more relevant to their pupils. As most of the classes are mixed Year Groups, this is appropriate. Also, the pandemic left so many gaps in children’s knowledge and skills, they have had to make some changes and add bits in. It is a work in progress. Bits of the curriculum are great but other bits are a bit ‘dry’, so they need to change it to engage the children.
The school is also very aware of the need to diversify the curriculum and to choose appropriate texts. However, it has chosen carefully and stuck to the expected outcome but using different texts. The PHSE curriculum is based around the 9 Habits which is a golden thread that goes through the whole curriculum
Although there is a set PHSE curriculum, the school can adapt it and introduce lessons to tackle different things that happen in school (e.g. fights) or things that happen locally or nationally or internationally. The Arts are an important part of the curriculum, and the school is pleased to be involved in Young Voices and Shakespeare in Schools.
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