Peartree Spring Primary School retains IQM Flagship status

August 18, 2026

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The retention of IQM Flagship status highlights Peartree Spring Primary School’s enduring commitment to inclusion. Having held the IQM Inclusive School Award consecutively since 2019, the school continues to lead through innovation and the development of outstanding inclusive practice.

A School Where Inclusion Comes First

From the very first interaction you have on arrival, Peartree Spring Primary School creates a strong sense of welcome. Inclusion underpins decision-making across the school and is translated into meaningful, practical action, placing the pupils at the centre of everything. Guided by the leadership team’s clear vision, the school consistently champion the needs and voices of individual pupils.

Decision making is both practical and purposeful, and always informed by careful reflection of the needs of individual pupils, but also the wider school community. For example, the newly built ‘Garden Room’ was initially planned as an area for group interventions; however, following close evaluation of pupil priorities, the SENCo led its transformation into a safe sensory space tailored to meet the specific needs of a small number of pupils.

Listening to Every Pupil

Peartree Spring operates a clearly defined three-layer model of SEND support. For pupils who require adaptations to support their communication, social, emotional and mental health in order to access the curriculum, there has been a purposeful move away from traditional target-driven plans that do not always reflect current need. Instead, pupils are now in receipt of a ‘How To Communicate With Me’ Plan: a concise, one-page document designed to be immediately accessible. It supports class teachers to recognise and articulate the strategies they are already using to support pupils, often revealing the breadth of reasonable adjustments in place that staff may not consciously acknowledge.

Creating Environments Where Pupils Thrive

The school makes highly effective use of its physical environment to support engagement for all pupils. Displays are inviting, interactive and tactile, and representative of all. These are thoughtfully positioned alongside celebrations of the contributions of previous pupils who have had a profound and lasting impact on the school community. These visible acknowledgements reflect a culture of care, respect and collective memory, and demonstrate a school that is compassionate in its approach to inclusion.

The school also makes innovative use of technology to ensure that pupils with medical needs remain fully connected to school life. An AV1 Robot was used last year to support a pupil who was unable to attend school in person. Through this initiative, the pupil could participate in key moments remotely, including attending the leavers celebration event.

Inclusion within the curriculum is a clear, strategic priority, overseen by the SENCo and Curriculum Lead. A strong focus has been placed on ensuring reasonable adjustments are embedded across all foundation subjects, with clear intent statements for every subject that explicitly consider the four primary areas of need. For each subject, potential barriers to learning are carefully identified alongside practical provision and strategies to support access for pupils.

Supporting Wellbeing and Belonging

The school benefits from a highly effective and compassionate Pastoral Team, whose clear focus is ensuring that no child falls through the gap. Small group provision is prioritised to foster a sense of belonging, identity and connection, ensuring every pupil has a trusted adult or peer group they can relate to.

The school also takes care to raise awareness sensitively through communication with families. The ethos that ‘no problem is too small’ is further reinforced through an initiative led by the Pastoral Lead, who has created a communication system that ensures that staff are alerted to significant dates and emotional triggers for bereaved pupils each year, so they can be mindful of this for the pupils.  This community approach was highlighted by a parent who shared ‘every teacher here has truly got the best interests of the children at heart and they really go above and beyond to help every child. Everyone is always striving to do better for the children’.

This year, the school have introduced journaling as a universal strategy to support emotional literacy, self-regulation and reflective thinking, recognising it as a valuable life skill that supports emotional understanding. Developed following research shared through work with the charity ‘Mind’, journaling has started to be embedded daily. Teachers model reflective practice using carefully planned prompts, enabling pupils to articulate their thoughts and feelings in a safe, structured way. Although in its infancy, the impact is already evident, with staff reporting that they have gained deeper insight into pupils’ experiences and feelings, allowing them to support them more effectively.

Find Out More About IQM

The Inclusion Quality Mark provides schools with a nationally recognised framework for developing and celebrating inclusive practice.

If your school is interested in achieving the IQM Inclusive School Award, contact the IQM team on 028 7127 7857 or email admin@iqmaward.com.

To find out more about IQM and request a free information pack, visit www.iqmaward.com.