Pioneer Special School has achieved the Inclusive School Award with Centre of Excellence status.
Broad and Balanced Education
Pioneer Special School has 162 students on roll with 15 classes. It has many staff who are committed to improve the life chances of all its pupils. There continues to be an emphasis on preparing children and students for life after school where they are expected to become as independent as possible with the desire to contribute fully to the wider community in which they live. Students are offered a wide range of educational experiences both within and beyond the classroom.
The school’s aim is to provide a fully inclusive curriculum that gives learners the opportunity to achieve their full potential by engineering a curriculum that best meets each learners’ diverse needs. Students access a broad and balanced education, based on the realities of modern life and delivered in a personalised learning environment.
The Senior Leadership Team (SLT) play an important part in ensuring every effort is made to cater for the needs of every child and they go out of their way to ensure all agencies, teachers and support staff have the child’s needs upper most in their minds. Consequently, the progress of students is monitored closely. This rapport between staff was witnessed during the interviews and particularly at the working lunch with the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) when the Headteacher clearly explained the focus on the more formalised curriculum, whilst still understanding that teacher wellbeing and the pressure of work was number one priority when developing this new approach.
Staff at all levels are highly trained to support pupils who have very complex individual needs. Relationships between staff and pupils are highly effective and the development of every teacher having a subject responsibility is adding to that collegiate responsibility. The leadership roles are providing staff with a greater understanding of the aims and ethos of the school and offer them the opportunities to understand the expectations across the whole school as this role is a whole-school responsibility. This ensures that every pupil is provided with the best possible education.
Small Steps in Pupil Progress
Targets over the past year have continued to move the school forwards and to support staff in providing the best possible opportunities for the children and students at the school. The target focusing on developing the whole-school curriculum to ensure that all pupils are prepared for adulthood and that all areas of learning are suited to their ability level and ensure adequate challenge has been a significant development including the expectations for the most able students. Every staff member now has a subject responsibility, and they have each written the medium-term plans.
The Senior Leadership Team (SLT) has noticed that there is now more talk amongst staff because each of them has to consider their subject throughout the whole of the school. The programme is over a 3 year period and the staff are still ‘tweaking’ their plans but there has been greater collaboration and the planning has made workload easier and the curriculum is more differentiated.
The senior staff are looking more closely at the role of subject leaders offering them a timetable over a 2 week period in order that they can carry out their monitoring functions. The Senior Leadership Team (SLT) has taken into account staff feedback and they are now investigating a tracking system that will reflect the needs of their children. The Individual Education Plan (IEP) targets remain important and the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) is looking at strategies that identify the sometimes small steps in pupil progress.
Target 2 is to continue to embed the Thrive approach with students with complex, social and emotional needs. Good work has been carried out with Lincewood Primary School which is in the same IQM cluster of schools as the Pioneer Special School. Having a whole-school approach to discussing feelings and emotions has come out of this collaboration. The Senior Leadership Team (SLT) has refreshed the Thrive approach with all staff to ensure consistency across the school. This is the first year that the school has been able to approach this target fully due to the Covid situation in the past.
Staff have been trained and they recognise that this requires a strong bond between staff and students for it to be successful. There are currently 12 students being assessed and each child has 2lessons each week with students from each key stage involved. There are targeted sessions for individual students held during the afternoon period. Interactive Thrive boards are in each classroom and the Assessor saw them in use on his school tour. Every class has a Thrive display.
Expand the Forest School’s Offer
Target 3 is to expand the Forest School’s offer for all pupils and to introduce sessions for parents. This excellent resource is now available to all students. Two Forest School journals compiled by the school clearly provided evidence of the benefits of the Forest School area for the students at the school.
Photos of students in hammocks, children socialising, children learning to balance on stepping stones and evidence of a physical development observation with children clearly enjoying themselves whilst regulating their behaviour to suit the environment, provide an excellent record of the benefits of the site. The journals also had ‘I can’ moments with photographic evidence. I can… fill a container independently, know my boundaries in Forest School, show perseverance and confidence.
The school rotates the provision across the classes so that students are able to experience the changing seasons and the area itself continues to be developed. The school lost its Forest School teacher at the end of the last academic year but has an equally enthusiastic and able Learning Support Assistant (LSA) who is moving this area of the school forward at great pace. The next element for expansion is to include more parents and carers so that they can see the benefits of the site and how they can carry this learning forward with the students at times at home.
The fourth target is to expand the reading resources and knowledge to better support the Severe Learning Difficulties (SLD) and Profound and Multiple Learning Disability (PMLD) pupils at school and home to develop a love of reading.
The school library has been reorganised with a number of old, unsuitable books being discarded and more appropriate reading materials taking their place. The library has a sensory corner and an IT area where students can use headphones. The book stock is to have books for all areas of the curriculum including interactive and sensory books.
Videos of staff reading in school are available for parents and students and students have a reading diary in order that parents can see how their children are progressing and what books interest them. World Book Day was celebrated in school and children had access to a wide range of stories. All classes have a clearly defined reading area and all students have reading observations on Tapestry each term, focusing on their enjoyment for reading.
The new curriculum offers more exciting opportunities for children to read and the introduction of RWI over the recent months and individual and small group phonic sessions have improved students’ involvement in reading. 40% of students are actively accessing RWI with 25 of students on a RWI reading scheme; 28 students are accessing books. All the strategies mentioned have significantly raised the profile of reading across the school.
Children interviewed spoke of how they liked RWI. One 14-year-old boy articulated quite clearly how he had progressed in the months since September. “I enjoy reading. I have improved so much, and I am reading regularly,” he proudly said.
The staff have been surprised in some instances in exactly what the children can achieve in reading. “There are no limits,” said one member of staff. The development of comprehension in future months and the introduction of vocabulary walls with a focus on one word each week are the next stages. Core boards containing core vocabulary are a common feature around the school. A grant of £350 from Essex County Council for new books has added to the quality and quantity of books available to students.
Unpick Barriers to Learning
There is a focus on a bespoke, differentiated and individualised curriculum offered to every child. The school looks for levers to unpicks the barriers to learning. Triggers to find ways in which the pupils will engage with staff are sought continually. Staff are looking for a consistent response. They are trying to understand the difficulties that the pupils have to deal with and those areas that might have made them disaffected in the past.
Subject leaders are having a greater role in developing the curriculum. A key worker spoke of how she had adapted the sexual education programme in the short time that she had been in the school. She also said that “everyone was so supportive” and that “it is the best school I have worked at; they noted my skill set and provided me with the opportunities to move on.” Another teacher mentioned the impact of RWI, how children have a 6-week phonic programme and how she is going to support teachers in delivering writing moving on to comprehension.
The Thrive practitioner recounted the progress in Thrive delivery and how staff training for new staff was planned. The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) teacher spoke of how the play-based curriculum in the reception class was now assessed against the engagement model. A LSA stated that RWI was “amazing” and “children had made so much progress.”
A Teaching Assistant, who is the behaviour lead, mentioned the behaviour plans available for staff and families. “We like to help our families as much as possible,” she proudly said. The creative arts lead recounted how she supported topics with music and art. She also offers yoga for the upper school. Drama and the school choir are also her responsibility. The Assessor watched an enthusiastic presentation by the choir with all the students taking part contributing in their own way, enjoying the music and having ‘fun’.
Significant Development
A Drive folder that includes a full breakdown of all subjects for the subject specific curriculum for each phase of the school has been developed. A rating of developing secure or exceptional in each area with descriptors and photo evidence has been developed on a data dashboard and colour coded. This presents instant feedback to staff on standards and where students are in their learning. It is expected that the next step will be for subject leaders to develop this further and gather evidence for learning. Lesson observations and Tapestry entries provide evidence for the database. Continuous Professional Development (CPD) in the future will move this curriculum focus on and it is hoped it will become a focus for appraisal. This is a significant development over the past year and its progress over the coming year will be interesting to track.
Excellent work is carried out with families, pupils and the community generally to ensure that children are cared for and valued.
Parents were supportive of all the efforts the school makes to help their children and to communicate with families. One parent said, “I couldn’t ask for more.” Another stated that “There is good communication. Forest Schools can turn his day around. Staff can never give you too much time.”
Another parent spoke of how the key worker had given her so many resources to help at home. They liked the sign language course and the coffee mornings which are available to parents and carers.
A Governor aligned to Special Educational Needs (SEN), who was interviewed, has a visit to the school twice each half term. She also has a bi-weekly meeting remotely with the Headteacher. All Governors have their delegated responsibilities and all recommendations from discussions are referred back to the Trust for consideration. The Governors set targets with the school input and understand the steps that the school is making to develop the curriculum and involve subject leaders to a greater extent. There is a good relationship between the Trust, the Governors and the staff at the school.
Diversity Within the School
Displays around the school demonstrate the diversity within the school. Photographs of children enjoying life in school and celebrating their achievements together with colourful and textured pieces of artwork executed by the children can be seen in corridors and shared areas.
In the lower school, displays include Our Amazing Work focusing on where children have succeeded in class, Thrive boards in every room, colourful semantics and sensory boards, contribute to the wide range of resources, displays and equipment that support the work that staff do in classrooms and break out rooms. In the Middle School, Thrive displays are also high profile in each room with a slightly different emphasis dependant on the age of the children. An LGBTQ+ display reflects the work carried out on the school’s target 2 for the coming year.
For the future there are plans to improve the story shed, making some of the outdoor spaces more wheelchair friendly and having a stage and wigwams to provide a cosy reading area.
The wellbeing rooms have large painted murals and water tables. In the Upper School there are 5 classes that are all different, one with no desks for students with severe medical needs.
One prepares students for Further Education and these students spend time in the local community and have community days. In Key Stage 4 (KS4), students have access to RWI and can access horticultural qualifications up to level 2 which gives them experience of growing and monitoring plant growth.
The cafe in Key Stage 5 (KS5) offers students the opportunity to work on their skills of serving and presenting meals to fellow students and adults on 2 days each week. There is also a teaching kitchen and a social area which offers students an inviting space for socialising. The outdoor environment for each key stage is practical and offers creative and physical opportunities for all children. One of the central outdoor play areas is being upgraded in the summer to make it more wheelchair accessible. An outdoor gym and a biking area are both excellent examples of the way in which children’s needs are addressed.
The immersive room is another high-quality facility that is well used by class groups. It is a virtual reality room which is a self-contained space that is customised with technology that delivers and enhances a highly immersive multimedia experience.
Pioneer Special School is an example of a school committed to meet the needs of its children and is outstanding in its commitment to and implementation of inclusive practice. The inclusion team has a clear commitment to inclusion and supports staff well. Adults within the school subscribe to the enthusiasm for the inclusion agenda and staff are kept well informed about the IQM process. Good progress has been made on all targets.
Find out more about the IQM Inclusive School Award
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