St Margaret’s Anfield CE PS Achieves Centre Of Excellence

St Margaret’s Anfield CE Primary School (SMA) is a lovely, warm and welcoming school that is built on the values of Truth, Fairness, Justice and Joy.  These underpin the Christian ethos.  It is situated in an area with some deprivation, so the school ensures it provides a safe, stable and nurturing space for the children.  One aspect that stood out was the deep sense of respect and care pupils have for each other; they have eyes on each other and notice when another child needs support.  The staff know the students well, relationships are wonderfully positive and the pupils at St Margaret’s are happy and feel safe.  There is a strong sense of community.  It is, the Head emphasised, the children’s school and every decision taken is in the context of improving and enhancing their educational experience.  The school operates an open-door policy with easy access to the Headteacher.  Members of senior management are at the gates at the start and end of each day enforcing the message, “this is your school”.  Staff have high expectations of pupils.  The Headteacher told me; “our children deserve the very best opportunities; we want them to believe they can be anything they want”.  Children have outstanding manners at SMA.  These are reinforced by lots of targeted, positive praise from staff.  As a Governor told me, “respect is built into the DNA of the school”.  Collective worship is central to the ethos of the school.  The Governors were also keen to emphasise that pupils of all faiths are valued at SMA.  Pupils told me that they can be educators of faith and culture in the school and how they use each other as a resource.  A Year 3 pupil told me how they had gone round three classes educating them about what they can and cannot do as a Muslim.  There is a wonderful display entitled, ‘What Faith means to us and our School Community’ in one of the hallways.  The artwork includes pupils’ pictures of mosques, hearts filled with handprints, another in which the fingers containing their ideas are combined to make a beautiful flower, elaborate crosses and trees of spiritual words.  The Nursery provision runs from a building adjacent to the school.  Happy children were playing outside in waterproof trousers and coats provided for them so they could enjoy the puddles. 

Emotional Support and Reassurance

The percentage of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) pupils is close to the national average and the school is anticipating the number of pupils with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) to rise above the national average by the end of the year.  There has been a rise in the number of pupils in Early Years and Year 1 with complex needs.  The primary area of need across the school is communication and interaction.  To address this the WellComm programme is used in Early Years to give a baseline and inform specific intervention strategies.  Teachers have seen a significant impact as a result of running speech and language sessions with Reception classes every afternoon.  The Language Box service is used to deliver one-to-one and small group sessions, to conduct assessments and provide staff training or team-teaching opportunities.  Pre-linguistic and stages of play training, was delivered to key staff.  Staff are now more knowledgeable and confident to support pupils with neuro-diverse play.  Other strategies delivered by trained staff include Lego therapy and communication and language intervention programmes.  All SEND pupils have individual support and recommendation documents that pull together any recommendations and strategies from any internal or agency assessments.  This is a live, working document and staff, parent and pupil contributions are welcomed.  Individual Provision Maps are used to record the graduated approach.  

Strives to Foster Caring Relationships

Staff know the pupils well and know exactly what to do to support them.  Staff feel able to seek help and get reassurance from their peers.  They will be signposted to someone else to provide further information or support if required.  Nothing is brushed under the carpet for staff or pupils.  The school strives to foster caring relationships embedding an ethos of emotional safety.  Adaptations are made to provide pupils with a quiet place to eat their lunch and access to alternative less stimulating environments during main school activities.  

Transition arrangements are comprehensive.  Children have transfer days to meet their new teachers and experience the learning spaces.  Transition meetings are held between teachers to pass on key information and the parents meet the new teachers early in September.  Some SEND children are given a visual ‘My New Class’ booklet which they can take home and refer to over the summer break to ease anxiety.  The Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo) attends Nursery and Reception transition events and stay-and-play sessions to support parents and get to know them informally.  The SENCo will go on home visits with Nursery staff where necessary.  The SENCo will help parents and pupils with secondary transition with a bespoke package of tailored support including visiting the new school together.  

At SMA the mission statement is, ‘With God all things are possible’.  This is the belief of every child in the school.  There are no ceilings to each pupil’s potential.  The school is transformative in pupil’s lives.  It is a truly inclusive school and it was a pleasure and a privilege to spend two days emersed in its truly inclusive ethos.