St William’s achieves Flagship

June 25, 2026

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St William’s School is passionate about inclusion and there is an obvious commitment to ensuring that inclusion is firmly embedded into all aspects of the school culture and school day. It has held the IQM Inclusive School award with Flagship Status for three years and has been awarded this status again. Teaching is adaptive and responsive to the needs of current pupils, with a well-planned and high-quality curriculum, St William’s has gone to great effort to ensure learning is scaffolded with support which can be flexibly added to or removed in response to changing and developing skills. The school believes in developing all children into versatile and confident adults and helping them to reach and fulfil their potential by encouraging critical thinking skills, confidence and practical abilities. The hard-working SENDCo is supported well by other staff and leaders and all staff and adults in the school understand they play a role in inclusive practice. The school has devoted time and resources to analysing school data to better understand SEND needs and remove barriers to learning for everyone.

Inclusion in all things

All aspects of the school work towards inclusion. The school canteen provides vegetarian and vegan options and there are multiple chances for pupils to share their thoughts and voices such as in the Eco Council, School Council, Sports Council, Digital Leaders and Faith in Action. The school hosts Mindful Mondays at the beginning of term and after lunchtime so everyone is settled for learning and is devoted to ensuring emotional readiness and comfort throughout the day.

St William’s is currently promoting a whole school focus on vocabulary instruction and improvement. Staff have confidently delivered a consistent approach, making use of structured modelling and the Frayer Model. Each lesson has a focus word, and pupils explore the meaning together. Teachers can select words which align with learning, and each class deepens the children’s vocabulary with choices changing to reflect their development. This supports and enables all children in communication and expression, extending opportunities to share and explain their thoughts, feelings and opinions.

All pupils can access this language, and regardless of how pupils communicate or use the spoken word, they now have shared core concepts across the school. This boosts confidence and allows for inclusion of all the learners and increased engagement and participation. Choir collaborations with Wigan Music Service allow for further communication and expressive opportunities, and enrichment activities such as field trips, performance days, and educational speakers align with the new concepts and encourage confidence.

St William’s is committed to inclusive practice, adaptive teaching and support for SEND learners. We are delighted to recognise them with the IQM Flagship School award.