The Highcrest Academy has achieved the Inclusive School Award with Flagship status.
Best Possible Education for All
The Highcrest Academy sees itself as an educational establishment to serve its community by providing the best possible education for all, “giving them every opportunity to aspire and achieve their unique academic and personal ambitions”. The Highcrest Academy achieves these goals by constantly reviewing and improving on its offer.
The school prides itself on developing strong, positive relationships between adults and students. This is credited to the school’s inclusive ethos and shared belief that the school’s virtues are there to influence everyday practice and behaviour hence the culture of mutual respect of people and property.
At The Highcrest Academy, the leaders make sure that inclusion pervades every aspect of school strategic planning, e.g., School Development Plan (SDP) and operational practice. This attitude translates to the school creating a physical environment and atmosphere where staff and pupils feel valued and want to do their best.
Creative
In line with the national trend, the school is obliged to admit each year more students with complex needs, consequently, they must expand their current Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision. There has been an increase in students with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) and Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) difficulties which forces the school to amend aspects of their practice in a short period. Some of the challenges are new to secondary mainstream settings and require additional non-teaching professionals to support students who present with such academic, personal and social needs. To address these demands and cope with pressure in the right way, the school uses IQM projects as an opportunity to marry the emerging needs with the established good educational practice.
Another way to meet the students’ complex needs at The Highcrest Academy is to be creative, e.g., to set up a new provision for an identified group with an alternative curriculum that follows a primary model of teaching the core subjects by one teacher. This experiment has been successful and increased the students’ motivation and attendance because they felt safe in a small space and were able to access the curriculum at their pace and level. This model has been created on the advice of a local special school enabling the students to continue education without the need to be moved out of the alternative provision.
What Students Need to Succees
The parents of those students are delighted with the service and are supportive of their children’s education and their personal social and emotional development. The SENCo and leaders of the Academy have professional knowledge and experience to know what the students need to succeed and they have the courage to take risks and implement drastic changes like the one described above; this makes the school effective.
Other pieces of evidence of the school offering the students tailored and effective pathways are the case studies. They meticulously capture all steps of provision and students’ progress enabled by professional interventions. One of the cases summarises such support, “gradually through all of the pastoral support highlighted above we have seen A’s confidence grow; her peer relationships improve and as a result, her attainment and attendance increased dramatically”. During the visit, an IQM Assessor was presented with tangible evidence of the school making life-changing differences to its students.
Attendance
The Covid-19 pandemic has shifted the relationship between staff and parents, with the latter becoming more distant and some less worried about their children missing school. This is a national trend and the school responded swiftly by strengthening their monitoring system and expanding a team of staff with direct responsibilities for attendance.
A lot of work has been done already (workshops for parents, intense communication, making students aware of the impact on their learning) to change the culture of acceptance of minor illnesses as reasons for missing school. The school has identified small groups of students (evidenced by data) as vulnerable and has planned relevant action to combat this weakness.
Apart from the views of staff and students, an inclusive practice of the school has been commented on by visitors and Governors. In the Governor Visit report, the author summarised his/her impression by saying that, “the visit has demonstrated a significant effort from staff across the school to provide a challenge for all, including through pastoral interventions, learning strategies and differentiation. I was impressed with what I saw and would like to send a massive thank you to everyone I met and spoke with today.”
Best Ambassadors
Students of The Highcrest Academy are the best ambassadors for the school either for the reasons of their academic achievements or gaining broad education and life experiences that allow them to progress and achieve their ambitions.
In a conversation with the IQM Assessor, they felt free to speak their mind and showed that they are aware of the current emphasis of the staff on attendance. They echoed a central message related to attendance by saying, “it is important to be here every day to receive a good education. Teachers want us to learn, they push us and say to try our best. If you are not here, you miss also socially because you do not see your friends.”
Students displayed mature attitudes and a good understanding of rules and procedures with which they are comfortable. The recently introduced one-way traffic has met with their approval because they see the changes it brought; the school is calm; people are safer and there are fewer opportunities for conflicts due to physical proximities. When listening to the students’ views and opinions, there was a clear resonance of the school’s aims and values, which proves that they are very much part of the culture and everyday practice.
The Highcrest Academy is committed to the inclusion agenda which permeates leadership strategic planning and staff daily practice.
Find out more about the IQM Inclusive School Award
If your school is interested in obtaining the IQM Inclusive School Award or you wish to talk to a member of the IQM team please telephone:
028 7127 7857 (9.00 am to 5.00 pm)
or email: [email protected] for further details.
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