Whitehouse Community Primary School Achieves IQM Flagship Status

September 3, 2026

---

Whitehouse Community Primary School has achieved IQM Inclusive School Award with Flagship Status in recognition of its commitment to inclusive practice, its support for pupils with complex SEND, and its growing influence across the Children’s Endeavour Trust and beyond. The assessment highlighted a school where inclusion, ambition, opportunity, achievement and community are evident throughout school life, ensuring that pupils from all backgrounds can thrive. 

The Sea Otters Class 

The school has strengthened its Inclusion offer by establishing a specialist, positive learning space for pupils who require a personalised curriculum. Within this supportive environment, pupils engage in learning that is carefully matched to their individual strengths, needs and starting points, while continuing to be included within the wider school community whenever it is appropriate to do so. Pupils can access sensory or brain breaks, and curriculum opportunities designed around their interests and needs, which helps them to regulate, re-engage and make meaningful progress. 

One such pupil, diagnosed with SEMH and subject to a LA Inclusion Plan joined the school and positively thrived very quickly. Documentation from the local authority congratulates the school for its work, commenting that the progress this pupil has made, “is fantastic”, and that this success is, “an amazing story for you and your team to celebrate!” Other success stories include that belonging to a nonverbal pupil with Autism and highly complex needs who was not in education, who needed specialist placement, but none was available. Whitehouse Primary accepted the pupil, and one year later, the pupil is settled and looking forward to continuing in the Sea Otter’s provision next year. 

Judith Carter 7Cs 

The school has embedded the Judith Carter 7Cs strengths-based approach; a language of SEND assessment consists of seven learning themes, designed to help staff to focus on what pupils can do, how they learn best and what support will enable them to flourish. 

Whitehouse is using this approach to create strengths-based learning targets for pupils with SEND. The template Whitehouse has created has since been adopted more widely across the Trust.  

The Immersion Learning Classroom 

A significant capital investment undertaken during the past year has been the installation of an Immersion Learning Classroom. This impressive facility uses wraparound virtual displays to create computer-generated environments that replicate scenes from history and geographical locations around the world, giving pupils a rich, interactive and memorable learning experience. On one occasion, it displayed scenes of a local seaside area in the Victorian era, enabling pupils to compare past and present and bringing history vividly to life. As the pupils were actively engaged and enthralled by the visuals, the teacher encouraged them to look for different coloured fish, count ocean items and use descriptive language to explain what they could see. 

Supporting Other Schools 

Trust Leaders asserted their wish to support Whitehouse Primary in their work to support other schools within the Trust and beyond as they work towards their own IQM. 

The school has proven its commitment to sharing inclusive practice and now has strong collaborative links within and external to the Trust. In addition, the school has further developed its partnership with The Bridge School, a relationship inspired through IQM cluster meetings.  

Inclusion Across the School 

The school has a significant number of Romani pupils and children from Romani and Traveller families, and its dedication to continuing to promote the ROMLIT initiative is noteworthy. During the past year, the school was awarded an ‘Outstanding Social and Cultural Award’ by the University of East Anglia for its work in this area. Another example of the school’s work to ensure inclusion across a broad range of cultures and religions is its multi-faith prayer room, which is available for pupils to use during lunchtimes and on other occasions where appropriate. An additional sensory room has also been created during the past year, meaning there are now three across the school. This provides convenient access for pupils of all year groups who benefit from this calm and purposeful provision. 

Parent Voice 

Parents who came into school to meet with the assessor were overwhelmingly positive about their experiences and expressed gratitude for the work of the school. The parents of some very young children with autism diagnoses had applied for their children to join the school even though it is out of their catchment area. They initially approached the school following a recommendation from a leader within education in the county and now state that: “It was the best thing we could have done; we trust the school.” Another parent, whose child with special educational needs had only joined at Easter after a difficult experience at another school where they were at risk of exclusion, reported that: “The difference this school has made is totally amazing.” She concluded that she could not: “sing their praises enough because they’ve not only changed my child’s life but they’ve changed my life as well”. 

Find Out More About IQM 

If your school is interested in achieving 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.