Education Support
We aim to have every child in our school ‘accessing education’ as soon as it is possible. Therefore we make a commitment that every child will leave Serenity School with a minimum of five good qualifications including numeracy and literacy.
Contact to discuss child needs:
The School aims to meet the special educational needs (SEN) of all our pupils as defined in our SEN policy. We do this by applying the principles of our Socio-Education Model to each individual pupil who is individual, different yet the same to us at Serenity School.
If you are concerned about your child’s learning or progress in a particular subject, you can contact in the first instance their subject teacher, tutor or the relevant Head of Year. If the concerns are in regard to learning need please contact the Deputy Head/Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) directly.
Assessing Children:
We conduct baseline testing in literacy and numeracy for all new students in order to identify any additional learning needs that may require support. We test to set a standardised score in numeracy and literacy. We aim to ensure all pupils are at least in the average range of 90 – 120. Those pupils either side will be provided with additional support and resources to catch up or excel further.
Teachers regularly monitor and assess student progress, using the information to respond to individual needs.
Teachers regularly monitor rates of progress and identify pupils not making progress. There is an extensive range of support strategies on offer to ensure all pupils are striving to achieve in year and at the end of key stages.
Each term all students are reviewed by termly assessments and an action planning meeting.
Informing Parents & Carers:
Tutors have a weekly dialogue with parents and will talk to parents about behaviour, achievement, progress and attendance. Parents and carers are welcome to contact the school with any concerns and advice can be sought from individual subject teachers on how to support your child at home.
Updates on Progress:
There are a number of opportunities through the academic year for parents to talk with staff. In addition, reports are sent each term to coincide with Academic Review Days.
KS1
Curriculum Interventions:
- Marvin’s Marvellous Moods
- Listening Programme
- Fun Friends
- Black Sheep
- Elsa
- The Colour Monster
- Singing Hands
- Bespoke PSHE programme
To enhance opportunities for our children the school accesses a range of other specialists to motivate, engage and improve outcomes:
- GAFC
- Foundation of Light (sport skills)
- Keep Active (team games)
- Pat Dogs as Therapy (PAT)
- Gardening Club
- The Sage/Charanga (music)
Parents are highly valued and involved from the outset in KS1 and KS2 via:
- Induction, visits to the provision, phone calls, Home School Books, meetings
- Weekly Parent Group takes place with an open invite to all parents/carers, as a ‘drop in’
- Termly themed Family sessions take place and are well attended
KS2
Curriculum Intervention:
- Life Coaching and Therapies
- Phonics – IDL
- Listening Programme – Social Stories
- Sensory Circuit
- Accelerated Reader Programme & Bug Club
- MyMaths
- Handwriting without tears programme
- Social/Life Skills Builder Programme
To enhance opportunities for our children the school accesses a range of other specialists to motivate, engage and improve outcomes:
Weekly visits with a ‘Reading Champion’
School nurse each half term
Regular visits by local/ community officers
Science experience
Music assemblies
Regular visits to a community farm
STEM events
The Sage/Charanga
If a Child is Not Making Progress:
Additional SEN support will be provided after discussions with key staff, parents/carers, pupil and where relevant, external agencies; for example Educational Psychology Service. This additional support will be documented by an individual Education Plan / Provision Map. We seek external support for children continuing to experience significant difficulty which may involve wider muti agency support and services.
Curriculum:
A broad and balanced curriculum is taught across all year groups in age specific groups. Students are placed within ability sets as appropriate based upon the results of baseline data and ongoing progress.
Adapting for child needs:
Teachers use a varied range of strategies; e.g. visual timetables to ensure all lessons are personalised and differentiated to support all students in making good progress. Experiences to develop social skills and team building to enhance student success and progress including a range of trips, residential experiences, after school clubs and whole school events are a key component of our curriculum.
Teacher flexibility on child needs:
Teachers are trained in special educational needs through their initial teacher training which is consolidated through in-house and external training run by the SEN and assessment team, Education Psychology Service, Speech and Language team plus other relevant teams and are therefore skilled at adapting the curriculum according to individual need.
Additional Support:
Additional support e.g. differentiated tasks may be used to help groups of students to develop their independent working skills.
We offer a Can Do Room where pupils can attend for agreed sessions, lessons, or longer periods to avail of further enhanced support with learning and behaviour.
Learning Strategies:
All Teachers and support staff are provided with SEN Profiles of students giving them the information they require in regards to the individual child’s needs and classroom strategies. A tailored programme of information gathering is undertaken with the student’s previous schools to support the successful transition into the school.
A range of literacy, numeracy and emotional literacy interventions are mapped and provided for students including whole class, small group or individual led by both internal and external staff.
Some students have extra support in the classroom from their own dedicated progress partner. This support is flexible and may involve the progress partner being a reader or scribe for the students; the progress partner may differentiate the learning tasks further so that the students can complete the work independently.
Meeting Child Needs:
At Serenity School, we embrace close links with parents and carers.
Tutors have a weekly dialogue with parents and will talk to parents about behaviour, achievement, progress and attendance.
Parents and carers are welcome to contact the school with any concerns and advice can be sought from individual subject teachers on how to support your child at home.
Access Arrangements:
If your child is eligible for access arrangements you will be informed by letter.
Comfort, Safety & Socialising:
Serenity School has a strong ethos of pastoral care which we feel is highlighted through our group support system and pastoral department.
The Family Outreach Worker will liaise with the family and student and offer a wide range of mentoring, support either as part of a group or as a personalised programme.
In addition we offer systemic programmes through our therapy team and outreach staff offer support and advice to families who are under stress for a variety of reasons, such as relationship issues, communication between family members, or more practical things such as housing or money problems.
The Outreach staff will listen and make an assessment of the situation, then work with the family to agree goals together, the overall aim being to build on families’ strengths, to keep children safe and to develop their potential. Many of the support packages are through family group support sessions. The outreach team can also signpost to other services and liaise with Social Services if necessary.
Accessing Lessons:
Serenity School has some assistive technology which allows us to make reasonable adjustments to enable students to access the curriculum.
Who we work with?
The school works with a number of agencies from the education, health, social and community sectors in the London Borough of Greenwich and other neighbouring boroughs including:
- Educational Psychology Service
- Learning Support Service
- Sensory Impairment Service Speech Language Communication Service
- Autism Spectrum Disorder Service
- Occupational Therapy School Nurse
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service
- Youth Offending Service
- Special Educational Needs Team
- Social Care
- Voluntary
- Police – Safer Neighbourhood Teams and School Liaison Officers
- Social Services
Other Agencies:
We involve a range of external agencies to offer additional support and intervention (Educational Psychologist, Speech and Language teachers and therapists).
We offer a range of internal support services: Family Outreach Workers liaise with the family and student and offer a wide range of mentoring, support either as part of a group or as a personalised programme.
Our Family outreach workers and Clinical Psychologist offer professional advice and support to students and their families in times of need.
Informing Parents & Carers:
Parents and carers will be kept informed and consent is sought in most cases before a referral is made to an external service.
