Ravenswood School is an all-aged special school (ages 4-19). The school is based in Nailsea and comprises Early Years, Primary, Secondary and Post 16. The school is registered to admit 134 pupils.
At present there are 137 pupils on roll (65% boys and 34% girls).
The school caters for pupils with a wide range of additional needs: ASD 28%, MLD 23%, SLD 14%, SEMH 10%, SLCN 10%, Sensory 4%, PD and SPLD both 1%.
The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals is 42%. 10% of pupils are PLAC and 4% of pupils are LAC.
All pupils have an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) and travel to the school from North Somerset and the surrounding counties.
Meeting the diverse needs of these amazing pupils is our challenge and joy!
Our aims are for all pupils to be Safe, Happy and Prepared for their next steps by:
Through the very high standards that adults model around the school, we expect all our pupils to be Safe, Ready and Respectful by:
1. How does the school assess the progress of pupils and what would they do if my child was falling behind?
Pupil progress is regularly assessed by teachers through observing and talking with children in lessons, as well as marking their work. They note any misconceptions children have and adapt their teaching to ensure all children understand what they are learning and how to improve their work. Teachers use all this information to assess children’s progress at the end of the Autumn, Spring and Summer terms. They meet with Senior Leaders to talk through the progress of every child. These conversations are used to check if any child is at risk of not making the progress the school expects and to plan strategies for that child to catch up.
2. How accessible is the school environment?
All of the school and grounds is accessible for someone with a disability. In a few areas the ground is rough (e.g. conservation area) and a few admin corridors are narrow. Ramps and wide doorways have been installed to provide access to all areas. The car park has a space designated for disabled badge holders and one school minibus has a tail-lift, the other a ramp.
We have a range of teaching resources to ensure that every child can fully access the curriculum. Parents and carers are welcome to visit the school to see these.
The school’s Equality and Diversity Policy & Accessibility Plan can be found on our School Policies page.
Within the school buildings we have an ASD friendly learning environment, meaning it is clutter-free, well organised and painted in calming colours. We do this to help pupils be calm, alert and ready for learning.
3. What is the school’s approach to teaching pupils with differing special education needs?
We have high expectations of all our pupils, believing that with high quality teaching we can maximise their progress. We use a wide range of well-researched teaching strategies including:
• Ensuring pupils know what they are learning and what they need to do to improve
• Questions to check pupils’ understanding; their responses shape and reshape teaching
• Phonics (sounds for word building)
• Guided Reading
• Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar strategies
• Calculations Procedures
• Attention Autism
• Intensive Interaction
• Songs of reference
• SCERTS
Pupils learning to communicate and work independently will also experience:
• Makaton signs
• Picture Exchange Communication systems
• TEACCH approach
• Visual timetables and schedules
Further information on teaching strategies we use for pupils with different types of SEN can be found here.
4. Who is responsible for ensuring all children have their SEN identified and met?
Cheri Frost (Deputy Headteacher) is our SENCo. Cheri ensures that guidance from other professionals supporting a child is incorporated into daily/ weekly teaching and class routines. You can contact her at the school and arrange to meet/ talk through the programmes for your child. Cheri's contact details can be found on the Contact page. Cheri has lead responsibility for ensuring that all pupils make the progress expected of them. Cheri monitors the quality of teaching and provides guidance on how to secure consistently good and outstanding teaching.
Mark Senior (Headteacher) is responsible for ensuring all children’s statements of SEN or Education Health Care Plans are up-to-date, and does this by working closely with pupils and their parents and carers.
5. What additional activities are available for pupils in addition to the curriculum?
We organise a range of lunchtime clubs for pupils, these are free of charge and pupils sign up each week. Each term we offer a minimum of two after school clubs per week which are organised and supported by Ravenswood staff. The clubs vary over time and are planned around the interests of pupils. Details of the clubs are in our weekly newsletter and our Family Support Advisor can provide you with further information. We are grateful to the Parents and Friends Association for supporting the costs of these clubs. We can also signpost families to clubs and activities in their local community.
6. What support is available for improving the emotional and social development of pupils?
Our ethos is to build the self-esteem and social skills of all pupils. We do this throughout the school day, from meeting and greeting pupils, in lessons, assemblies, guidance at break times and lunchtimes and at the end of the school day.
When appropriate, pupils have specific teaching to improve their social development through small group work on:
• Self esteem
• Peer relationships
• Relationships with school/adults
• Social communication
Guidance in managing behaviour across settings is provided by Weston Area Health Trust CAMHS team.
7. How are parents and carers involved in decisions about the education of their child?
We have a good track record of listening to parents and carers and responding to their concerns and suggestions. Parents and carers are welcome to visit the school and meet teachers. Formal opportunities for this are arranged at Parents’ Evenings in October and July, and an Annual Review meeting to review your child’s Education Health Care Plan. We also arrange many informal opportunities e.g. coffee mornings with classes each September, school shows, sports day, and end of term assemblies. Parents and carers are always welcome to contact our Family Support Advisor, the class teacher, the behaviour support team or senior leaders. We are here to listen and help.
8. How are pupils involved in decisions about themselves?
Pupil voice is very important to us. We seek their views in a number of ways:
• On what they want to learn at the start of each topic.
• Pupils’ responses in lessons shape the teaching.
• They all contribute to their Annual Review and End of Year Report at a level appropriate for the individual. Pupils' views are collected annually via a pupil survey and results are shared during assemblies and governors' meetings.
• Each class elects a pupil to represent them on the School Council, who meet and talk about their learning, how to make the school safe and free from bullying. They make decisions about clubs, playtimes and request changes to the lunchtime menus.
• Person Centred Planning is used to help students think about their aspirations for the future and to move forward.
• The school has a number of pupils who have been elected as School Ambassadors, they meet monthly with the head teacher to discuss pupils concerns and are a point of contact for pupils who are worried or concerned about anything.
9. How are parents and carers supported to share their views and concerns and work alongside the school?
We are always pleased to hear from parents and ready to listen to any concerns they may have. We do this in many ways:
• Through the home-school diary
• A conversation or meeting with our Family Support Advisor
• Informal meetings/telephone calls with teachers at the start or end of the day
• Arranging a meeting to talk through any concerns with a member of the Senior Leadership team.
Governors want to ensure that all parents have a mechanism to raise their concerns with confidence they will be heard. Further information can be found in the Complaints Policy on the School Policies page.
10. Do other professionals work with the school to help children with SEN?
In seeking to maximise the progress for each child it is important we work closely with any other professionals who support the child. We will only work with other professionals with agreement from parents and carers, unless there is an urgency to liaise with other professionals around keeping a child safe.
Professionals who regularly visit the school include:
|
Advisory Teachers – for VI or HI |
Educational Psychologist |
Social workers |
|
Speech and Language Therapist |
Physiotherapist |
Occupational Therapist |
|
Business/community partners |
CAMHs workers Psychiatrists or specialist nurses |
Paediatric services Doctors Specialist nurse Optician |
|
Virtual School for Children who are Looked After |
Music Therapy |
Dance Therapy |
11. Who will give independent support to parents and carers in understanding school, local authority and government procedures?
Parents and carers are always welcome to contact other agencies for support if they feel school staff are not able to help. The following services may be helpful in these circumstances:
SEND Team, Town Hall, Walliscote Road, Weston-super-Mare Tel: 01275 888083
Supportive Parents, 3rd Floor, Royal Oak House, Royal Oak Avenue, Bristol, BS1 4GB Tel: 0117 9897725
12. What support is available for pupils transferring into school and in preparing them for adult life.
We plan the move in to Ravenswood carefully, involving parents and carers and the current school. We want this move to be successful and to help pupils settle swiftly. Prior to admission the pupil and their parents visit school, we gain all the information we need to write a Care Plan. We plan what support each child will need, this may include a part-time placement initially, social stories, additional support in the class.
In the first few days we liaise closely with parents and carers to ensure they build confidence in the school. We check at the end of the first term that the child and their family are happy with the school and use this information to adapt our support if needed. Parents tell us that their children settle swiftly, feel safe and love coming to school.
Pupils can stay at Ravenswood until they are in Y11 and then they can choose whether to stay here for p-16 or to move onto college. At whatever age they decide to leave Ravenswood, we work closely with them and their families to plan their next steps. Holly Atkins is our Careers Lead. We use a Person Centred Planning approach, making sure we gain the student’s views about their hopes and dreams for the future, then working with them to plan what they need to do and move towards their ambitions.
13. Where can I find out about what other schools and organisations offer?
North Somerset Council publishes a local offer detailing what other establishments can provide for children with SEN.