Inclusion at Meadowside
Mrs Whitlock, our Head of Inclusion and member of the Senior Leadership Team, joined Meadowside in 2008. She has taught across all year groups during this time, from Reception to Year 6! This makes her experience and skills set perfect for this incredibly important role at Meadowside.
Mrs Whitlock’s primary role is to work with children, families and external agencies to ensure the children are accessing correct and well delivered support through the graduated pathway.
Her role of Head of Inclusion also includes: delivering CPD to staff, managing a very talented group of 1:1 teaching assistants, learning mentor, pastoral support, SENDco and Thrive.
Many more of her responsibilities can be found below.
“I look forward to coming to work! Meadowside is a special place where we care for one another and always seek to draw out talent from each and every individual. We are a happy smiley school.”
Reshaping Inclusion at Meadowside
Intent:
All children at Meadowside are valued as individuals who make a contribution to their class and school communities. We believe all children are entitled to feel successful and positive about their learning. Alongside the National Curriculum, it is our intent to provide accessible and meaningful opportunities to enhance the classroom experience. These will target the functional skills necessary for them to achieve now and in the future. If required, children will have access to a bespoke and tailored curriculum, including therapeutic and sensory input, which has been carefully designed to meet their individual needs and prepare them for the next phase in their learning development. We fully recognise that the barriers pupils face may be complex and varied and strive to help reduce them whilst focusing on ambitious outcomes for all. Positive engagement and open communication with families and support from external professionals are all essential components of our universal offer.
Implementation:
As of September 2019, we have a newly created inclusive base, known as The Glade. This hub complements the classroom and is used for alternative provision, additional learning, a therapy space, Thrive activities and other intervention programmes. It is also a meeting and CPD facility.
Bespoke curriculum activities are timetabled in small group and individual sessions and delivered by a member of our experienced inclusion team, taking account of their expertise and skill set. Inclusion provision plans for functional skills, life skills, the National Curriculum and EYFS activities and is developed alongside our curriculum vision here at Meadowside. This is then reviewed regularly with key staff, the children themselves, parents, SLT, SENDCo, Governors and the Curriculum Team.
Our learning mentor is available to support our families and children. She works 1:1 with pupils and small groups and is able to offer advice and organise parent workshops or courses. To ensure we support children’s needs effectively, we offer a range of in school interventions that address this in different ways, ranging from developing self-esteem to simply allowing them time to talk. A fully trained counsellor and play therapist visits weekly and facilitates opportunities for those with particular identified trauma or emotional disengagement.
We work hard to ensure our disadvantaged children receive the same opportunities as their peers and maximise their potential. This may be through enhanced classroom experience, targeted invitations to certain events or financial support. Particular efforts are made to engage with these families through a variety of initiatives to strengthen the partnership between home and school.
Designated and appropriate members of staff deliver these interventions outlined below and overleaf:
Art Smart | A series of individual and group sessions to help children express themselves and build their confidence, helping them regulate their emotions through the creative arts. A therapeutic activity. |
Balanceability | A series of structured lessons that incorporate fun activities to help develop gross motor skills, spatial awareness and co-ordination through the use of balance bikes and equipment. |
Emotion Coaching | A series of individual and group sessions to help children understand the different emotions they experience, why they occur and how to handle them. |
Fizzy programmes | Activity programmes to develop both fine and gross motor skills. |
Forest School | Bespoke sessions delivered to explore the great outdoors and use multi-sensory experiences |
Language for Thinking | A series of group sessions to develop language and thinking skills. Activities involve discussing scenarios from pictures, answering questions that involve thinking about who, why, where, what and when |
Let’s Build | A series of individual or group sessions that explore emotions and build resilience through the accessible medium of Lego. |
Life Skills | Bespoke sessions delivered to enhance the curriculum and make meaningful links to the wider world and life beyond Meadowside. |
Mindfulness | Group and individual sessions targeting awareness of ourselves and the world around us to improve mental wellbeing. |
Musical Minds | A series of individual and group sessions to help children express themselves and build their confidence, helping them regulate their emotions through the creative arts. |
Nessy | Individualised programme to enhance and support children diagnosed with Dyslexia. |
RT:RP Book groups | Group sessions to explore the power and pleasure of reading top quality texts. |
Sensory | A series of group sessions to help develop self-confidence, curiosity, tolerance and openness to new ideas through multi-sensory experiences. |
Social Skills | A series of group sessions to help build an understanding of the feelings and perspectives of other people. It focuses on taking turns, sharing, being a good friend, listening to others and how to behave in social situations. |
Smart Moves | A series of active lessons focusing on gross motor skills and useful for Dyspraxia |
Speech and Language | A series of individual sessions supporting and addressing the learning and outcomes of speech and language support |
Thrive | A series of group and individual sessions to help develop self-confidence, curiosity, tolerance and openness to new ideas through multi-sensory experiences. To also connect and build in any developmental gaps to enhance good SEMH progression. |
Wolf Hill | A programme designed to enhance comprehension of texts read. |
Impact:
Through access to a curriculum designed to meet everyone’s needs, all children will achieve. They will feel proud of their successes and have raised aspirations. Careful monitoring of the most vulnerable and those with complex and additional needs reveals progress which is then celebrated. Through the considered restructure of the inclusion team and expertise of staff utilised, the delivery of programmes will allow for differentiated learning whilst minimising disruption of learning for others. A purposeful curriculum and environment is shaped through innovative practice and available to all learners at Meadowside. The strengthening of parent partnerships and families will further impact positively for all our children.
