Our school offer
Our aim is to provide pupils with a range of opportunities so that they can reach their full potential.
Key stages & education
Pupils in Key Stages 3 and 4 attend Chilworth House Upper School and follow the national curriculum.
We provide a broad and balanced curriculum with opportunities for enrichment activities through educational visits and field trips. We take account of the National Curriculum and put an emphasis on pupils developing basic skills in Literacy and Numeracy with cross curricular links across subjects.
We believe in encouraging pupils’ self-esteem, which is often low when the start with us, by ensuring the curriculum and tasks set are challenging yet achievable, thus enabling them to further succeed and develop.
Find out what makes our school unique
We provide unique learning opportunities for our pupils to help them engage with learning so that they can develop skills and grow in confidence to become proud members of our school community.
Transitioning from primary school to secondary is challenging for any young person and can become a barrier to learning. Our Year 7 nurture setting provides a safe place for pupils to adapt to the change and seamlessly transition to their next chapter in education.
The class is taught by two dedicated teachers and supported by two teaching assistants for the majority of their timetable, where they follow the National Curriculum. Vocational subjects such as PE, Art, Design Technology and IT are taught by subject specialists, which also gives pupils the opportunity to interact with other teachers and explore their new surroundings.
The concept of the Year 7 Nurture Group is underpinned by a therapeutic diet designed for pupils to self-regulate and access support throughout the academic year. The carefully structured setting steadily helps our pupils to transition to Year 8 and beyond, and allows them to make academic progress as well as develop both personally and socially
In order to encourage pupils to develop skills in an area of interest they are partnered with a member of staff who are ‘champions’ and in their role conduct key worker sessions. The sessions are designed to encourage pupils to learn and develop skills as well as communicate their thoughts and feelings to support their positive mental health and wellbeing. Each session is structured and targeted to develop a skill so that over time pupils are able to make personal progress and develop their self-esteem.
For example, one pupil had a keen interest in the armed forces and so was partnered up with a key worker that had previously worked for the armed forces. As part of their key worker sessions they have taken part in forestry school and have enjoyed the challenges of a military camp. Another pupil was partnered with their art champion who linked up with art groups in the local area who work with young women to develop their skills in art.
We strongly believe in providing our pupils with opportunities to experience the world of work through our work experience programme. The Year 10 and 11 cohorts experience working in a range of industries, which provides pupils with the opportunity to plan ahead and carve out a future for themselves in an area of interest.
We actively work on developing partnerships with local businesses so that a range of industries are on offer to pupils. The opportunity to experience the work environment provides pupils the chance to develop their interpersonal skills as well as instilling a sense of ambition and work ethic. This, coupled with our approach in developing their social and emotional skills sets them up in becoming confident and resilient members of both the school and their local communities.
Futures
Whether our children or young people want to be an astronaut or an artist or anything in between, we are completely committed to helping them realise futures that are out of this world.
Developed in complete collaboration with schools, employers and young people, Futures is all about delivering unlimited aspiration and endless opportunity for every child.
Trust us when we say, your child’s future truly matters to us too.
Our therapeutic support
We provide young people with unrivalled levels of therapeutic support, both in terms of the expertise and experience of our in-school staff and the wide range of therapies offered.
Our therapeutic approach includes:
- As required, young people have the support of our Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Therapists, Speech and Language Therapists and Occupational Therapists.
- Our commitment to delivering outstanding therapeutic support to all young people is based on attachment principles. We believe that unless a young person is able to feel emotionally secure they are less likely to fulfil their personal, social and educational potential.
- Our unique approach to supporting young people allows us to achieve uniquely outstanding outcomes, which in turn enable our young people to go on to realise a future filled with aspiration and achievement.
Our commitment to therapeutic support
We have an extensive Clinical Team, who are able to offer our young people within our school a truly personalised and comprehensive package of therapeutic support.
- We will ensure that every young person develops resilience and releases their potential by providing the appropriate clinical support for their social, emotional and mental health needs.
- We will support a young person to develop their competencies and abilities to help them become a capable young adult.
We will completely integrate the delivery of therapeutic support. - We will operate a direct delivery model of therapy offering universal services targeted to the needs of individual children and young people.
Staffing and pastoral care
Our staff have a wealth of experience and qualifications in teaching and caring for pupils with Special Educational Needs. They have also received training from Witherslack Group’s Clinical Team, which includes clinical psychologists, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and therapists.
Teachers and teaching assistants are extremely well equipped in providing appropriate support to meet the needs of our pupils and establish a positive and engaging learning environment. The education staff consists of a stable and experienced team and the professional development of teachers and teaching assistants is supported through regular internal and external training. This ensures extremely effective teaching practices are in place and lesson activities are well-planned to support learning.
The Pastoral Care Team develop excellent links with parents, carers and families, as well as professionals involved with a pupil. They also provide additional support, when required, to help pupils engage in classes.
We are dedicated to the development of the ‘whole child’, focusing on areas such as independence, self-esteem, resilience, making safe choices and communication.
All this support allows each child, whatever their needs, the opportunity to engage and enjoy their education.
The Pastoral Care Team ensures that all pupils’ well-being is constantly reviewed and developed, and that strong links are made between school and home.
Make an enquiry
Whether you are interested in your child attending our school or just want to know more information about our offer, contact our team.
Contact us