Our school offer
Our aim is to provide pupils with a range of opportunities so that they can reach their full potential.
Redefining education
We redefine education by seamlessly integrating three essential pillars: education, therapy and futures. We don't just educate; we nurture support and propel our pupils towards a future where their potential knows no bounds. Join us on a transformative journey, where education extends beyond textbooks, therapy and nurtures resilience, and futures are shaped with purpose and promise.
Education
We foster an excitement and a love of learning in our pupils by following the national curriculum. Our curriculum and tasks set are challenging yet achievable, enabling children and young people to grow in confidence and prepare for life beyond the classroom. We also provide enrichment activities through educational visits and field trips to support and enhance learning experiences.
With a backdrop of our small class sizes, with no more than nine pupils per class, each child and young person receives a bespoke curriculum tailored to their needs, which is fully integrated with our social development programme.
Our commitment to a well-rounded education includes a focus on social development. Through activities that promote collaboration, friendship, social interaction, and teamwork, pupils build essential interpersonal skills. These experiences help them develop communication, empathy, and the ability to work well with others. By developing friendships and a sense of community, children and young people learn to value diverse perspectives and support one another, creating a positive and inclusive learning environment that strengthens their social growth.
Our outstanding offer
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.
The multimodal approach is used to support communication at our school. Using a mixture of signs, symbols and speech, pupils can access and develop their communication skills. The daily use of Pragmatic Organisation Dynamic Display (PODD), supports the signs and symbols element, helping pupils to communicate a wide range of topics eventually leading to pupils using a larger vocabulary of words.
This is markedly due to the support of staff, who are trained in teaching and supporting pupils with autism, and who continue to learn and extend their knowledge to meet the needs of our children. This has helped us to cultivate a culture of support and has proved to provide pupils with a safe environment and a real sense of belonging, resulting in them making strides in progress.
We actively encourage our pupils to take part in meaningful opportunities for them to share views, hopes and their experiences through Pupil Voice. Each class votes in a class rep, who meet each term, where they also represent the voice of their peers. By actively participating in conversations, they develop their social skills so that they confidently contribute to the school community by entering conversations with the school’s Senior Leadership Team, where they discuss, negotiate, and even manage budgets.
As a school, we are all too aware of our environmental footprint which has resulted in the formation of Eco Warriors, a group of pupils who meet each term to take action and save the planet. The team are often found maintaining the school grounds by picking up rubbish. They have also planted herbs and have an ongoing campaign of encouraging everyone to switch off lights and turn taps off.
Our diverse community, made up of pupils and staff, is the perfect backdrop to introduce and learn about different cultures from one another and feel comfortable and safe while exploring the topic. We also experience different cultures through food and field trips, allowing pupils to be more aware and respectful of others and recognise that we are all different.
To make pupils more socially aware and, in turn, more accepting of the people they live and learn alongside the school community comes together to celebrate awareness days, religious and cultural events, fundraise for charities and welcome visitors.
Our small community of girls come together to attend Girls Club. The weekly club offers pupils the opportunity to develop friendships while taking part in pupil-led activities, such as coding, hosting parties, and anything they would like to experience. The time together is also an opportunity to discuss growing up and puberty; permission from parents and carers is sought for the topic. Additionally, the sessions are data-led, highlighting the developmental needs of pupils which teachers consider when facilitating activities to close the gap in learning through play.
Therapy
Our on-site Clinical Team provide pupils with unrivalled levels of therapeutic support, in terms of the level of expertise, the ratio of qualified therapists and clinicians to children and young people, and the range of therapies offered. Pupils have the support of our Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Therapists, Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists and other specialists as required.
We believe that unless a child or young person is able to feel emotionally safe and secure, they are less likely to fulfil their personal, social and educational potential. Our unique approach to supporting young people through our Wave Model enables them to go on to realise a future filled with aspiration and achievement.
Lavender Lodge School's Clinical Team complete thorough and skilled assessments that support a shared understanding of the complex needs we see in our children and young people. This enables us to put purposeful and appropriate interventions in place and assess our effectiveness through the tracking of outcomes and impact.
Futures
At Lavender Lodge School we are dedicated to raising the aspirations of our pupils, while also equipping them with the skills and confidence to realise outstanding outcomes.
The Futures programme inspires and connects pupils with their next steps beyond education, utilising a growing network of over 350 employer partnerships, including the likes of Microsoft, Mercedes and John Lewis, to provide outstanding experiences of the workplace and ongoing opportunities and support.
Our Futures sessions provide practical guidance on job applications, confidence-building, networking, and workplace expectations, giving children and young people the tools to navigate their career paths with clarity. Complementing this, our Futures curriculum enriches academic growth while developing personal development and career readiness, ensuring they are prepared for their chosen paths. With no upper age limit on support, the programme boasts a 100% success rate in transitioning students into education, employment, or training.