“I feel my son has improved in all aspects since starting at Westmorland; emotionally, psychologically and educationally. I now have back the child I knew at age 5, who was happy, lively, inquisitive, confident and alive. I can't thank you enough for bringing this back when I thought it was gone forever."
Parent

Welcome

Westmorland School is a co-educational, independent, specialist day school in Lancashire, providing high quality education for children between the ages of 5 and 11. The school caters for pupils with a range of needs including autism; social and emotional needs; and speech, language and communication difficulties.

In BIG CATS, we have a unique theme based 3 year rolling programme underpinned by the SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) programme to develop social and emotional skills to help our children progress. In BEARS, there is a similar theme based 3 year rolling programme underpinned instead by our own social communication curriculum.

The core of everything in our school is based on ‘We learn to live together, together we live to learn’. We equip our children with the social and emotional skills they need to successfully access and enjoy their learning.

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Our Aims & Ethos

The school’s ethos is based on our school motto, ‘we learn to live together, together we live to learn’.

We are committed to giving our children a creative, caring and innovative learning environment for them to achieve their full potential in their education and developing their social communication.

Westmorland is dedicated to:

Outstanding education for primary children on the autistic spectrum or requiring social or emotional development.
A whole school ethos based on the principles of ‘we learn to live together, together we live to learn’.
Intensive and appropriate support, developing each child’s social communication, to help them engage effectively in their learning environment.
Engaging and challenging activities, tailored to their needs and developing their ‘thirst for knowledge’.
Highest quality education, care and therapeutic support from a dedicated multi-disciplinary team.

Westmorland School at a Glance

ADHD, ASC, Asp, SEMH, PDA
5 -11
Day, 52 Week
Boys & Girls

Below are just some of the key aspects of our school’s offer to our pupils and families:

Provision clusters ensure that each child’s needs are fully catered for. This individualised approach is also adopted when considering the whole school environment, staffing and resources.
Small class sizes of no more than 8 pupils, with high staff ratios at all times of the day and a designated pastoral support worker specific to each provision cluster.
Comprehensive on-site progress support with tailored interventions ensuring maximum impact for all of our learners.

High levels of progress in all subjects areas with outstanding SATs results.
A social communication curriculum throughout the day, ensuring that children can generalise these skills in different environments and with different audiences.
Full Therapy Team including Speech and Language, Occupational Therapy, Educational Psychologist and Mental Health Practitioner, supported by the wider Witherslack Group Therapy Team.

Our school’s partnering children’s home provision

We are partnered with the following Witherslack Group 52 week care provision:

Our SEN Information Report

As a parent or carer we understand you will have plenty of questions when considering the best school for your child.

Our SEN Information Report (Local Offer) attempts to answer many of these, but you can visit the rest of our website to find out more. We will also be happy to answer any questions over the phone or arrange for you and your child to visit the school, so please just get in touch.

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Message from the Head Teacher

We have such fantastic and diverse children, who continually amaze me every day. They quickly settle into our warm and friendly learning environment and any negative experiences they have had in previous educational settings are quickly forgotten. You can see them physically start to relax, become less anxious and ultimately start to recognise the fun of learning here.

We have outstanding and dedicated staff, who are relentless in their support of all our children, whatever their special needs may be; ensuring that progress with all is outstanding.

We love having visitors and would welcome you taking the time to come and enjoy the ‘Westmorland’ experience for yourself.

Sue Asher

Head Teacher

What we’ve been up to at Westmorland School

Pupils explore local Cathedral

Polar Bears and Pandas classes from Westmorland School recently took a trip to explore Blackburn Cathedral to support their learning in RE. The children and staff toured the Cathedral and studied the signs and symbols around the beautiful ...

Budding scientists explore the digestion system

Children in Polar Bears Class at Westmorland School have been studying the digestive system as part of their science lessons. The budding scientists have been exploring how food is broken up and what happens to it from the moment it is ...