Our Facilities
The Haven
The Haven is based in the inclusion department and has a team of trained HLTAs and TAs delivering various interventions on a 1:1 or small group basis. These interventions are linked to social and emotional, mental health needs and include;
- Bereavement
- Emotional Literacy Support Assistant support
- Managing Emotions
- Zones of Regulation
- Resilience
- Anxiety
- Friendship Progamme
- Therapeutic and nurturing approaches
Students accessing The Haven will be allocated a 50 minute weekly session where they will work with the same key worker each session to establish consistency and a positive relationship.
Students accessing The Haven for timetabled sessions may also use the “drop in” facility whereby they can visit The Haven whenever they feel the need to reset before returning to class.
Our Haven Team complete relevant training to support our students in this particular area of need and we currently have two more training to be ELSAs and two of our team are on the MELSA training provided by Virtual Schools and the Educational Psychology Service. We also have an EP currently working with two of our team to enable them to deliver the Friendship Programme to support more students in the future.
Sensory Room
Within the Inclusion Department we have our own sensory room. Students use this room to support them in a variety of ways. Students may feel overwhelmed with their emotions for whatever reason and may need a quiet place to reset before continuing with their day. Students often use the room for up to ten minutes and then go to their lessons once feeling more regulated. Some of our students have planned sessions throughout the day in the sensory room, this may be to prevent triggers throughout the day or to manage their emotional responses to identified points in the day. We have some students who prefer to be met by one of our Inclusion Team at the start of the school day and have a few minutes in the sensory room before going to their first lesson.
The room has a variety of resources to support our students including;
- Bubble lights
- Black out tent
- Beanbags
- Weighted cushions
- LED colour changing garlands
- Large tent
- Peanut ball for rocking/bouncing
- Life size cuddly toys
The Hive
The Hive is our library which is situated close to the Inclusion Department. The majority of our reading interventions take place in The Hive with our Inclusion Team and librarian.
These interventions use the reading profiles of our most vulnerable readers to support bespoke provision tailored to each reader’s particular need. The interventions cover;
- Phonics
- Comprehension
- Fluency
Recently several of our team were trained to use the Switch On intervention. Other students take part in reading groups focusing on their comprehension. Students in these interventions make progress in their reading ability and increase their reading age. Students are identified through monitoring reading assessments and all students are screened for dyslexia in Y7 and Y9. We are confident that we are able to accurately identify those students who need a more bespoke and intense intervention to further develop their reading.