Inclusion

Inclusion at New Rickstones Academy

We currently hold the Inclusion Quality Mark.

The Inclusion Team believes that every child matters and that the fundamental purpose of education is to prepare students to lead fulfilled, productive, responsible, happy and successful adult lives; we seek to do this by enabling each person to discover and develop their full potential – to make their best better. 

The need for high self esteem, individual self-confidence and the capability to manage personal change will be important for life after school. The Inclusion Team offers support and expertise to help resolve difficulties and promote positive solutions for students experiencing barriers to their learning.  At times students need reinforcement and confidence-boosting in certain areas. 

The Team consists of Mrs Adair (Inner College Manager); Ms Windard Inner College Learning Support Assistant (LSA); Mrs Austin (School Counsellor); Mr Eden (Assistant Vice Principal – who is also SENCo and Named Person with responsibility for Child Protection; Miss Collins (SENCo Assistant) and four Advocates: Ms Everitt; Ms White; Ms Sharpe and Ms Bridge.  There is a further team of LSAs based in departments:

Mrs Thorpe – Humanities

Mrs Coote, Mrs Ashdown and Mrs White – Eng

Mrs Harris and Mrs Jones – Maths

Mrs Goebel and Mrs Farrow – Science

Mrs Avitabile – ICT

Ms Jordan – Languages

Mrs Brown – Technology

In addition to this, we work closely with a wide range of outside agencies such as educational psychologists, speech and language therapists, outreach support services and occupational therapists.

Although support is offered to all our 3 pathways, most of our LSA focus is on one particular pathway.  In our present Year 7 that particular pathway itself is further split in to 3 sub groups. In English and Maths (and this will extend to other areas) one of these groups works in Inner College on a rotation.  The whole approach is to reduce group sizes and to individualise the learning.  This pathway also takes part in weekly “circle times” with Lead Advocate/Counsellor, developing social skills and confidence.

Inner College also provides a support for students struggling to cope in lessons. It is aimed at KS3, although is also used to create bespoke packages for some KS4 and KS5 students.  For example, a group of Year10 Statemented and SA+ students work on basic literacy and Maths instead of following a Spanish option.  The use of Entry Level Certificates provides structure and evidence of progress for any Maths support work.  Students can be timetabled in for set lessons to work and it can be used to temporarily remove students from situations where they are not making progress. Students are supported either individually or in small groups following the curriculum of the subject they would usually be in.  Our aim is always to rebuild confidence and knowledge so that students return to the usual curriculum.

Our Springboard Centre (with Manager Mrs Longhurst and LSA Mrs Ferridge) provides support for students who have not made progress over KS3 due to difficulties with engagement.

The Academy supports Accelerated Reader.  Additional support is offered to our weakest readers (below reading age of 9 years) through LSA targeted support in the library (during DEAR sessions) and through paired reading with Year 10 students (during two tutor sessions each week).

LSA support: All our LSAs are trained to NVQ Level 3, in supporting learning.  They are deployed to departmental areas and have developed specialist subject knowledge.  When working with these targeted students, while there is whole-class teaching, some typical approaches are:

1. Encouraging students to concentrate and take part.

Sometimes students need to be reminded discreetly that they must look and listen to the teacher and to other pupils who are contributing to the lesson.

2. Asking the questions again that the teacher asks and helping the pupils to find an answer.

A LSA could repeat the question using simplified vocabulary or explaining the words that are being used.

3. Alerting the teacher if the pupils have some answers.

Some students frequently lack confidence and are not willing to speak out in front of the class even when they have an answer.  This is an opportunity to value their contribution.

4. Asking further questions that will help the pupils to think when they are discussing in a group or in pairs.

Giving the students clues when they are stuck or asking the pupils to discuss what the question is asking can help understanding.

5. Using a copy of the resource that the teacher has on the board to focus the pupils.

LSA Mentoring: Many students lack confidence in education.  We have weekly mentoring sessions for 17 students (mainly KS3) to offer regular positive reinforcement and encouragement.  Just recently we commenced a trial of using admin staff in such mentoring. Initial feedback shows this to be a positive step forward.

Advocates: At New Rickstones Academy, we work hard to ensure ALL students maximise their learning time. To this end we have 4 trained “Advocates” who tour the school supporting teachers, and primarily students, to be in lessons happy and learning.

Use of Advocates by teachers is a further way of developing individual learning plans for students and as such become a positive input to a lesson.

We recently gained the Inclusion Quality Mark and the lead inspector commented on the “excellent support given to students by the team of Advocates”