Beech Lodge School Development Plan 2019 2023

School Development Plan

2019 - 2023 Key points

Introduction This Development Strategy runs from September 2019 to 2023 and builds on our steady growth since our foundation in 2013. We are at an exciting time in the development of the school as we complete the final phase of building work and landscaping of the grounds.

We are now a well established school, recognised for the unique education we provide for adopted and previously looked after children.

We have expanded, yet honed our provision and are now ready to fully realise our ambition to be acknowledged as a pioneering progressive independent special school offering a high-quality educational experience

with alternative opportunities and pathways for children who cannot reach their potential in a mainstream setting.

In September 2019 we will open Lionheart, our new provision for pupils with dyslexia and associated learning difficulties.

Daniela Shanly August 2019

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Pupils Beech Lodge will continue to be a co-educational independent special

day school for children between ages 7 and 18 with a maximum capacity of 96 pupils across our 3 provisions: Nelson, Lionheart and Meadow.

Pupils at Beech Lodge have mild to moderate Special Educational Needs including dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, social & emotional difficulties, anxiety and trauma-related difficulties.

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Staff Staff will continue to be well supported, receive professional development opportunities and training to develop the skills and subject knowledge to ensure that all teaching is good or above. They will be given opportunities to develop their expertise and expand their roles within the school.

They will receive regular specialist supervision to reflect and enable them to manage their often emotionally challenging role.

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Academic Curriculum We will continue to expand and develop our broad and balanced curriculum. We will increase the amount of subjects available to our

pupils with additional focus on ICT, the Arts, Media and STEM subjects.

We will continue to develop our specialist teaching for children with dyslexia and associated specific learning difficulties. A comprehensive trips programme will be introduced to compliment classroom learning.

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Social & Emotional Curriculum We will continue to embed Fagus (our social and emotional framework) into the curriculum and provide therapeutic interventions for pupils to

support emotional wellbeing. We will continue to provide rich outdoor learning experiences to enhance relationship building, foster resilience and cooperation.

We will embed Oracy into our curriculum and develop a Life Skills programme to provide varied and relevant work experience opportunities.

We will continue our Values Based approach throughout.

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Extra-Curricular We will continue to provide a range of inspiring outdoor and extracurricular opportunities for our pupils. We will increase our offering by providing extended day provision in the form of after-school clubs. This will include circus skills, sporting activities, cookery, adventure and art classes.

We will be launching MYCLUB holiday club in 2020 which will be targeted to children with similar profiles to the pupils at Beech Lodge.

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Sustainability We aim to become a sustainable school by reducing our ecological

footprint through adopting sustainable practises in our everyday lives. We will achieve this by integrating sustainability into all areas of the curriculum and instilling a sense of ownership and pride in improving the environment.

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Social Responsibility We will continue to take our social responsibility very seriously and encourage our pupils to become active, thoughtful and effective members of our global society. We will engage them in activities that promote social and environmental awareness, enabling them to become responsible citizens and activists for change.

We will continue to be a Values Based School and work towards achieving the VbE Quality Mark.

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Building and Grounds In September 2019 the final phase of our building project will be completed giving us additional facilities enabling us to increase our capacity.

The grounds will continue be landscaped to include 2 tennis courts, 2 five

a side football pitches, a small animal farm, vegetable and flower garden, orchard and low ropes course.

We will improve our outdoor natural environment, by planting native trees that are conducive to our environment; improve our vegetable garden by planting more plants and involving our school community in the development and maintenance of the garden.

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Training We are committed to promoting greater awareness and understanding of the challenges faced by children who have attachment difficulties and developmental trauma in school. We will continue and develop our successful Trauma Training modules to external delegates from schools in the surrounding counties.

We are also providing Dyscalculia training to external delegates.

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Outreach Responding to demand, in 2021 we will launch an outreach department catering for children who are unable to access school for a variety of reasons, predominately due to anxiety, school refusal and developmental trauma. We will recruit and train a team of specialist tutors who will educate those children in their homes.

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Great minds think differently

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