TheWyvernSchool



OUR AIMS, VALUES & PURPOSES
To provide a school ethos and environment in which children and young people:
  • Grow in readiness for adult life.
  • Learn to be part of a community, where people treat each other with respect, decency and dignity.
  • Enjoy opportunities for learning and growing.
  • Feel safe, secure and supported.
  • Experience success and achievement.
To provide an education that:
  • Promotes pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and prepares all pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life.
  • Creates suitable learning opportunities for all pupils.
  • Responds to the diverse needs of individual pupils.
  • Overcomes potential barriers to learning for individuals and groups of pupils.
  • To direct our efforts to provide for pupils’ inclusion in the mainstream of schools and society.
  • To conduct the business of the school with integrity, efficiency and compassion.
  • To be a source of impartial advice and support to families and carers.
  • To expect pupils, their families and staff to treat each other with the respect, decency and dignity they deserve.
/
Some Basic Details
The Wyvern School is an all age (nursery -19) Day Special School for pupils with Profound, Severe or Complex learning difficulties.
The Wyvern School,
Great Chart Bypass,
ASHFORD,
Kent. TN23 4ER
Telephone and e-mail contact:
 01233 621468Fax 01233 660621
e-mail
Head TeacherMr. David Spencer
Chairman of GovernorsMr. Bill Miller

Location

The school is located in South Ashford near the beginning of the Great Chart Bypass.

To access the school site visitors must exit from the A28 roundabout (near ‘Matalan’) onto the Great Chart Bypass (marked for Tenterden). The school drive is immediately on the left. Pedestrian access is by footpath from the Brookfield Road, just to the north of the point where it crosses the River Stour.

The building gives an overriding sense of light and space with wide corridors radiating from a central area that includes:

  • Science Laboratory
  • Art Studio
  • Food Technology Room
  • Audio Visual Classroom
  • Design Technology Workshop
  • Group Teaching Rooms
  • Library
  • Music Room
  • Hydrotherapy Pool
  • Light and Sound Room
  • Computer Suite

In addition to these specialist rooms there are seven General Classrooms.

Grounds

Buxford has extensive grounds that include:

Large Playground / Netball Court
Sensory Garden / Playing Fields

One of our long term goals is to develop an environmental studies centre within the Buxford site – extensive wild-flower areas, scrub and small areas of woodland combine with the river bank to make an ideal resource. The school is already discussing these plans with Ashford Borough Council’s Green Corridors Officer.

The Organisation of the School

Early Years Centre

The Early Years Centre provides a specialist facility for very young children. Through the referral process the youngest children might be able to access the Centre on the basis of ‘Mother and Toddler Drop-In” sessions. Pupils from the age of three might be granted an Observation and Assessment place. These children may then go off to mainstream provision with the necessary supporting materials. Others may spend time at the Centre before being admitted to the school’s Primary provision.

The Primary Department

The Primary classes have a normal capacity of 8 children although exceptional circumstances may extend into the range 7 – 9 children.

Children are placed into classes broadly according to their age as described by National Curriculum Year Groups (NCY). The Primary phase of education includes Years N (Nursery) to Year 6. It is therefore not possible to keep each class to a discreet National Curriculum Year.The Class Teacher is responsible for nearly all aspects of the children’s education. The Primary classes do have some lessons with subject specialists. At present they make use of specialist PE and Music staff. Teachers take each others classes from time to time when it is possible to take advantage of particular expertise or interest.

The Secondary Department

The Secondary Department is divided into Tutor Groups each of which has a number with the prefix ‘S’. Each Tutor group has between 8 and 10 pupils and an associated Learning Support Assistant. The Classes move around the school to gain access to subject expertise and specialist rooms, much as they would in a mainstream secondary school. The younger groups might be taught a wider range of subjects by their own Tutor in deference to their need for security in the much more mobile environment of a Secondary School.

16+ Department

The 16+ or FE group have a single group identity but regroup in different combinations depending on the nature of the learning experience that they are engaged upon. FE students spend one day each week at the local College and most of them spend one day each week at Work Experience. They are lead by a Tutor with a team of staff who contribute a range of expertise. They also have access to specialist curriculum staff from the rest of the school.

The Curriculum

The Curriculum Pre-School

Pre-school pupils follow the Foundation Profile – a national scheme that underwrites future learning. Instead of subjects the curriculum addresses areas of development and enables pupils to demonstrate their strengths and for staff to identify areas for attention.

The Curriculum 5 - 16

The Wyvern School believes that every child has an entitlement to the National Curriculum and recognises that progress through this is best achieved when the content is made appropriate to the child’s ability and age.

The Core – 1 Numeracy and Literacy

Emphasis is placed on the Core Curriculum of English (including literacy), Maths and Science throughout the years of statutory schooling. From Year R to the end of Year 9 classes engage in the National Literacy and Numeracy Projects, with daily sessions that focus on these important skills. The work is made accessible to every child through a varied range of approaches and learning activities while taking advantage of the class structures.

Years 10 and 11 access learning in English and Maths through units of work based upon Certificate of Achievement Courses. These lead to externally assessed and nationally recognised qualifications. The subjects are taught in such a way that there is continuing emphasis on the improvement of communication, literacy and numeracy. Every unit of work is made accessible to all pupils.

The Core – 2 Science

Science is taught to all children. The schemes of work being adapted from the guidance offered by the National Curriculum Council and QCA. Years 10 and 11 work within the Certificate of Achievement course which also leads to a nationally recognised qualification.

The Foundation Curriculum

The other subjects are divided into half termly units. The time allocated to subjects will differ according to Key Stage.

Every subject has a responsibility to address aspects of:

  • KEY SKILLS: Communication, Application of Number, Information Technology, Working with others, Improving own learning and performance, Problem Solving
  • THINKING SKILLS: Information processing skills, Reasoning Skills, Enquiry skills, Creative thinking skills, Evaluation skills

Sports, PE and Games

The Wyvern School believes that sport makes an important contribution to a child’s development. There are opportunities to develop skills and experience a wide range of sporting activity. All pupils take part in Physical Education and have opportunities that are not limited by their gender.

Games include: football, netball, hockey, volleyball, badminton, rounders, softball, cricket and basketball.

Athletics, gymnastics, dance and swimming form regular features of the curriculum at all key stages. Primary aged children also have regular opportunities to ride on alternate weeks for a term. Riding is also available for some Secondary pupils where it is felt to have a significant benefit.

The Wyvern School also plays a very active part in inter-school competitions for athletics, rounders, football, netball, swimming and badminton. Results and sporting achievements are reported annually in the appendices.

Art and other Cultural Activities

The Wyvern School is particularly proud of the work carried out in Art. Each year the majority of Year 11 pupils are successfully entered for GCSE. The work includes two and three-dimensional art as well as enrichment visits to galleries and exhibitions.

The school has excellent links with local artists, travelling theatre groups and Live Music Now that ensures that the pupils experience a culturally rich learning environment.

The Wyvern School is lucky to have its own music specialist who works with all but the oldest classes.

School productions are a feature of each year. More than 250 people came to a production of the Lion King and were delighted by the quality of this spectacular. Previous productions have included: A Sixties review, Old Time Music Hall and A Christmas Carol.

The School, while relatively young has already established a tradition of helping others. Each year the school community, pupils, parents, staff and friends raise money for charity appeals to help those more needy than themselves. It is a testament to this community that, in the short life of the school significant sums have been raised for other causes such as Comic Relief, The Royal British Legion and Demelza House, a children’s hospice.

Visits and other extended curriculum activities

The school arranges a series of social events for pupils including:

  • visits to and from other schools
  • visits to places of interest that support the work in the classroom e.g. field trips are an essential part of the Geography course.
  • some years there are activities that can include a residential element for some of the secondary aged pupils.
  • local community groups are encouraged to make use of the school’s facilities and we hope to see this become an increasing feature of school life.

Productions – The Lion King

Department by Department

The Early Years Centre

In 2005 the school was finally able to make a real commitment to those very young children with significant learning difficulties. A large classroom on the primary site was converted into an Early Years Centre with much specialist equipment and this is now situated on the MASH (Multi Agency Service Hub) site. This is very rapidly become an essential resource for a group of very young children with significant needs.

Primary

The Primary classes are concerned with the foundations for learning. Through a broad and balanced curriculum, children are encouraged to develop independence, sociability, communication and a sense of wonder. Learning at this stage is a social activity that we believe can be and is enjoyed by all.

Learning is FUN — happy children learn well.

Key Stage 3

The Key Stage 3 curriculum is concerned with breadth. Pupils study a wide range of subjects and have many opportunities to succeed. It is a time when children change dramatically and require a supportive and guiding, pastoral hand to help them through the early stages of adolescence. This is achieved by an expectation of independence that increases over the Key Stage’s three years. During their first year in this Key Stage, pupils have many lessons with their own tutor but by their final year they are moving confidently around the site to gain access to the full range of expertise embodied within the staff team.

Key Stage 4

Key Stage 4 comprises the last two years that a child must, by law, attend school. It is a time of change when pupils become students and the business of their learning takes on an urgency. At The Wyvern School the curriculum becomes increasingly vocational and increasingly geared to gaining external recognition of achievements. There are opportunities for work experience and access to careers
guidance.

Subjects such as Maths and English incorporate the syllabuses of externally accredited courses alongside the continuing development of these important skills. Most learning takes on a more real-life context as the route into each student’s adult world opens up in front of them.

Awards and Certificates
At the end of Year 11 pupils are presented with a record of their achievement. This is a very special occasion and parents are always invited.

External accreditation is made available in as many areas as possible. In 2006 these included:

  • EnglishCertificate of Achievement Course
  • MathsCertificate of Achievement Course
  • ScienceCertificate of Achievement Course
  • HistoryCertificate of Achievement Course
  • GeographyCertificate of Achievement Course
  • PE Certificate of Achievement Course
  • Art GCSE
  • Life SkillsASDAN

The FE Department

The FE department follows a curriculum that is primarily vocational and forms a stepping stone on to the next stage in the student’s life. There are many opportunities to explore the world of work while also being able to further develop key skills such as communication, literacy and numeracy in a real life context. The approach is based on challenges that the students have to meet. Each challenge is negotiated to be appropriate to the individual’s needs while forming part of the work of the group.

Learning takes place in school, at college and on work experience and leads to accredited certification through the ALL project and ASDAN. These are nationally recognised qualifications that enable the achievements of our pupils to be recognised.

Both schemes are based on the idea of challenges. The students have to plan the way in which they are going to meet the challenge, apply their plan and then join in with the assessment of their success.

Students leaving Year 11 or the FE Department are an important part of the Leavers’ Ball – a family event that is open to all

Learning as a partnership
Every Wyvern School pupil has an Individual Education Plan (IEP) that identifies ways in which home and school can work together to meet important learning targets.
Every term the school organises sessions for parents so that they can learn important techniques for helping their children.

Sex Education

This appears within the policy for Personal, Social and Health Education. It is the duty and responsibility of the school to provide Sex Education which it does in a sensitive and responsible manner. The teaching is aimed to provide pupils with knowledge and understanding of the facts and issues within a framework that celebrates family values. The child’s emotional and physical development is taken into account in the planning of such units of work.

Working together on sensitive issues 1
The school is aware that this is a sensitive issue and staff are always willing to discuss plans with parents. Parents are reminded that, following such a discussion, they may withdraw their child from Sex Education.

Religious Education and Collective Acts of Worship

Every class follows a programme of RE lessons. The scheme of work allows pupils to explore the spiritual dimension of their multi-cultural world. The course seeks to stimulate knowledge, understanding, tolerance and respect together with an ability to apply moral values to the judgements and decisions of everyday life. The scheme of work is based on the Kent Agreed Syllabus for RE.

Every child’s day includes a collective act of worship. These are organised as a pattern of class, department and whole school assemblies. Where the gathering is used to conduct part of the business of the school the collective act of worship is clearly separate.

Working together on sensitive issues 2
Parents can withdraw their child from RE or Collective Acts of Worship after discussion with the school.

Assessment and Recording Achievement

The most recent Exam and SATS results are published in an appendix to this prospectus.

In addition to the statutory assessments carried out at the end of Key Stages 1, 2 and 3, the school seeks opportunities for older pupils to receive externally accredited recognition of their achievements. The qualifications are reviewed regularly to ensure that as many pupils as possible have access to them and that the syllabuses provide meaningful learning experiences.

All externally accredited courses have QCA approval which means that they are recognised nationally by employers and other educational establishments.

Success of all kinds is celebrated in many different ways.

Measuring and Reporting Progress and Attainment

Pupils’ attainment is measured using national scales called ‘P-Levels’ and, where appropriate, National Curriculum Levels.

The P-Levels enable us to record progress in finer detail which allows us to celebrate the ‘small-step’ successes that are so very significant for our pupils.

Parents receive an annual report shortly before the Annual Review of a pupil’s ‘Statement’.

Attainment is closely monitored by the Senior Management Team with the teaching staff and any changes in the pace of learning investigated.