VIEW FROM THE CLASSROOM
Every child is welcome
– inclusion at Westlea Primary School I
Sarah Sumner
n our second View from the classroom feature this month, we hear from Sarah Sumner, Headteacher, and Louise Edmonds, Deputy Headteacher, at Westlea Primary School in Swindon, who tell us about the school’s Special Resourced Provision for physically disabled children and how inclusion is at the heart of everything the school does.
Tell us about your school Louise Edmonds
Westlea Primary School is an award-winning primary school based in Swindon, part of the Brunel Academies Trust. At present we have 310 children on roll, and our number of pupils with SEND/disabilities is well above average, with 24 education health and care plans (EHCPs) currently in place. Part of our offer as a school is our Special Resourced Provision (SRP) for children who are physically disabled, as well as a unit for children with complex needs. We have a therapy room, a sensory room, wheelchair-accessible playground equipment, accessible instruments, access to an offsite hydrotherapy pool, adaptive PE lessons, and – where needed – we create bespoke timetables. Because of these specialist facilities and our staff skills set, our cohort includes children with high levels of medical needs from outside our catchment area.
How do you achieve inclusion for pupils? All children at Westlea Primary School are fully integrated into mainstream provision – and
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www.education-today.co.uk
when we talk about “mainstream” we don’t only mean this in terms of academics. For us, inclusion has to mean social integration too – not least in clubs and extra-curricular activities, even birthday parties. By modelling and encouraging this we can help prepare all pupils for the next stage in their lives, as well as developing tolerance and understanding among children across our whole community. Because our SRP is such a core part of our school, our pupils are used to being around a whole spectrum of needs, such as attention deficit disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and more. They learn to understand and celebrate difference, and do not have an issue with it. They see that this is how the community works.
What skills do your staff need to support all pupils?
All our staff are trained to deliver manual handling and are also trained to deliver interventions such as speech and language and physio exercises. Within the school we have a dedicated team of highly trained learning support assistants (LSAs), two emotional literacy support assistants (ELSAs), and a school counsellor. Together they are managed by the SRP Lead and the senior LSA. Our LSAs are involved in personal care, toileting, administering gastric feeds, delivering different therapeutic programmes, and administering medical procedures. Once a term, our senior leadership team meet to discuss the experiences, requirements
January 2023
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