Council celebrates borough’s special educational needs successes
Friday January 27, 2012
The borough’s historic achievement in having five out of five special schools all receiving outstanding Ofsted reports has been formally praised.
A special motion was passed last night (Jan 25) at Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) Council’s full council meeting to celebrate the borough’s special educational successes.
The council noted that an outstanding Ofsted result for Jack Tizard School in October meant that all of the borough’s special schools; Queensmill School, Woodlane High School, Cambridge School, as well as the specialist provision at the Bridge Academy, have received outstanding reports in the past two years; a historic achievement.
The highlight of the evening was a presentation ceremony for five, special educational needs (SEN), teachers with certificates for the completion of their level 5 OCR (Oxford Cambridge and RSA examinations) teaching and understanding learners with specific learning difficulties, and the acknowledgment of seven more who are currently undergoing the training.
H&F Council deputy mayor, Cllr Belinda Donovan, presented teachers Nicola Ford-Jones from Henry Compton, Jodie Lloyd from John Betts, Maria Jesus-Perez from Phoenix, Christine Koresski from Wormholt and Rachel Stokes from St Gabriels's in Westminster with their certificates.
Cllr Helen Binmore, H&F Council cabinet member for children’s services, said: “The council continues to strive to improve the provision and opportunities for all children with special educational needs in the borough and tonight has been such a wonderful opportunity to recognise all the hard work that has been done by our schools over the past couple of years.
‘I am also extremely impressed with the teachers who qualified with their level 5 certificates. One newly qualified teacher has just been appointed SENCo at Henry Compton school which is great news. The more teachers trained, the more dyslexia friendly schools we have and the more specific learning difficulties knowledge there is and this can only be a good thing for inclusion in our schools.’
Also acknowledged during the evening were a number of other H&F SEN successes, including the opening, in November, of the Fulham Primary Queensmill Autistic Spectrum Disorder unit (FPQU) in Halford Road - yet another boost for the borough’s special schools.
This new special unit caters for pupils with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and offers an alternative for those pupils who need something slightly more autism-specific than mainstream school, but not as completely autism focused as the very specialist provision at Queensmill School.
Other special educational needs achievements that were commended during the meeting were;
- The improved provision of Cambridge school due to the cost effective move to the Bryony Centre, next to the Phoenix. Pupils from each school can now attend lessons on either site, according to their needs and the position also provides improved access to health and social care, sports and recreational activities and vocational opportunities.
- The new hydrotherapy pool at Jack Tizard school which is being used by children from all over the borough
- The exciting new site committed to the development and co-location of Queensmill primary and secondary schools and the excellent work of the staff at the Medical Needs Unit, Woodlane school, managed by Headteacher, Peter Harwood.
- The increased number of schools which have at least BB93 acoustics for children with hearing impairments
- The three students at Fulham Cross and William Morris who are visually impaired and are now accessing the entire curriculum through braille.
- Queensmill school for autism, once again, has been accredited by the National Autism Society whilst also managing a new, bigger and stronger team of occupational therapists.
