Learning Support

What is the Conflict Resolution Centre (CRC)?

The CRC is a provision operating within the school where students whose behaviour has brought them into conflict with one of their peers or with a member of staff at the school, can be sent for a designated period of time.

What staff work in the CRC?

Whilst there is one full time member of staff managing the CRC, there are always supported by another teacher ensuring that at all times there are two members of staff present. These staff will also be supported where necessary by the Learning Mentors who will work with individual students helping them to identify, address and hopefully resolve the issues which have resulted in their referral.

How are students referred to the CRC?

Referrals To the CRC are usually made by Heads of Learning or members of the Senior Management Team. The person referring will complete a ‘Referral form, and accompany the student to the provision.

How long will students spend in the CRC?

Students can be referred to the CRC for up to three days, depending on the nature of the incident in which they were involved.

What happens to students in the CRC?

Students referred to the CRC will;

• Have work collected for them by the relevant year team PA.
• They will be expected to complete the work in silence.
• Enter into a dialogue with staff in the provision in an attempt to understand what caused the conflict in the first place.
• Engage where necessary with a Learning  Mentor who will work with the young person helping them to identify, address and hopefully resolve those issues which have resulted in the referral.

What happens following a referral to the CRC?

Where a student has been referred to the CRC the Heads of Learning will carefully monitor their reintegration back into the whole school community. Where students are being repeatedly referred to the provision the Heads of Learning will take whatever action they feel most appropriate.

The Kingsdale Foundation School Ethnic Minority Achievement (EMA) Department

• Promotes equality of opportunity for all minority ethnic groups.
• Responds to the needs of the pupils for whom English is an additional language.
• Supports minority ethnic groups who are particularly at risk of underachieving.

EAL pupils are expected to work towards achieving the same levels/grades as their monolingual peers of the same age and ability. In order to facilitate the accessibility of curriculum, class work is differentiated and supported by EMA Teachers and Teaching assistants.

The 4 stages of fluency in English described below are intended to help teachers to identify pupils’ level of spoken English and enable them to appropriately plan the next stage of progress.

EAL Learners in the class

Tasks which the EAL learner can attempt, to gain access to lesson:

FIRST LANGUAGE: the bilingual learner's first language is valued and can be used to enrich the culture of the class as a whole. EAL learners may write something relevant to the lesson in their first language. Another pupil who speaks the same language or the learner's parents may be able to check the work.

CLASSROOM INSTRUCTIONS: make sure that the EAL learner can understand classroom instructions. Lessons with a format are easier for EAL pupils to follow.

PICTURES: drawing or cutting out pictures and labelling them. This can help the learner's acquisition of language.

EQUIPMENT/SYMBOLS: displays of and learning the names of equipment/symbols essential to your subject. This can be very effective with Science apparatus.

KEY WORDS: compiling a glossary of key words in your subject, subject, spelling of which can be learnt. Language specific to particular subjects is often used without questioning the extent to which pupils understand it.

ORAL PARTICIPATION: encourages EAL learners to participate as much as possible in oral work. It is important to help the learner to develop confidence and not to feel nervous about speaking in English. Group work is useful as EAL learners learn English most effectively by working alongside fluent speakers of the language.

CLOZE: filling in blanks in sentences or short paragraphs where the words are given or supplied from memory.

TRUE/FALSE: saying or writing whether a given sentence is true or false.

SEQUENCING: ordering sentences of pictures to form a continuous piece of writing or picture story.

WORDS AND MEANINGS: matching words and definitions.

The above tasks can be used to set up targets for the EAL learner. It is important that they always have something to do which is relevant to the lesson.

Stage/Level A

New to English

At this level students mostly use their first language for learning. For communicating purposes, they may use body language/signs or remain completely silent in the classroom. As they begin to gain confidence with time, they begin to show some competence; start repeating simple words and/or phrases. They may understand and begin to use some everyday expressions in English when speaking but may still have very little or no literacy in English.

The EMA (Ethnic Minority Achievement) department at Kingsdale school provides maximum in-depth support and guidance to all students at level ‘A’.  

Stage/Level B

Early Acquisition

Students at this level begin speaking and follow simple instructions in English. They start using English language to participate in both learning and social activities. They still need a significant amount of EAL (English as an Additional Language) support. Some may begin to follow narrative/account with visual input. They may also develop some skills in Reading and Writing and pick up and/or recognise some subject specific vocabulary.

Stage/Level C

Developing Competence

Students may become more expressive orally and begin to participate independently in learning activities. They may be able to follow some abstract and complex concepts in English writing, with apparent structural and grammatical inaccuracies. They may use words and phrases in their writing but may still have difficulty in comprehending texts. The EMA department aims to provide guidance and ongoing support to these students so that they are able to access the curriculum.

Stage/Level D

Competent

At this stage, students are fully capable of expressing orally and successfully engage in all learning activities across the curriculum. They can read and comprehend a wide variety of complex texts/books. Much improved structure and usage of abstract vocabulary is apparent in their written work. For students to accomplish the best standards in English language, the EMA department conducts a firm guidance programme.

Stage/Level E

Fluent

EAL students are at the same level of competency in line with those whose first language is English. They can fully access the curriculum and no longer need any support from the EMA department.

‘The school continues to work with parents/carers and this work is particularly successful for parents/carers of children with SEN needs.’ - Inclusion Quality Mark

What is the Learning Support Centre?

The Learning Support Centre is as its name suggests, is a Unit within the school which exists to support student learning . In line with all other departments within the school the LSU's primary aim is to raise the level of achievement of those young people who have been referred.

Why are students referred to the LSC?

A student will be referred to the LSU when the Head of Year becomes aware that she/he is not achieving to the full extent of her/his ability in spite of the standard school interventions.

Once a student has been offered a place in the LSU, an ‘Individual support programme’ will be put in place. The purpose of this will be to allow the young person the opportunity, working with a designated member of the LSU team, of identifying, addressing and hopefully resolving whatever issues have been standing in the way of their accessing the mainstream curriculum.

The Learning Support Team

The Learning Support Faculty aims to work in partnership with parents to provide the best possible outcomes for all of our students. There are currently three full time members of staff based in the LSC. There are however a number of other individuals and organisations both inside the school and in Southwark who may become involved in a student's ‘Individual Support Programme’.

Teachers

Students working in the LSC will normally only do so on a part time basis, whilst there, most of their time is spent receiving support with their academic work. Whoever has been designated to work with the young person will ensure that work is provided by the relevant subject teacher. This is to ensure that when the student is ready to be reintegrated back into class they have not fallen behind with their studies.

Counselling

A counselling service is offered within the L.S.C. This provides an opportunity for pupil who require a more intensive one-to-one support to facilitate the exploration of emotional states.

The Transition Group

The LSC works with a group of students who have been identified as potentially finding it difficult to make the transition from Primary school to secondary school. This initiative provides a range of support and strategies helping both parent and carer through what can be a very difficult period in a young person’s life.

Working with outside Agencies

The LSC currently involves a range of outside agencies in supporting Individual Education Plans. These include:

• Educational Psychologist.
• Speech Therapist
• Connexions based in school
• The Boyhood to Manhood Foundation.
• Inclusive Creativity.
• Face to Face
• NACRO.

Resources for Parents

Please find on this page a series of helpful resources selected by our specialist team that are targeted specifically at parents. We hope you find these useful and supportive.

Local offers by LA: 

Home | Southwark Local Offer

Lambeth's SEND Local Offer | Lambeth Council

Lewisham Council - Support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (local offer)

Local offer | London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (lbbd.gov.uk)

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Local Offer | Greenwich Community Directory

Wandsworth's SEND Local Offer | Wandsworth Family Information Service

Local Offer - City of London

“The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you.” ― B.B. King

‘‘The respect shown for Student Voice reflects the positive relationships between staff and students'

'I was left in no doubt that Kingsdale Foundation School takes mental health and wellbeing very seriously indeed.’

Inclusion Quality Mark (2023)

‘Leaders quickly identify the needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities(SEND) and make sure that they receive the support they need.’ - Ofsted 2023

We are here to help students succeed.

Our aim is to enable all pupils to acquire the skills and knowledge to help them to develop as individuals. A child has special educational needs if he or she has a learning difficulty which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her.

Students have a learning difficulty if they:

• Have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of students of the same age
• Have a disability which prevents or hinders the child from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for pupils of the same age in schools within the area of the local education authority
• Are under compulsory school age and fall within the definition at (a) or (b) above or would do so if special educational provision was not made for them
• Students must not be regarded as having a difficulty solely because the language or form of language of their home is different from the language in which they will be taught.

Special educational provision means:

Educational provision which is additional to, or otherwise different from, the educational provision made generally for students their age in schools maintained by the LEA, other than special schools, in the area SEN occurs on a continuum ranging from long to short term needs, from profound and multiple learning difficulties to temporary learning or behavioural difficulties and includes any disability (e.g. physical or sensory) which prevents student’s progress within the curriculum.

The department is committed to the inclusion of SEN pupils within mainstream classes whilst recognising the need for some withdrawal which may be appropriate for some children at particular stages of their school career.

Our approach for the success of our children is based on early identification and assessment of pupils needs and the following objectives:

• To value all students in our school equally.
• To ensure that all students have equal access to a broad, balanced curriculum which is differentiated to meet individual needs and abilities.
• To make all teachers responsible for identifying the needs of SEN students. In this they can draw on the resources of the whole school.
• To address the particular needs recognised to our maximum potential.
• To offer high quality support to ensure that all needs are met.
• To maximise the opportunities for students with special educational needs to join in with all the activities of the school.
• To acknowledge and draw on parent/carer knowledge and expertise in relation to their child as all special education provision is more effective if students and parents/carers are fully involved.
• To seek the views of the child and take them into account.

Admission arrangements

Where a student has An Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP), their parent/carer is able to request that a specific school be named in part 1 of the Plan. When this happens the relevant LA will consult with the school via a schedule 27 consultation document. If the school feels it cannot meet the needs of the student, it will have 15 working days to inform the LA of the reasons for its decision.

The criteria for declining a student is;

• Taking the student would compromise the provision of students already on roll
• It would not an efficient use of resources
• The school does not have the ability to meet the identified needs.

Where the student does not have an EHCP the school’s normal admission procedures apply. One exception to this is where the parent/carer identifies a Social or Medical reason why their child’s needs can only be met at Kingsdale. In such cases the SENCO will review the documentation and advise the Headteacher accordingly.

This policy will contribute to achieving these objectives by ensuring that provision for pupils with SEN is a matter for the whole school and is a part of the continuous cycle of assessment and review. In addition to this, we professionally screen all pupils in year 7 and liaise with primary schools for further information. Pupils with particular needs are provided with School Action Plus sessions which are compiled in collaboration with their subject teachers as well as their parents.

All students are entitled to a balanced and broadly based curriculum. This policy ensures that teaching arrangements and strategies are fully inclusive.

In order to work successfully with students who have special needs we must ensure that pupils' needs are identified as early as possible. In order to achieve this we have certain procedures in place.

Pupils with particular needs will also be given the in-class support from a qualified teaching assistant to ensure maximum learning potential.

Contact Details for the Learning Support Faculty

Ms G Smith (Director of English and Learning Support) and Ms S Jarada (SENDCo) senco@kingsdale.southwark.sch.uk 

Contact: senco@kingsdale.southwark.sch.uk

Links:

Autistic Society
Dyslexia Society
Dyspraxia Foundation
Dfes