Our school offer
Our aim is to provide pupils with a range of opportunities so that they can reach their full potential.
Redefining education
We redefine education by seamlessly integrating three essential pillars: education therapy on futures. We don't just educate; we nurture support and propel our pupils towards a future where their potential knows no bounds. Join us on a transformative journey, where education extends beyond textbooks, therapy and nurtures resilience, and futures are shaped with purpose and promise.
Education
We foster an excitement and a love of learning in our pupils by following the national curriculum. Our curriculum and tasks set are challenging yet achievable, enabling children and young people to grow in confidence and prepare for life beyond the classroom. We also provide enrichment activities through educational visits and field trips to support and enhance learning experiences.
With a backdrop of our small class sizes, with no more than nine pupils per class, each child and young person receives a bespoke curriculum tailored to their needs, which is fully integrated with our social development programme.
Our commitment to a well-rounded education includes a focus on social development. Through activities that promote collaboration, friendship, social interaction, and teamwork, pupils build essential interpersonal skills. These experiences help them develop communication, empathy, and the ability to work well with others. By developing friendships and a sense of community, children and young people learn to value diverse perspectives and support one another, creating a positive and inclusive learning environment that strengthens their social growth.
Our outstanding offer
We provide unique learning opportunities for our pupils to help them engage with learning so that they can develop skills and grow in confidence to become proud members of our school community.
Since 2015 we have implemented an iPad per child policy. Aligning our values of ensuring that pupils receive the highest quality of education and care, the technology breaks down barriers to learning and encourages them to work independently and collaboratively. This combined ensures that they become confident learners and develop critical thinking.
The practice of using iPads has allowed pupils to take personal responsibility of the device; charging, updating, organising and maintaining it. It has also allowed learning to take place outside the classroom so that they can have the opportunity to develop real world engagement to progress and improve their social skills, whilst evolving their IT skills simultaneously. In class, the device provides an alternative method to record learning and through teaching applications, pupils can develop and strengthen skills such as reading and writing.
The use of iPads has enabled pupils to improve their fine motor skills, which involve the small muscles of the body that permit occupations such as writing, grasping small objects, and fastening clothing. The iPads allow teachers to personalise learning within the classroom enabling pupils to take responsibility and show creativity in the way they learn.
This concerted team effort has resulted in our school being recognised by Apple and accepted as an Apple Distinguished School; in 2021 we achieved a reaccreditation, further reiterating its longevity. This highlights the school’s offer in providing an innovative and compelling learning environment that engages pupils and provides tangible evidence of academic accomplishment.
Moonbears Class is a specialist learning environment where pupils aged five to six start their journey and prepare for future learning. The class is led by a teacher with the support of specialist teaching assistants, who are guided by the school’s in-house Clinical Services Team, including a speech and language therapist, occupational therapist and therapist daily.
The children that access the provision are identified as having high needs in five areas, including:
- Independence
- Communication and interaction
- Cognition and Learning
- Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH)
- Sensory and physical
Development starts through play, where skills are established, and the introduction to literacy, numeracy and science begins. For example, in science, pupils make potions and identify items of clothing they would wear in different climates. In literacy, they build their vocabulary by watching videos on a topic, such as fireworks, and then describe what they witness by identifying colours, noises, etc. In numeracy, they play the role of a shopkeeper and customer, handling ‘money.’
To build skills, pupils participate in turn-taking activities, play games that involve teamworking, and play with different textures such as water and sand. Makaton is used to build communication. The speech based programme is designed to support the development of spoken language using signs together with speech and symbols, to enable pupils to communicate. It supports the development of essential communication skills such as attention and listening, comprehension, memory, recall and organisation of language and expression.
The class benefit from:
- Personalised curriculum based on early years
- Continuous assessment to track progress and introduce achievable goals to develop skills and knowledge further
- Their own playground area that they exclusively access
- Weekly Forest School sessions, encouraging them to explore, play and discover. The experience helps shape the resilience, confidence and self-esteem of pupils through hands-on learning experiences.
- Positive role modelling from all the teaching and support staff they interact with.
Success in Moonbears is assessed through the achievement of all five areas , and once pupils are ready to move on, they follow a pathway that sees them transition into Sunbears Class and then onto other classes within the school, depending on their needs.
Pupils who are identified as having high levels of additional need by our Clinical Services Team may attend Star Bears Class, our high need intervention class. This class will have a specific focus theme, which may vary dependent on pupil’s need, i.e. communication.
Classroom staff work in conjunction with the Clinical Services Team to ensure intensive, targeted support is provided in order to facilitate high levels of progress for each individual pupil. Pupil to staff ratios remain low to allow for this intensive
support, resulting in pupils making rapid progress and working towards achieving their true potential.
Therapy
Our on-site Clinical Team provide pupils with unrivalled levels of therapeutic support, in terms of the level of expertise, the ratio of qualified therapists and clinicians to children and young people, and the range of therapies offered. Pupils have the support of our Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Therapists, Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists and other specialists as required.
We believe that unless a child or young person is able to feel emotionally safe and secure, they are less likely to fulfil their personal, social and educational potential. Our unique approach to supporting young people through our Wave Model enables them to go on to realise a future filled with aspiration and achievement.
Westmorland School's Clinical Team complete thorough and skilled assessments that support a shared understanding of the complex needs we see in our children and young people. This enables us to put purposeful and appropriate interventions in place and assess our effectiveness through the tracking of outcomes and impact.
Futures
At Westmorland School we are dedicated to raising the aspirations of our pupils, while also equipping them with the skills and confidence to realise outstanding outcomes.
The Futures programme inspires and connects pupils with their next steps beyond education, utilising a growing network of over 350 employer partnerships, including the likes of Microsoft, Mercedes and John Lewis, to provide outstanding experiences of the workplace and ongoing opportunities and support.
Our Futures sessions provide practical guidance on job applications, confidence-building, networking, and workplace expectations, giving children and young people the tools to navigate their career paths with clarity. Complementing this, our Futures curriculum enriches academic growth while developing personal development and career readiness, ensuring they are prepared for their chosen paths. With no upper age limit on support, the programme boasts a 100% success rate in transitioning students into education, employment, or training.