The Percy Hedley Foundation Speaks Out

Why Schools are Special
The role of Percy Hedley Foundation Schools

Should all children with disabilities go to their local school? Is this the ideal we should aspire to? Are the days of the special school back in history?  No.  Both day and residential special schools continue to have an important place in the continuum of excellent provision. They provide the very specialised and intensive support that is needed by a small number of children with complex disabilities. They provide specialist expertise to support other children who can survive in mainstream schools, but only with some help. For example, this may be for their assessment; to deliver the extended curriculum; to give peer group support for parents, siblings and the children themselves; advice on equipment and facilities; at times when a child's condition deteriorates; updating knowledge for their staff; access to truly competitive sports activities.

As a charity that runs non-maintained special schools, we have been able to concentrate on our specialisms. Whilst many special schools have become generic as a result of public policy, the Percy Hedley School and Northern Counties School have consistently developed their expertise, knowledge, skills, and experience of working with children with particular conditions, providing an essential and exceedingly high quality service which is part of the continuum of provision available for children in the North East.

We are able to employ all our own staff including teachers, special support assistants, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, teacher-conductors, psychologists and they form an integrated team that provides the level of consistency and continuity needed by each child. With the support of a consultant paediatrician, and through close association with other medical specialist consultants, we do our utmost to meet the very special complex needs of this population of children. And amongst our staff are a number of national and international authorities on children with special needs, ensuring we continue to be at the forefront of knowledge and practice.

We also give masses of moral and practical support to parents and carers who play a key role in our success in working with their children. A number of innovative services, many funded through charitable income, are focussed on supporting families. These contribute to the 'added value' of the school, and we know they can help to reduce the isolation and anxiety of many families who have to grapple with the complexities of their child's disability.

The Percy Hedley Foundation schools offer uniquely integrated curricula, teaching, therapeutic and care programmes which ensure that children make maximum progress and families get maximum support. Like many special schools, the curriculum covers the National Curriculum, but the Percy Hedley programme goes beyond that. It includes work experience, lifeskills and independence training which compliments the national curriculum. For children with most complex difficulties, we have devised an individually designed multi-sensory programme of therapeutic experiences. Staff ensure that every detail of the day is thought though in relation to children's needs. For example, we use the concept 'learning journeys'. Every movement of a child - across the classroom, between classroom and toilet, around the school buildings - is considered as a learning opportunity to support some aspect of the child's cognitive, emotional or physical development. The staff team think through those opportunities so the child has every chance to enjoy the experiences, to make progress, and feel pride and satisfaction in that progress.

Ofsted concluded that the Percy Hedley School should share "the secret of its success". The Specialist School Status awarded to the school in June 2008 will help us to do just that. With this status comes the responsibility for providing support to other children and schools. The national scheme links specialist schools with a number of other establishments so that visits, child assessments, exchanges of staff can be arranged. For our staff, the very process of preparing to give talks and share information helps them to reflect on practice and identify the critical elements in their successes. The benefit to other children, of course, is that they can access new experiences when their teachers acquire greater understanding of their children's needs and of the specialist approaches that can meet those needs.

This is part of our ethos of being an integral part of the local educational community - schools, advisory teams, training providers, research departments - and we have a unique place within that community. We are proud of our success with the children we teach; we are committed to supporting colleagues in other centres; we know that putting the children and their families at the heart of everything we do is the right way to achieve our vision of a world in which the rights, needs and aspirations of disabled people can be met.

Tony Best
Chief Executive Officer
Percy Hedley Foundation
January 2009

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