Outreach

Introduction

Hebden Green School is an all age special school which provides outstanding education for children and young people with a variety of complex needs including, medical, physical, communication and associated learning needs. We are very proud of our Outstanding provision and strive to share our teams skills and expertise our into the wider community for the benefit of all pupils with additional needs.

We are the lead school within a Teaching Schools Alliance and work closely with each of our partner specialist schools and with the other Special schools within Cheshire West who also provide Outreach services within the authority.

Who provides the support?

Our Outreach consultants are practising teachers and teaching assistants who are skilled and experienced within the field of SEN. They are all currently working within one of our Foundation stage or Pathway classes and this ensures their knowledge and expertise is current and that we have a wealth of skill sets to draw on to ensure we can meet the needs of any provision that we are requested to attend.

Who do we support?

The Outreach service at Hebden Green is commissioned by the relevant Local Authority.  We support Early Years providers and mainstream schools in providing a fully integrated and inclusive provision to pupils with special educational needs. Advice and support is provided at no additional cost to the receiving school. Hebden Green Outreach service offers support to both the school / Nursery, as a whole, and / or to individual pupils.

The Outreach Process

The majority of our Outreach work is referred to us through the Early Years Specialist Team in Cheshire West. Firstly, an initial baseline consultation will take place involving the SENCO/ Keyworker and/or class teacher. This will determine the package of support to be offered by our Outreach service. From this meeting, an agreement will be made with the school/ Nursery and clear outcomes identified linked to the pupils Action for Inclusion (where appropriate) Our prime aim is to support the work of the multi professionals who are already working with the child and the targets they have already set. A consultation report will be written and sent to schools/Nurseries. The package of support, as outlined in the report, is intended to help the school develop their own resources to meet the needs of the pupil.

The Outreach team will then visit the provision weekly initially and moving to fortnightly when appropriate. The targets that were set in the initial visit will then be worked on during a 6 week period. Over this time the aims of the service are to support the provision to lead on the strategies advised, create their own resources and alter their own environment as appropriate.

The Outreach service exists to facilitate best practice teaching in the Early Years; to model, up-skill and empower others to provide an Outstanding provision for their own pupils. At the end of the 6 weeks the Outreach team and the provision will evaluate how the joint working has enabled progress towards the targets set and identify next steps. These next steps then become the focus of the following 6 week package.

Alternative Support

When provisions access the Outreach service they will also have access to :

• Open sessions at Hebden Green School to gain further understanding of teaching and learning for children with SEN
• Visits to Hebden Green to observe practitioners model strategies and to gain ideas for resources
• Bespoke training sessions for the Nursery or School
• Continuous email support
• Example resources
• Signposts to agencies, resources and approaches
• Information booklets and guides

Stay and Play

In addition to the Outreach provision we are also commissioned by the authority to deliver a Stay and Play session for families in the community to access. Families with a child/children with additional needs can request directly to the school or be referred through their Health visitor. We provide an afternoon of activities within one of Foundation Stage classes. The session is led by members of our Foundation Stage team and support by our Family Support Advisor. Families are given the opportunity to play with their children, talk to practitioners about strategies they could use at home and socialise with other parents and families. We also offer parent sessions and talks from different groups who come into school such as 'Contact a family', 'Young carers' etc.

Referral

Currently the majority of our referrals come through the request of the Early Years Specialist Support team in Cheshire West but as a school we can support schools by their own request through our Teaching School Alliance.

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