How We Develop Our Children
In addition to how Our Curriculum is used, there are a number of other means through which we develop our children during their time at The Coppice
This section contains information regarding:
SEND Information
With this section, you will find our school policy as well as general information regarding Special Educational Needs within our school setting and what we offer to our pupils and their families.
Our Special Educational Needs and Disability Co-Ordinator (SENDCO) is Mr McGarry. If you feel that you need additional support with your child’s educational needs and you would like further advice then please do not hesitate to contact the school office on 01564 826 706 and ask for either Mr McGarry or Mrs Heptinstall (SEN Outreach and Inclusion Teacher) on 01564 826 706.
Your child’s needs are important to us and through our child and family centred approach we feel that collaborative work with everyone involved in your child’s educational and healthcare journey is vital to helping them succeed with all aspects of their learning: be that social, emotional and academic skills that they may need support with.
For further guidance on what to expect, please see our SEN Information Report which outlines how we aim to identify, support and work alongside children with Special Educational Needs and their families to best support them on their unique educational journey.
Another key source of information for parents of children with SEND is the ‘Local Offer’ on Worcestershire’s website. This service helps parents/carers understand the services that can be offered to families and what families can expect from local agencies. It should help them understand how the system works, and how the local authority, local area and the school will support both your child and family. The ‘Local Offer’ can sometimes be tricky or overwhelming to navigate without prior experience so should you need any support please contact Mr McGarry on the phone number mentioned above.
Mr McGarry may involve other members of the SEND team who are as follows:
- Mrs Heptinstall - SEND Inclusion Teacher with a specialism in Autism
- Mrs Flynn - Speech and Language Lead
- Mrs Woodyatt - Medical & Family Liaison Officer and Education Welfare Officer
- Mrs Small, Miss Carter & Mrs Fletcher - Thrive Practitioners
For the latest Autumn 2021 SEND Newsletter, please click here
Safeguarding
At The Coppice Primary and Nursery School, we recognise our moral and statutory responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of all pupils. It is, without doubt, our number one priority. We endeavour to provide a safe and welcoming environment where children are respected and valued. We are alert to the signs of abuse and neglect and follow our procedures to ensure that children receive effective support, protection and justice.
Our policy regarding Safeguarding Children (including Child Protection) can be accessed below.
There are 4 main elements to our approach to safeguarding:
- Prevention - positive whole-school safeguarding culture, curriculum that has safeguarding at the core of it and safer recruitment procedures
- Protection - robust, agreed procedures, ensuring that staff are trained and supported to identify and respond appropriately and sensitively to safeguarding concerns
- Support - for pupils and staff
- Working with parents/carers and external agencies
If you have any Safeguarding/Child Protection concerns, Mr Hutt is the main contact person in school, being the school SDP (Senior Designated Person for Safeguarding). He can be contacted via the school office on 01564 826 706
The Coppice Way
'The Coppice Way' is a behaviour curriculum that teaches the children the rules, routines and habits that will ensure our school is a calm, safe, happy place where everyone has the conditions they need to learn and thrive without distraction and where everyone has equal respect for one another, both adults and children.
We believe that children need to be taught and not just told how to behave. We want to ensure that all of our children have a clear and consistent behaviour approach and expectation that they all understand. Importantly, we spend a lot of time explaining to the children WHY we have the routines, rules and expectations that we have as a school.
The whole system is based around ensuring that our children understand exactly what being ‘Ready, Responsible and Respectful’ means and what it looks like in all aspects of school life.
Our behaviour lessons form the basis of the first week of school and give detailed expectations for how children should behave in different situations around school. These lessons incorporate our whole-school rules and memorable acronyms that we are using in school every day e.g. ‘GLASS’ greetings, ‘Dress to impress’ ‘Fantastic walking’ and ‘First time every time’ so that the children hear the same consistent messages every day.
We endeavour to make our school a place where it is easy for the children to behave and hard not to. We think extremely highly of our Coppice children and genuinely believe that our behaviour culture in school can be exemplary.
Thrive
For everyone at The Coppice Primary School, our first priority is to care for every child in a secure, friendly environment.
As part of our caring role, we support children's emotional and social learning throughout their time at school. We do this during lesson times, break times and through activities such as sport and Forest School. We also use the Thrive Approach across the school.
What is the Thrive Approach?
Children cannot always put their needs into words, but the way children behave can tell us a lot about how they are feeling.
The Thrive Approach draws on the latest research from current neuroscience, recent attachment research, current studies of effective learning and current models of child development in order to help the school to understand the needs being signalled by children's behaviour. It gives us targeted strategies and activities to help them re-engage with learning and life.
Why do we need Thrive?
Unfortunately, like all of us at some point in our lives, children may face challenges that knock them off course. What is needed then is understanding and support to get them back on track. Many children will respond to the care, understanding and support given by parents, family, friends and teachers. However, some children need a little bit extra.
What extra support can The Coppice offer?
Children who need a little bit of extra help are identified through our whole-class screening process, by class teachers, or through communication with families or outside agencies. For some children there may be an obvious reason why they need a bit of extra support. This might be bereavement, family break down or an identified medical condition such as ADHD. For others, there can be no obvious trigger to why they are finding some aspects of school and/or home life difficult. For example, a child may be finding it difficult to walk into school on their own on a particular day and need the support of an adult to help or one of our Thrive dogs: Rufus and ‘M’ to help them make that transition.
Working closely with parents and class teachers, our Thrive team carry out full assessments of identified children's social, emotional and behavioural needs. This helps us to build a bespoke Thrive Action Plan of activities to support their needs.
What is a Thrive Action Plan?
A Thrive Action Plan is a plan of activities tailored to support a child's identified social and emotional learning targets. The activities are one-to-one and small group relational, play and arts-based activities designed to help the child feel better about himself; become more resilient and resourceful; form trusting, rewarding relationships; be compassionate and empathetic; and/or be able to overcome difficulties and setbacks. They might include playing in the sand, cooking, painting, model making, exploring difficult situations through role-play or comic strips, playing strategy games or projects focusing on the child's own interests.
Action Plans are shared with parents and they are encouraged to do some of the activities at home if possible. They are reviewed regularly to see the progress children have made.
So who gets Thrive?
For many children across the school, Thrive time is considered a real treat! Who wouldn't want to spend half an hour a week with the one-to-one attention of a caring adult doing play activities when the rest of their class are learning? However, we try to emphasis to everyone that Thrive is just like any other learning intervention. If children struggle with reading, we give them extra support, and it's the same with social and emotional learning, if they are struggling, they get extra support.
Everyone gets class Thrive activities (although they might not realise it); most art, sport or Forest School activities are taught within the Thrive Approach. But if your child needs regular out of class Thrive time, one-to-one or in a small group, you will be consulted and asked for your input into their assessment and Action Plan.
What makes The Coppice Primary a Thrive school?
At The Coppice we don't consider Thrive to be an intervention for just a few children done in the Thrive Room, we consider it to be a whole-school approach. We all believe that all behaviour is communication, that that communication needs to be understood and supported - not "dealt with”. Thrive feeds into everything we do; celebration assemblies, getting to know everyone and their families, sharing all achievements not just academic ones, celebrating our diversity and our collective spirit.
If you want to know more about Thrive, do visit the Thrive Approach website (external link) or speak to the Thrive team at The Coppice - Mrs Small, Miss Carter or Mrs Woodyatt.
Team Points
Using team point systems has been shown to have a positive impact on motivation and behaviour, as well as encouraging a sense of identity and belonging among school pupils.
Such systems include all pupils, not just the highest achievers, and help develop a variety of skills other than just academic. A sense of camaraderie, teamwork and healthy competition is nurtured, which contributes to a thriving school culture.
Team leaders are selected as they are positive role models across the school. They are also actively involved in building good relationships. with younger members of their team and for motivating and encouraging them.
We use praise and rewards routinely, highlighting those pupils who are going above and beyond expectations to encourage desired behaviours.
The four teams have banners in the main hall and we have a visual display showing the accumulation of points throughout the year.
Every member of staff in school also belongs to a team which helps to raise the profile of ‘belonging’ and working together.
Throughout the year we hold different events that enable the children to compete in a fun and friendly way to earn points. These include:
- Sports Day
- Times Table Challenge
- Reading Challenge
- Spelling Bee
Team points can be given out by staff verbally in class, written in books or through distributed team point cards. Class teachers keep a track of these points.
Team points are added to a class tracker and each teacher shares the team points totals with their class on a weekly basis. This helps to promote a sense of camaraderie, teamwork and healthy competition.
This then leads to a half termly celebration assembly where the top three team point earners in each class are celebrated and awarded medals (Gold, Silver and Bronze). We also celebrate the overall winning team and the team Point cup located in the library is decorated with the appropriate coloured ribbons.
The team with the most points at the end of the year wins the overall house competition.
We have team point captains in Year 6. Two captains and a vice captain for each team. These children are involved in keeping the visual tracker up to date and in demonstrating good role models around the school. They are also involved in helping to run and organise the team events.
Pupil Leadership
We encourage our children to take up roles in the school that give them opportunity to take on responsibilities whilst acting as role models to the other children in the school.
The number and variety of roles continues to increase as The Coppice grows and where new imperatives can be pursued. The key Pupil Leadership roles we have are explained further on pages accessed from the links below:
Forest School
We are really lucky to have lots of outside space for our children to learn and explore in.
Forest School is about children and young people building self esteem and independence through exploring and experiencing the natural world. Each Forest School programme is tailored to meet the needs of individuals within that group and is continuously developed as the children/young people grow in confidence, skills and understanding.
The ethos of Forest School allows learners the time and space to develop skills, interests and understanding through practical, hands-on experiences. It also allows practitioners to step back and observe the children/young people in order to then encourage and inspire individuals to achieve through careful scaffolding and facilitating.