Supporting Students at Wath Central

We are committed to ensure that all children, including those with SEND, receive support in making good progress in regards to their learning outcomes - academic, socially and emotionally.

At Wath Central, we value the importance of a nurturing ethos and a relational approach in supporting children to reach their true potential and develop as individuals. The ways in which this support is delivered is outlined below.

Our nurturing ethos and relational approach form part of the school’s Inclusion and PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) provision. There is an abundance of research evidence stating that children’s learning is most effective when they have a sense of emotional well-being, good self-esteem and a feeling of belonging to their school community. We believe that the heart of this begins within the classroom.

Therefore, at Wath Central, we see our SEMH (social, emotional and mental health) provision as being an integral part of our school’s curriculum offer. This offer looks different from child to child, and cohort of children to cohort. Some children may need access specific activities to support their SEMH during unstructured times (such as break and lunchtime) and some children will access this as part of a bespoke group as part of an intervention.

The majority of children will access this within whole class learning opportunities facilitated by their class teacher such as circle time, movement breaks and whole class discussions in combination with our Jigsaw PSHE sessions.

Our classrooms, and other work spaces, are consciously designed to be safe, calm and interesting places to learn. We consider both the learning and the sensory needs of children when creating learning spaces and aim to use the beauty that is the natural world as our inspiration throughout school.

Our classrooms are designed to be accessible for all children. Equipment is clearly labelled (including consistent visual prompts where required), storage is organised to encourage independence and a daily visual timetable is in place so all children know what to expect and when.

We have a number of areas within school where other activities and interventions can take place: The Den, The Nook, Connect Classroom, the Library Space, our Garden and the school Wilderness Areas. Some of these areas are designed to be a bridge between school and home/outside; a place where children can feel safe, secure and develop their individual needs further.

At times, children are referred by their class teacher to our Student Support Team for additional support.

These children may require specific intervention that cannot be delivered within the classroom environment. Examples of these include: specific academic interventions, emotional literacy focus work or sessions linked to communication and interaction skills (such as attention, interacting with others and turn).

At Wath Central, we carry out a variety of interventions such as:

SALT interventions
Phonics Interventions
Maths Pre/Post Learning
Play Brick Therapy
Happy in My Skin (Self-Esteem)
Gremlins (Mental Wellbeing)
Team building
Zones of Regulation
Bonding through Play

Emotion regulation is something that everyone continually works on whether we are aware of it or not. We all encounter trying circumstances that can test our limits. If we can recognize when we are becoming less regulated, we are able to do something about it to manage our feelings and get ourselves to a healthy place. This comes more naturally for some, but for others it is a skill that needs more attention, practice and sometimes explicit teaching.

At Wath Central, we use The Zones of Regulation (by Leah Kuypers) to teach the children about different feelings. We talk openly to children about how emotions come in different sizes, intensities, and levels of energy that are unique to our own brain and body.

The Zones of Regulation organises our feelings, state of alertness, and energy levels into four coloured Zones:

Blue zone - sad, sick, tired and bored
Green zone - happy, calm, focused, ok
Yellow zone - frustrated worried, silly, excited
Red zone - angry, terrified, over-excited, out of control

The simple, common language and visual structure of Zones of Regulation helps to make the complex skill of regulation more concrete for our children and those who support them.

Wath Central Primary School has been certified as a 'PremAware' School by the charity, 'The Smallest Things.'

As a school, we have carried out specific additional training regarding the additional vulnerabilities a child who was born prematurely may face, how these may present and how they can be supported in school.

School has systems in place to identify its students who were born prematurely and additional monitoring takes place regarding these children to ensure that any additional support required can be identified promptly and targeted efficiently.

External Support

We understand that for some children more specialised support is needed. We have links with a variety of different organisations each of whom are specialists in their field.

NHS - support school in carrying out height and weight checks, eyesight checks and flu vaccines. We also call on specialist services when we need to for example: the Asthma Nurse, Diabetes Nurse, Epilepsy Nurse, Occupational Therapist, Physiotherapists, Speech and Language Clinic etc.

Child Development Centre (CDC) - provide an assessment service for children under 5 who are having difficulties in more than one area of their development.

Child and Adult Mental Health Service (CAHMS) - work with children, young people and their families who are experiencing emotional wellbeing and mental health difficulties. The particular CAHMS service we work with can vary dependent on the location of the child's GP surgery.

Educational Psychologist - support schools to improve all children's experiences of learning. They use their training in psychology and knowledge of child development to assess difficulties children may be having with their learning.

WithMeInMind - provide advice and support to empower those experiencing a mental health problems.

ASPIRE – specialists in supporting children who display behavioural issues, with an understanding that behavioural issues are a form of communicating an unmet need.

Fusion Learning Support Service - support school in securing the best outcomes for children using their specialist school expertise. This support ranges from CPD for staff, observations, specific learning assessments and direct work with children or teachers.

Away with Words - provide advice and support relating to Speech and Language development.

JMAT – as a school within the James Montgomery Academy trust (JMAT) we are able to access support from highly skilled individuals within the core JMAT Team - such as our Trust SEND Lead, JMAT Trauma Informed Specialist and the JMAT Teaching and Learning Leads.