Faqs
Send Information advice and support service
| Name of the school | Moorbrook School | Date of completion | 06/03/18 |
1 | Type of school and specialism's/ independent / maintained | Moorbrook is a special, maintained SEMH (Social, emotional and mental health) school.
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2 | How many children attend the school? | Moorbrook currently has 33 pupils. | ||
3 | How big are the classes?
| There are a maximum of 8 pupils per class. | ||
4 | The school day - start, break, lunch and end times | The school day begins at 8:45; there are lessons until 10:30 where there is a 10 minute break. Lunch is from 12:15 until 12:55. The school day finishes at 2:30 when taxis arrive. | ||
5 | What support is available in the classroom?(Teacher / TA's) | There is a teacher and a teaching assistant (TA) in each classroom. There are sometimes dedicated 1:1 TAs as an extra in classrooms. Care and guidance staff are available for any issues which take pupils out of class. | ||
6 | How are the classes organised?(Age/ability) | Classes are currently organised in year group order. So; there are year 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 classes. | ||
7 | Do the children move round school to subject classrooms or stay mainly in one classroom? | The school runs as a mainstream school would, with pupils moving to each classroom which is equipped with the subject specific resources available. The computing room can be booked out for cross curricular lessons such as researching skills and extended writing. | ||
8 | Are the classes open plan/ individual classrooms? | Each classroom is tied to a subject area and as such has seating arrangements which can be organised to suit the group learning needs. | ||
9 | What teaching approaches are used? Whole class, small groups/ individual 1 to 1? | Pupils are taught in class sizes of no more than 8. Pupils are also taught in smaller groups or 1 to1 when needed. Pupils also have access to off-site provisions which suit each individual pupils needs. Intervention sessions are also available. | ||
10 | Transition and visits prior to starting? How are children introduced to the school? Are these flexible and individual depending on need | Pupils are invited to visit the school with their parents/guardians. If they choose to attend Moorbrook School we organise a phased induction which is matched to each pupil’s current need. School systems and routines are introduced to ensure that the transition is as smooth as possible. | ||
11 | Will staff from the school be able to visit the existing placement? | The KS3 coordinator and the Family Support Worker visit the pupil’s current placement during year 6 as part of the induction process. | ||
12 | Can staff liaise with people already directly involved with your child? | Keyworkers or relevant people in school will liaise with any multi agency professionals involved with your child. | ||
15 | Have staff in school have expertise in teaching children with the same difficulties? Do school buy specialist support in? | Staff have extensive knowledge of teaching children with a range of difficulties. Staff regularly update their training to keep up to date with the best practise for each pupil. | ||
16 | Does school have access to speech, physiotherapists and or occupational therapists? | Through the annual review process and EHC plans pupils with these needs can be identified. School can apply to these services if needed. | ||
17 | Does the SENCO have any non-teaching time and do they provided any of the support? | The SENCO has lessons identified for providing support and attending meetings. | ||
18 | How does the school show pupils achievements? Are the parents and child consulted and how often are they reviewed? | Parents are welcome to attend parent’s afternoon in the summer term. Achievements are also fed back through annual reviews along with weekly keyworker contact. When the need arises, positive texts home are also sent home at the end of the day. Each pupil also receives an interim report at the end of each term and an annual report. Keyworkers and pupils also review their progress independently through specific individual targets which earns the pupils points. |
19 | How would the school involve parents in addition to being part of the review process? | Parents are contacted weekly via keyworker phone calls. Additional meetings can be set up when needed. |
20 | Are all staff involved in teaching the child made aware of their difficulties and if so how? | Due to being a small SEMH school we have a close relationship with each pupil. We are aware of all students needs, and are trained to deal with them accordingly. |
21 | Is homework compulsory? Will it be differentiated and will allowances be made if the child struggles with this? | Homework is not compulsory; however students are encouraged to extend their learning through extra activities at home if they wish. This has in the past included online competitions with fun mathematics games (SumDog) and pupils being encouraged to read and complete higher level work around topics to extend their knowledge in these areas. |
22 | Would the distance from home be an issue? Transport? What happens and who is there to help? | Transport is arranged by the local authority. There will be a taxi provided that will collect your child in the morning and drop them off at home after school. Pupils are greeted as soon as they arrive on the taxi, and are supervised back onto the taxi at the end of the day. Some taxis have escorts that support the pupils during their journey.
Obviously if you wish to drop your child off and pick then this is perfectly fine and we can arrange this with you. Similarly if your child is able and confident enough to walk/bike to school themselves then this is fine too. |
23 | Do the children wear school uniform, is it provided by school? | The children wear a uniform that comprises of:
The uniform is not provided by the school; however polo shirts and school jumpers can be purchased with school logos on from the school reception. |
24 | What sort of facilities does the school provide in terms of space, equipment, materials, specialist classrooms, computers etc? | The school is comprised of 12 classrooms with specialist classrooms for Mathematics, English, Science, BTEC Sport and PSHE. We also have a brand new Food Technology room and new Computer Suite.
Onsite we also have an indoor sports hall, 2 grass football pitches and 2 hard courts for football and basketball.
All classrooms now have computers and some even have computers at the back for pupils to use. |
25 | Are there sensory rooms, time out facilities or peace rooms and where are they? What de-escalation methods are used? | All our staff are trained in de-escalation techniques and we regularly cover this during staff training. We have work rooms and peace rooms for pupils who feel they need to work independently or need somewhere to use self-calming techniques. The methods used will be individual to the child and will be based on recommendations from their EHCP plan, previous schools, conversations with parents and teachers knowing each pupil well.
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26 | Are there any after school activities? | Unfortunately we are unable to provide after school clubs due to the complex transport arrangements.
We do however provide plenty of opportunity during the school week to complete extra-curricular activities. For example we still compete against other schools in football and other sports during the school day. We also provide the opportunity for pupils to earn an activity of their choice on a Friday afternoon. |
27 | What are the arrangements for lunch and break times? Are there any clubs, safe places etc? | All students have lunch at the same time which is 12:15. When they have finished their lunch, they have a number of options which they can access e.g. Football, ICT, Library or they can choose to sit in the work room. Staff is always on hand if they want to talk. |
29 | How is contact between home and school facilitated? Who is the first point of contact? | Before joining the school, allocated key workers will arrange a home visit and school visit to get to know the family. Each pupil has a key worker who will make phone calls home each Thursday to give feedback on how their week has gone. The first point of contact would be the pupil’s key worker. |
31 | Can the parents talk to other parents of children already attending the school? | If required, meetings can be arranged with the two parents who are representatives on the board of governors. |
