The Woodlands School Local Offer

Woodlands is a secondary special school that caters for students from 11 – 18. We support students with a range of special needs that include Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD), Severe learning Difficulties (SLD) and pupils with ASD and complex needs.

Woodlands is situated in the North of Luton and is maintained by Luton Local Authority (LA). The Governing Body of the school is responsible for determining and administering the policy relating to the admission of students to the school.  The Governing Body is guided in that responsibility by the requirements of the law, their understanding of the school’s purpose and consultation with the Head

Teacher and Local Education Authority representatives.

Having consulted the LA and others in accordance with the requirements of the law, the Governing Body has set its planned admission number of 265 students aged 11-18 years.

Assessment

For a student to be allocated a place by the LA at Woodlands they need to have an Education, Health and Social Care Plan.

Entrance Criteria

The criteria below reflect the primary duty of our school to provide for children with severe and complex learning disabilities, within the local and national inclusive education agenda.  All children admitted to the school will have:

• Been offered a place following full consultation with the parents, children and the subsequent recommendation of the local authority Provision Panel.
• An EHC Plan naming Woodlands and describing primary learning needs within the severe and complex learning disabilities range
• The potential to achieve academic recognition within the range Level P1 to Entry Level 1/2 during their secondary school career

Student progress is recorded using SOLAR.  Students with PMLD are assessed using Routes for Learning. Those with SLD are assessed using Looking at Learning and for some, OCR accreditation. The Pathways department assess learning using Pathways criteria linked to the WISERR curriculum.

Supporting and working with parents

At Woodlands we work in partnership with parents and concerns can be discussed with the Family Workers, the Class Teacher and staff and the Department Leaders. At all times we strive to involve parents in the education of their child and there is daily contact through the home/school email, parents' evenings to discuss progress, an Annual Review and End of Year reports.

Additional support provided in school

The school works closely with health care professionals and external agencies including School Nurses, Speech and Language Therapists, CAMHs, Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Educational Psychologists, the Visual and Hearing Impairment team.

The school offers extensive therapeutic support including music, art, counselling and sensory integration therapy to individual pupils and small groups according to need.  This is allocated through an internal referral process and is needs driven. Hydrotherapy and Rebound therapy are part of the curriculum offer for students who require it.

Staff Training

All the staff undertake a rigorous induction programme including Safeguarding, Team Teach and Moving and Handling Training. The school has an on-going training programme to ensure the needs of all students are fully met and that the school keeps pace with emerging technologies.

Transition

The school works closely with the transition team from the LA to ensure that parents and students are well prepared and informed about the choices available to them when they leave school.