Newcastle Bridges School Context
Newcastle Bridges School (NBS) is a multi-site (4 main educational sites) Foundation Special School for 170 students. Our "catchment" is generally regional and in some units national/international. The vast majority of students are dual registered with the mainstream school retaining responsibility for the student and NBS being the subsidiary school.
Most students have significant or substantial mental health/medical issues which impacts significantly upon their capacity to learn and progress.
Departments of Newcastle Bridges School:
NBS at the Alnwood - A national medium secure psychiatric provision for adolescents who have severe mental health issues, learning disabilities and have been detained under the Mental Health Act. Many students have not attended school during the statutory period and have consequently under achieved significantly. This is a 22 bedded unit.
· Students admitted to Alnwood can have any diagnosis of mental health and may have committed the worst of crimes.
· Over the last couple of years the unit has seen a change in the nature and complexities of admissions. Alnwood now has a much larger female population, who are notoriously harder to manage in such institutions. There has also been a rise in the number of patients admitted with emerging personality disorders.
· The impact of these changes has meant it is far harder to engage the young people and the wards experience a far higher level of risk and violence which in turn impacts significantly on attendance in education.
· The majority of students have previously not had positive experiences of education. Many have a long history of attendance in several social services/health settings before being referred to Alnwood. Developing relationships and building self-esteem is an initial priority and is key to any long term academic progress.
NBS at the Great North Children’s Hospital (and Freeman Hospital’s Heart and Lung Ward) - Hospital ward teaching for all statutory school aged students. Students attending are mostly tertiary referrals for specialist Health departments, e.g. Burns, Oncology, Renal Dialysis and Acquired Brain Injury. Some students e.g. those with acquired brain injuries, face a future very different from their previous life. For such students prior attainment may no longer be useful and due to the nature of the condition fluctuations in ability may occur for a considerable period of time before stabilisation. Referrals are regional, national and occasionally international.
· Students are taught from day one if they are eligible, but the difficulty of educating children in hospital is due to the varied lengths of stay and being able to maintain consistent access due to the priorities of medical needs.
· The curriculum is initially sought from home schools and is very bespoke.
NBS at Ferndene - Psychiatric Unit teaching on two sites, these provisions are at Ferndene which is the main site and the Complex Neuro-Developmental Service (CNDS) at Walkergate Hospital. Students attending Children and Young Peoples Service (CYPS) facilities are Tier 4 mental health referrals and have significant problems requiring specialised input, e.g. learning disabilities and difficulties, Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Psychosis, self-harming behaviours. Ferndene has 40 beds (one ward is low secure) and Walkergate takes up to 8 children at any one time for initial assessment with respect to Pervasive Developmental Delay. Referrals to Ferndene are national. The complexity of patients on the different wards gives rise to different challenges in respect to educational engagement and priorities.
· Students on the Redburn ward are short stay with a focus on returning to their mainstream school. The educational priority is therefore often the transitional process. On admission patients are often acutely unwell and cannot attend education.
· Students on the Ridings ward are short stay patients with PMLD on an assessment placement (medical. Students have individualised curricula.
· On Fraser and Stephenson wards the patients are longer stay often with complex behavioural and social difficulties and have been categorised as having a learning disability. Like Alnwood developing relationships and building self-esteem are the priority on admission.
In all the hospital provisions students are often too sick to engage with education for the first few weeks of an admission and may be too ill subsequently for periods of time.
NBS at Benfield- this is a secondary age provision for anxious and vulnerable students, pregnant school girls and school-aged mothers. There is an attached nursery for children of the school-aged mothers’. Most typically these students have prior histories of very poor school attendance with most having CAHMS involvement. This provision is for up to 80 students with most referrals coming from Newcastle schools.
Community Teaching which is based within the Benfield provision caters for those students unable to attend their mainstream school because of illness. Referrals are received from medical and psychiatric professionals with most students too unwell to access full time education. Students are taught in their homes, community centres or in small groups at Benfield.
· There has been a significant reduction in the number of teenage mothers over the last five years. As a result over 90% of students being anxious or vulnerable. There are a substantial number of students involved with Children’s Social Care, several of whom are at significant risk regarding their safety.
· Most of the vulnerable and anxious students are referred because of extremely poor attendance. In the first instance it is a priority to establish better patterns of attendance. In the majority of cases attendance has been improved significantly.
· Although this is the school’s most “mainstream” group, attainment is markedly lower than national averages due to the impact of long term poor attendance and mental health issues. Significant work must be done to integrate, build relationships, and get to understand the extent of the issues facing the individual students. This takes time and is very dependent on the individual. This has to take priority and may impact on progress in the short term.
· Within Community Teaching there has been a significant increase in primary referrals.
Student Population Profile Table (C1)
% / 13-14 / 14-15 / 15-16Total No. of Students / 644 / 642 / 649
Dual registered / 92 / 93 / 94
Female / 47 / 52 / 49
Male / 53 / 48 / 51
Statemented/EHCP / 19 / 16 / 16
SA or SA+ / 13 / 13 / 6
White British / 92 / 88 / 87
BME / 0.71 / 6 / 7
EAL / 0.48 / 3.1 / 4.9
Other LA / 72 / 70 / 70
LAC / 3.3 / 5.6 / 7
Died / 0.11 / 1 / 1.2
EYFS / 6 / 3 / 2
KS1 / 13 / 12 / 10
KS2 / 17 / 18 / 23
KS3 / 24 / 18 / 20
KS4 / 27 / 34 / 27
Post 16 / 13 / 15 / 18
% / 13-14 / 14-15 / 15-16
No Benfield Students / 123 / 125 / 131
Social Care / 20 / 16 / 24
FSM / 47 / 46 / 61
Pregnant/mothers / 7 / 5 / 5
Student Premium / 49 / 48 / 64
Mobility
Average % Student Mobility by siteAlnwood / 62
Ferndene / 94
GNCH / 100
Benfield / 54
13-14 / 14-15 / 15-16
% NBS Student Mobility / 76 / 79.5 / 77.5
Table C2 shows that within year mobility is a significant issue for the school and presents many challenges with regard to ensuring student progress. The level of mobility varies from site to site as seen in Table C3 (and from ward to ward within those sites).
· Alnwood-the average length of stay is 12-15 months
· GNCH - student stay varies from a few days to several months. With frequently recurring students this may be over many years, but could refer to several short admissions.
· Ferndene - length of stay varies significantly from ward to ward,
o Ridings ~3 months
o Redburn~40 days
o Fraser~a year
o Stephenson~ up to 18 months
· Benfield - registration varies from as little as two terms to four years (Community Teaching varies from a weeks to years)
Index of Multiple Deprivation
The demographic of NBS does not mirror that of Newcastle City, as a large proportion of our students are regional and national referrals. Table C4 represents the demographic of students at NBS using IMD as the identifying criteria. Approximately one third of students come from the 20% most deprived localities in the United Kingdom The impact of this demographic is that aspirations, self-esteem are low and as tables C5 and C6 show baseline attainment is well below national norms.
IMD Group / Rank / Students / %10% Most deprived / 3248.2 / 142 / 22%
20% / 6496.4 / 76 / 12%
30% / 9744.6 / 92 / 14%
70% / 22737.4 / 204 / 31%
70-100% Least Deprived / - / 136 / 21%
Total / - / 650 / 100%
Typical Baseline Attainment Data on entry to NBS
Baseline information is initially requested from "home schools" where relevant. If none is available staff will use a selection of methods to establish baselines. Attainment on entry to our school is varied. Due to the nature of referrals many of our long term students have missed significant amounts of schooling prior to engagement with our school.
Other factors that have affected school organisation since our last inspection:
· The school underwent a reassignment of Teaching and Learning Responsibilities in September 2012. This was as a result of a reduction in the proportion of long stay/frequently recurrent KS1&2 students over time the vast majority of whom are now short stay. Table C5 shows current proportions of long stay/frequently recurrent students by Key Stage.
Key Stage / %EYFS/KS1&2 / 35
KS3&4 / 47
Post 16 / 18
· The formation of the Compass Trust with 3 of Newcastle’s special schools in September 2013
· Major reorganisation of the staffing structure in September 2014
· Appointment of a new Headteacher in 2016 and a new senior leadership team in 2015/16
· Appointment of new subject co-ordinators in English, Science, Maths & ICT/Computing
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ACHIEVEMENT / Judgement / 1There is outstanding achievement across the school with regard to both academic and personal development. Students work hard towards their individual targets and are enthusiastic to achieve rewards. In lessons students show this in a number of ways, they co-operate, take an active part, support each other, share, value and are respectful towards each other.
At the Benfield site termly targets are set and reviewed for all subjects. Chart A1 shows that the vast majority of students are making progress towards their targets.
In the hospital settings each student is given a bespoke curriculum to meet their individual need. All students in the hospitals are set sessional targets and these are recorded on the Individual Learning Plan (ILP). These targets are recorded daily for all students’ in all sessions. Chart A2 shows the vast majority of hospital based students meet or make progress towards their individual sessional targets.
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The school also uses a student profile criteria to measure progress overtime in respect to the students’ well-being and ability to function socially. Chart A6 shows the progress made measured using the student profile.
The school has received Student Premium funding since 2012-13. The majority of student premium funding is generated by students at Benfield .Table A8 and A8(a) shows that the gap has narrowed significantly. In 2014-15 we introduced 1:1 literacy and numeracy interventions to this group which had a major impact
Whole School % Students Making Progress / 13-14 / 14-15 / 15-16PP / All / Gap / PP / All / Gap / PP / All / Gap
Expected or better / 54 / 69.5 / -15.5 / 69 / 71 / -2 / 76 / 79.5 / -3.5
Leavers % Students Making Progress / 13-14 / 14-15 / 15-16
PP / All / Gap / PP / All / Gap / PP / All / Gap
Expected or better / 55.7 / 43.1 / 12.6 / 76.9 / 79 / -2.1 / 90 / 87.5 / 2.5
It is integral to the school that students are encouraged to read in all subject areas to supplement students skills, to encourage reluctant readers and to develop a love of reading for pleasure.
With this in mind the school embarked on several different projects.
· To establish libraries on all sites with a good range of age appropriate accessible books so that all students can use them.
· Engagement with the Readwell charity at GNCH
· Introduction of Accelerated Reading across the school (2012-14), using the principles of AR thereafter
The Readwell charity supply books termly and also a storyteller who attends each half term and provides stimulating experiences for students. Also the charity provides sessions where the students can be exposed to real authors. This occurs at the GNCH and we send students from the Benfield site when appropriate.
The Accelerated Reading scheme was introduced in 2012 and initially proved successful but due to the changes in testing procedures the students became dis-enfranchised. However, the principles of scheduled reading slots has been continued and each provision has adapted to best meet the with the student population. As a consequence of the positive reading culture, students at Ferndene requested a library within the teaching area that has been developed with the support of our Health partners to produce a fabulous resource.
1:1 literacy interventions are used to help the poorest readers and spellers to improve. We are using WRAT 4 across the school as this provides an in-depth screening for all students but also is robust when requesting special arrangements.
Literacy and numeracy targets are set across the school. Students are successful in achieving these targets as seen in Table A9.
% Targets achieved or progress towards / 12-13 / 13-14 / 14-15Literacy / 92 / 81 / 88
Numeracy / 86 / 96 / 84
There are students in the EYFS across the school, but on the Benfield and Kenton sites we have nurseries for the babies of current and past students and also private places. Table A10 shows the average improvement over the seven areas of the EYFS the three key areas being highlighted.