A DERBY special school has been invited to join up with other special schools around the country; as part of the National Network of Special Teaching Schools, to help lead the way for the Oak National Academy to launch a new specialist curriculum for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The Oak National Academy; backed by the Department for Education, is a virtual home-learning platform set up two weeks ago in response to the coronavirus crisis which hosts 180 free lessons a week, and can be viewed by schoolchildren from Reception age through to Year 10.
But, until now, there had been no provision for pupils with SEND.
St Giles School – the city’s only special primary school –were invited to support with leading on the subject ‘language and communication’.
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Teachers Becky Ball and Jessica Griffiths have been busy producing material for the bite-size lessons, which will be filmed so that parents and carers of children with SEND can access them online.
Clive Lawrence, executive head teacher at the Ofsted-rated ‘outstanding’ school, said: “It all started through me receiving a random phone call one late Saturday evening when I was at home with my family having a take-out. The call was from a well-respected SEND Advisor, asking if we could help in anyway. It was a real surprise to receive such a phone call and without any hesitation I said absolutely yes we can help! It then moved very quickly from that point onwards and we’ve had to work around the clock to get things up and running”
More than 20 teachers and therapists from special schools nationally have worked together on this content, making sure that those pupils with SEND are catered for during this difficult time.
“It is a huge honour to be a part of the Oak National Academy and I’d like to thank Becky and Jess; teachers at St. Giles, for agreeing to be filmed on behalf of our school and the National Network of Special Teaching Schools.”
“Rob Sherwood, our deputy head and director of our teaching school, has worked with staff at St Giles and those as part of the National Network of Special Teaching Schools, to coordinate various aspects of this project; especially the technical side of things. His commitment and ability to work under immense pressure and at such a rapid speed is real testament of his leadership skills and abilities.
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“It has, though, been a real team effort ‘backstage’ with staff spending several hours –many working until gone midnight – on making resources, re-recording lessons, editing videos and much more. Particular thanks should also go to teachers Lisa Mitchell, Karen Brownhill, Ben Langhorne and Tom Few, who have been supporting Rob, Becky and Jess behind the scenes at St. Giles.
“Collectively we have a strong and hardworking staff team at St. Giles; along with a very proactive wider school community. Over the years this has resulted in us being well-recognised and respected locally and nationally as a SEND Teaching School. Our outstanding reputation for SEND practice has certainly enable us to be invited to be part of such an exciting piece of work.”
During its first week the Oak National Academy, which has been backed by a government grant of £300,000, had delivered lessons to more than two million school pupils. The lessons currently available on the Oak National Academy website have been viewed more than four million times. Each lesson available on the Oak National Academy website follows the national curriculum which mainstream schools in the UK observe. Subjects available include mathematics, art, science and languages.
It is the Government’s response to the Coronavirus outbreak and is designed to fit alongside other resources, such as BBC Bitesize, offering a structure to the day until schools fully reopen.
New lessons will be uploaded each week, with the ‘specialist’ section of the Oak National Academy covering language and communication, numeracy, early cognition and reasoning, independent living, creative arts and speech, language, occupation and physical therapy.
Most areas will require adult support.
“For each subject there will be a two-minute introduction,” added Mr Lawrence, “and for the pupils who attend St Giles School, it will be nice seeing Rob, Becky and Jess on the computer screen in front of them.
“There will be very few schools and members of staff who will be able to say that, during their career, they contributed to helping as best as possible, millions of children and their families during a world-wide state of emergency – and for that, we are very proud of the St Giles School community and to be a part of the National Network of Special Teaching Schools.”
The Oak National Academy specialist curriculum launches nationally on Monday, May 4.
ENDS
For further information please contact Kerry Ganly on 07734 723951 or email kerry@penguinpr.co.uk
