Rocklands School Outreach Support

Our Vision

This support is provided by Rocklands School to promote change and strengthen the inclusion of children and young people with SEND in mainstream settings.

Our aim is to improve the knowledge and understanding of the needs of children with SEN and therefore improve the quality of teaching and learning for children and young people with special and additional needs in Lichfield and beyond.

We hope that by providing support and training for teachers and teaching assistants we will improve the outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs.

Our Outreach Lead is Jane Elliker (Headteacher). 

Email: headteacher@rocklands.manorhall.academy

What we do

We provide specialist training, development and support for staff in mainstream schools so that they are better equipped to help children and young people with SEND.

The service is available to mainstream schools and settings with children whose needs can be described as complex, and where a school or setting would benefit from specialist advice, usually in the short term, on how best to support them.

We can help those with children that have:

• Complex needs in the area of cognition and learning
• Profound and multiple learning difficulties
• Communication and interaction difficulties or diagnosed Autistic Spectrum Conditions
• Severe and long term emotional, social and/or mental health difficulties.

The Outreach Support offer includes:

• training on specific teaching strategies to address particular needs;
• drop-in sessions, (usually on a half-termly basis), for discussion and problem solving;
• support in the assessment of pupil needs;
• observation of pupils and suggested interventions;
• advice on current practice, including sharing concerns, enabling more successful planning for individual pupils;
• observation and feedback to teachers and support staff;
• in-reach visits to Rocklands school for staff to observe lessons and work alongside identified staff on specific issues;
• advice on differentiation to enable pupils to access the curriculum to their full potential;
• support with communication needs;
• identification of appropriate resources;
• advice around specialist materials and equipment.

Referring a child

• A school or setting can make a referral by contacting the school in the first instance by email or phone call
• Following an initial discussion, the school will then be asked to complete the request for outreach support paperwork.
• In making a request, the school or setting will need to identify a named person and allow time for the named person to liaise with the Outreach Worker.
• If the request is agreed, the Outreach Worker from Rocklands School and the named person will draw up a proposal of support outlining the type, level, frequency and duration of input.

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Monitoring and evaluation is built into the process. Feedback from the school or setting will be requested at the end of each period of outreach involvement.

Quality assurance is underpinned by the following standards:

• progress towards outcomes will be systematically recorded and monitored;
• interventions based on up-to-date specialist knowledge and expertise of suitably qualified professional staff will be promoted;
• clear outcomes will be agreed by Rocklands School and the user, and steps taken to develop a culture of independence;
• Rocklands school will regularly collect feedback about its interventions and use this to improve quality.

“I can't recommend the outreach support at Rocklands School enough. Jane offers high level, specialist support and guidance to schools for pupils who have specific needs. The strategies and ideas she provided to my school in particular were invaluable; we were able to apply them quickly and effectively within a busy mainstream classroom. This enabled the class teacher to feel supported and more empowered, and consequently allowed the pupil to operate more successfully within the classroom”.  

Julie Pilmore, Headteacher at Christ Church CE Primary School