Schools working with

Clinicians – A best practice

model’ Justine Sims Head Teacher Pontville School

A collegiate approach at Pontville

Independent Specialist Residential and Day School supporting 105 children

and young people aged 5 to 19 with social communication difficulties, ASD

and ADHD

Team of onsite therapists including SALTs, Occupational Therapists,

Educational Psychologists and Mental Health Practitioners

‘The collegiate approach which is taken across the whole school is strong.

The school is ably supported by a strong multi-faceted clinical team who

use their expertise to support pupils and upskill the whole staff team. The

contribution made by all staff is valued and strong systems are in place to

ensure staff are able to work together to meet pupil needs in an effective

and consistent way.’ NAS Autism Accreditation 2017 Area of strength

Being part of the team

A member of the clinical team is part of our Senior Management Team

All therapists are linked to Key Stages from KS1 through to KS5

Every member of the therapy team has identified classes and caseloads –

this is shared across the school so education and care staff know who to go

to for support and guidance

Our clinical team have a shared office space on site at Pontville. This allows

for collaborative work and conversations between the therapists

Shared planning

Therapists and education staff plan sessions and lessons together

Social communication sessions are delivered by therapists and supported

by education staff so that key themes can continue to be delivered across

the week

Our PHSE lead and Speech and Language Therapists plan a social

communication foci for each week which goes across the year which is

shared across the school. Teachers then include these in their planning and

delivery across all curriculum areas

Our occupational therapist and speech and language therapist deliver a

combined messy play session to our primary pupils which is planned and

shared with the class team

Team Around the Child

Internal Team Around the Child meetings:

Ensure effective sharing of information about the child, young person or family to underpin on-going work, improve consistency and coordination in the services delivered

Helps to bring a multi-disciplinary approach to supporting a child, young person and family

All key staff who work with the child attend and contribute into the meeting

The child/young person also contributes to the iTAC process

The meeting allows for successes to be shared and new strategies to support to be discussed

Actions are reviewed at each meeting to ensure that support and progress continues for the young person and support can be adjusted where needed

Team Around the Child

Care Education

Therapy Child/Young

Person

'ITAC'

Support outside the classroom

Young people have individual 1:1 therapy sessions

These take place in agreement with the young person at their preferred

time where possible

We have a variety of spaces to support individual sessions both inside the

building as well as outside

Therapeutic relationships can take a period of time to develop. Having the

team onsite allows for flexibility in developing these relationships at the child

or young person’s pace

Education staff can identify young people to the clinical team who may

benefit from therapy sessions

Strategies to support the whole class

Often strategies that are identified to support an individual pupil will benefit the whole class

For example; step by step tasks, clearly displayed rules, checking off completed tasks, movement breaks

At Pontville our learning environments are designed to provide clear structure, low arousal, low distraction and calm places to learn. Our therapy team alongside our education staff will undertake classroom audits to ensure that every environment meets the set criteria to support learning.

Paired observations of lessons with education and clinical staff take place across the year to evaluate the promotion of small group work and independent learning. This allows for professional conversations to take place and the identification of best practice and further support where necessary

Staged approaches to supporting

pupils

Post admission our young people have a 12 week review where education,

care and linked therapists contribute to the review and this enables future

planning and support to take place based on the both educational and

therapy assessments

Often our young people will have a longlist of strategies to be implemented

into lessons

Working with the therapy team to priorities strategies can prevent a young

person from becoming overloaded

This also is the case for individual therapy sessions. By having an open

dialogue between the clinical team as well as the education and care

team we can effectively plan together to best support the young person’s

individual priority needs

Using strategies that support the

whole school

The clinical therapy team upskill education and care staff by regular and

focused training including bespoke training tied into classwork

observations, assessment of pupils or following requests from staff

All new staff to Pontville as part of their induction process have a 6 week

package of training of an introduction to the different therapies

By training other members of staff the clinical team are then able to

develop further approaches and techniques which in turn may be rolled

out across the school

Strong communication systems across the school to information share and

promote collaborative working

Working together for success –

Sensory Garden project

Working party including education, clinical and care staff developed the

ideas and plans to create a sensory garden

We used a training day to dig, plant, build, create and upcycle for the

sensory garden

Pupils continued after the day to complete the project giving them a sense

of ownership

The sensory garden has many uses now including individual therapy

sessions, a creative learning environment and just a fantastic place to be

outside for our young people

Work together was definitely successful!

Working together for success

Working together for success

Working together for success

Working together for success

Working together for success

Working together for success

Working together for success