Mainstream school outreach

Cherry Garden School provides an outreach service for mainstream schools to support them with children with complex learning differences.  This does not include children with a diagnosis of autism, who are supported by the Autism Support Team.

The support given varies depending on the needs of the child and the school, and may include any of the following:

• Observation and consultation: getting a picture of the child and discussing with the Inclusion Manager, Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator, teacher and support staff strategies which would further support their learning.
• Modelling and coaching: introducing strategies, programmes or types of activity that will support the child, and training support staff in using them effectively.
• In School Training: the outreach teacher may offer training directly to the school or refer them to the training programme at Cherry Garden.
• Training:  a range of courses are offered throughout the year.  For further information see below.
• Planning: planning individually for the child with the teacher, based on individual targets for the child.
• Assessment: especially using the Cherry Garden Branch Map assessment system, which many schools across Southwark are adopting in place of the old P Levels.
• Inclusion: involving the child in collaborative work with peers.
• Working with other professionals: e.g. working collaboratively with the speech and language therapist on a child’s communication.
• Input into Annual Reviews or Team Around the Child meetings.
• Supporting transition from nursery to school and between key stages.
• Specialist groups: see below

The support is generally given in a block of visits, but the teacher may return to see the child at a later date at the request of the school, for example, to support with transition to the next year group. The outreach teacher’s records of their visits are shared with the school and the local authority, and the schools can also pass them on to the parents or use them to input into a child’s Education, Health and Care Plan.

How to refer a child for support

Criteria for Cherry Garden Outreach support are:

• The child has significant learning differences which mean that the class teacher cannot meet his/her needs within the normal differentiation of the class.
• The school require specialist input to support the child to progress within their own goals, be included in the mainstream class and have their needs met.
• The child is in year R- year 6 in a mainstream primary school in Southwark. Children in Nursery may also receive outreach support, if they are in a nursery school or a school-based nursery, and the outreach teacher has capacity.
• The child does not have a diagnosis of autism.
• The ECHP may be in place, in process or not yet started.

The outreach service is free for maintained schools in Southwark. Academies/ Free Schools will be invoiced by Southwark LA for Cherry Garden Outreach at the end of the block of support.

Please do get in touch with us if you have any questions or would like any kind of support or training from us.  If you want training that we are not currently running, email us and we will see if we can help!

If you are a school SENCO and you would like to refer a particular child for support, please fill in this ‘Request for Support’ form and return it to Anna Parsons by email.

Children can also be referred to the outreach team through Southwark’s SEN department.
All referrals are subject to approval by Southwark’s SEN department and need parental approval.
(NB: support for autistic children is provided through Southwark’s Autism Support Team, so any referrals for children on the ASC spectrum should go to them).

Parent Support Advisor

Our parent support advisor arranges regular ‘Cherry Chat’ mornings for parents to get together and create a support network for parents. There are also regular training sessions organised for parents on a range of topics such as toileting, sensory play, sleep routines, Makaton and communication. These are all free to attend for our parents.

As well as our open door policy across the school, there are organised class mornings or afternoons for parents to attend their child’s class and share in their learning activities.

As well as group events, the Parent Support Advisor is also available for 1:1 consultations to help parents with filling in application forms, applying for support from outside agencies or making resources such as symbols for home. Parents can contact the school to arrange a time to come in for support.

Learning at Home

The Learning portal has a range of videos and learning resources which can be used by parents at home to support their child’s development. During the Christmas, Easter and Summer breaks, our Learning Support Advisor also offers additional packs of resources which provide ideas and resources for home learning and fun activities to share with your child at home.

As a a school, we use the Read Write Inc phonics programme. Pupils who are working on this in school are supported to continue this work at home with their families through practice videos sent via Tapestry.

Reading Project

We launched this project in January 2020, with the ambitious aim to get all children with Down’s Syndrome in Southwark primary schools reading this year.  Children with Down’s Syndrome in Cherry Garden and mainstream Southwark schools are all using the same approach.  We are using a research-based approach that has been proven to work well with children with Down’s Syndrome (it starts with learning high-meaning sight words that are quickly transferred to sentences and personalised books).

We ran a workshop for parents, and another one for professionals, to launch the project and run follow up workshops each year.  The teachers and TAs are part of an email group together.

Training

We offer a range of training courses throughout the year, with the aim of sharing with other schools and professionals some of what we do at Cherry Garden.

We try to keep the cost of courses as low as possible (or even, in the case of twilight moderation sessions or Makaton refreshers, free) so that we can share our practice and expertise in SEN as widely as possible.

Courses vary. Click here for the up to date list on our Eventbrite page.

We regularly run the following:

• Branch Map Assessment training: Branch Maps is an assessment system, developed by Cherry Garden and available absolutely free to other schools in paper form, or electronically via the app Tapestry.  Teachers are finding it child-centred, well devised and excellent for ongoing formative assessment and target setting, and it is already being used across Southwark and in different parts of the country as well.  We regularly run a 2 hour online training in Branch Maps, and host twilight moderation sessions for teachers to come together to talk about specific children, to support each other and check consistency of their assessments.
• Branch Map project: This is a project where a group of schools are receiving more in-depth support and training around using Branch Maps.
• Makaton training: As a school, we have two qualified Makaton Tutors. We regularly deliver training (Level 1, 2 and Refreshers, and sometimes more advanced training as well) to professionals and parents.
• SEN Toolkit training: A really practical course, giving SENCO’s/Teachers/TA’s a chance to learn strategies to enhance language and communication, independent learning, planning and assessment, and to spend time in classes seeing these strategies in action.
• Cherry Experience Mornings: aimed at staff from mainstream schools.  This is an opportunity for them to receive some training in SEN provision and what we do here at Cherry, as well as spending time in a Cherry Garden class to see those things in action, and give them ideas that they can take back to school.
• Bespoke Training: We are able to draw on a range of expertise within the Outreach Team and the rest of the school to devise bespoke training packages on request.