Teaching and Learning
Camberwell Park School caters for children with a wide range of special educational needs and disabilities. All of the children at the school have difficulties with cognition and learning with the majority having severe learning difficulties. Some of our children have profound and multiple difficulties, social communication difficulties including Autistic Spectrum Disorders and/or have multi-sensory impairments.
The children are at the heart of Camberwell Park School and learning and teaching strategies are matched to their individual needs. This includes:
- Ensuring an appropriate classroom learning environment matched to the needs of the pupils
- Small class groups with high staffing ratios to enable a high percentage of individual and small group support for learning
- Highly trained and skilled staff who are experienced in working with children with a wide range of learning difficulties and disabilities
- The provision of highly specialist teaching and learning strategies and breadth of resources to match the individual needs of all learners.
- A differentiated curriculum which is matched to the needs of all of our learners
- Consistent implementation of total communication strategies, that is, use of signing, symbols and communication technology in addition to the spoken word.
- Regular advice and support from a wide range of therapists including speech and language, physiotherapists and occupational therapists.
Our classes – meeting the needs of our learners
There are range of classes spread across two sites. Our younger pupils and pupils with severe or limiting medical conditions are based in our Oak building. Our older pupils are based in our Sycamore buiilding. Children are grouped according to their age & their needs. Some of our children need more specialised learning environments in the school. The classrooms therefore vary slightly as they are matched to the age and needs of the children. This includes classes where pupils have quite varied learning needs and more specialist classes for children with social communication difficulties or profound and multiple learning difficulties.
Each year we review our class groups in the context of the children that have left our school and our new intake ensuring that the class groups meet the needs of our current school population.
The school takes safeguarding including anti-bullying very seriously. Please see our Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy under the 'Statutory Information' tab in 'About our school'.
Other school facilities
We are lucky to have a range of good facilities in the school which our pupils can access including:
A Hydrotherapy Pool
A Library
Forest Schools area
Interactive room
Our staff – Knowledge and Expertise
Ensuring our staff have the knowledge and expertise to meet the needs of our learners is a priority for us and as such we have a comprehensive programme of induction for new staff and whole school training. We also provide individual training for individual staff and small groups of staff where appropriate. Our induction and training programme includes safeguarding, health and safety, moving and handling and Team Teach positive behaviour management. Our training programme ensures staff are kept up to date on curriculum matters linked to the School Improvement Plan and also on meeting the additional needs of learners e.g. training on alternative communication strategies such as signing / use of symbols.
Working with other agencies
We work closely with other agencies to ensure the holistic needs of all of our children are met. There are very many, however the main agencies we work with are:
The school nurse: We have a full time school nurse who is based at our school who assists with all health related issues and dispenses medication to children who need it.
The paediatrician: The paediatrician visits the school each month for medical screening of children across school on an annual rolling programme appointment basis
Physiotherapy: We have physiotherapy support for our school one day a week. The physiotherapists work with the class teams to advise and support on positioning and equipment for the children who need it.
Speech and language therapy: We have speech and language therapy support one day each week. The speech and language therapist provides advice and support to classes and targeted children across the school.
Occupational therapy: We have occupational therapy support one day each week. The occupational therapist provides advice and support to classes and targeted children across the school.
Teachers from the service for visual and hearing impairment: We receive advice and support from teachers and teaching assistants from the HI and VI service for a range of children across the school who have particularly significant difficulties with hearing and vision