Clarendon School

Clarendon is a day community special school for pupils aged 4-16 with moderate learning difficulties and additional complex needs (including Autism). There are places for 100 young people, usually in classes of around 12.Our team work together to provide the best education and pastoral care to ensure that Clarendon is a place of learning for everyone.

We strive for the improvement and achievement in all areas of our broad and innovative curriculum which aims to enrich the experiences of our pupils, providing them with opportunities for life-long learning, growing independence and to be valued members of society.

At Clarendon we pride ourselves on our vision to create an all-inclusive, creative learning environment to optimise the opportunities for each and every child to achieve their full potential.Our team of experienced and specialist staff provide each child with a broad and innovative curriculum, with opportunities to develop a love of learning and support to develop independence and become valued members of society.

Providing pastoral care is central to the life and work of the school. We aim to deliver our broad and innovative curriculum in a way that will promote the moral, cultural, mental and physical development of the children, in order to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences they are likely to face in the wider world.

At Clarendon we follow the requirements of the National Curriculum. This helps us to provide a balanced and appropriately challenging education for all pupils. We also offer a range of tailored courses and activities personalised around our pupils’ interests and strengths, aiming to provide them with life skills and opportunities for adult life.

Pupils at Clarendon follow a differentiated curriculum based on the National Curriculum.Pupils develop their Maths and Literacy skills through direct teaching and real life experiences. The school follows the letters and sounds phonic programme enhanced by cued articulation. Reading schemes are used including: Oxford Reading Tree, Zoom and Rapid Readers.Our curriculum has a strong focus on Life Skills, such as cooking, shopping and travel.Pupils follow personalized learning programmes to incorporate their Speech and language, OT and physiotherapy requirements.

Pupils have opportunities to go horse riding, swimming and to attend Forest school during their time in the Primary department.Primary pupils have an active start every morning for 20 minutes as many will have been sitting on a bus for an hour prior to arriving at school. During this time, children are actively involved in PE activities and also outdoor play to help develop their social and play skills. This is followed by a 20 minute ‘breakfast time’. Pupils can eat toast and fruit in small groups with an adult who they can talk to about any concerns they have. This nurturing approach is an integral part of ensuring that pupils’ mental health and wellbeing is supported in school. Following this nurture time, all Primary pupils come together for an assembly which includes singing, learning Makaton signs, PSHE and brain gym.

Clarendon Learning Zone is a section within our school website that is dedicated to supporting home learning. It provides links to websites containing free, interactive learning materials. The sites chosen have been very carefully selected to ensure that children will enjoy them and learn as much as possible. All sites used have been carefully vetted to ensure that the content is appropriate for children of different abilities.We will always try to link the selection with the subjects that children in different classes are studying at school. If you, or your child, discover a really good site that is not on here, we would like to hear from you.

Some sites require the user to download Macromedia Flash Player, a simple piece of software which will take a couple of minutes to obtain. If you do not currently have this software simple instructions will be provided on how to obtain it from the first host site that requires it.Teaching staff will be using some of these sites in their lessons at school so that when children are using these activities at home they are familiar with them.

Assessment for learning is a central part of the whole school marking policy and plays a significant part in encouraging pupil progress. Positive reinforcement is far more likely to lead to improvement than relentless criticism. Staff are enjoined to make sure that, when they mark and hand back pupil work, effort is encouraged and positive advice is given, especially when a pupil is clearly struggling with a particular target or subject. At Clarendon merits are available to encourage and reward both positive behaviour as well as academic achievement. For academic achievement they are usually given for taking a more positive approach to study or for the emergence of improved efforts. These improvements may range from working to a better standard and more independently, to taking positive steps to improve behaviour and follow school rules to strive towards their full potential.