Ash Field is a day and weekly boarding special school for 110 learners of all abilities from five Local Authorities whose main presenting difficulties are physical. However, their needs are a complex mix of the medical, sensory, communication, intellectual, emotional and social. There is a growing shift in the school population towards increasing complexity and lower and slower attainment. A significant number of pupils have progressive conditions. The school also has an Assistive Technology Assessment Centre which supports more than 600 pupils in mainstream settings in the city, county and Rutland. We also provide professional development for significant numbers of professionals from across the region. The school has a multi-disciplinary team of approximately 100; the health members of which are managed by the NHS.
We pride ourselves on our ethos, knowing that whatever we do is insufficient but encouraging and responding to the marvellous spirit and commitment of our pupils. Inevitably we require energetic, committed, flexible, diligent and fun-loving staff who share the love of learning for its own sake that our pupils do. They, and we, need to make the moment count and to celebrate how far forward we move, not always how high we jump.
The school has been involved locally and nationally with, inter alia, Headteacher, union, curriculum, LA and multi-agency groups; Demos, NCSL, OECD, TDA, CEA and Ofsted. A particular focus has been on developments in SEN, the partnership work with the LA regarding their post-Ofsted action plan, and the
DfES working group on special/mainstream links. The school provides courses and placements for teachers, teaching assistants and education, medical, social care and university students from more than 80 schools, 6 colleges and 3 universities. We are part of the TDA’s NPQH and open schools’ programmes. Each year we provide up to 50 placements and professional development for more than 1000 assistants, teachers and students in a range of areas from leadership and management, ICT, SEN and moving and handling. We opened our Regional Professional Development Centre to further develop this work.