School Day Structure
| The School Day | |
|---|---|
| Staff briefing: | 8:30 - 8:40 |
| Tutor Time: | 8:40 - 9:10 |
| Lesson 1: | 9:10 - 10:05 |
| Lesson 2: | 10:05 - 11:00 |
| Break: | 11:00 - 11:20 |
| Lesson 3: | 11:20 - 12:15 |
| Lesson 4: | 12:15 - 1:10 |
| Lunch: | 1:10 - 1:50 |
| Book Club: | 1:50 - 2:10 |
| Lesson 5: | 2:10 - 3:05 |
| Lesson 6: | 3:05 - 4:00 |
Arrivals
Students arrive to school between 8.15 and 8.30am and are dropped off at the rear gate, via King's Lane. Students are met at the gate by a member of staff who registers them, students then walk down to reception before heading off to tutor time. If students arrive by school minibus then they are dropped off at the front of the building and registered at reception. Students hand their phones into reception, they are placed into a named zipped container and returned at the end of the school day. Students in Prep are met and walked over to Ashcott House.
Lessons, Break and Lunch
Lessons are 55 minutes long and there are 6 lessons a day, adding up to 30 lessons a week. In keeping with the calm environment we provide, there are no bells. Lessons end at the reasonable discretion of the teacher, enabling a calm ending.
First break is scheduled at the same time for the whole school and is 20 minutes long. Lunch is split into two sections. Between 1:10pm and 1:30pm students have time to eat their lunch, either in the dining hall, outside or in the quiet room. At 1:30pm students go to one of our many lunchtime clubs, these include Music Club, Guinea Pig Club, Chat and Read Club, Minecraft Club, Active Club and Drawing Club. Our array of lunchtime clubs helps to support less structured times where some of our students may struggle.
Book Club
Our daily Book Club is an integral part of our co-regulation strategy; getting our students ready for the afternoon whilst engaging with a variety of books, ideas and conversation around stories and literature. We want to fire our students' imagination, promote a lifelong love of learning and reduce some of the worry around reading that our students have. During Book Club, students access a diverse range of stories in a variety of ways. We use audiobooks, group reading, film clips, discussions and storyboards to empower all children to engage with books.
Enrichment Clubs
We are a family-orientated school and as such advocate time for students to have downtime at home with their families. We are aware that many of our students are vulnerable and anxious about their education. Close contact with home is a support for many of them. Many of our students travel for up to an hour to/from school. Even within our specialist setting students tire as the day/week/term/year progresses.
We value the time spent together as a community outside of lesson time. Every Fridayafternoon through lesson 5 and 6 we come together as a community for a wide range of enrichment activities. These include STEM, Gardening, Warhammer/D&D, Sports, Yoga, Film/documentary Club, Arts/Crafts and Games. Additional enrichment activities occur throughout the year through trips out and having visitors in.
Part-Time Timetables
We recognise that part-time timetables are a vital way of accessing education for many students. Our students are working incredibly hard throughout the day to focus on their studies using strategies to overcome poor working memory, sensory overload and slow processing. Even with specialist strategies put in place, the cumulative effect of all of these difficulties can lead to exhaustion.
Our school day is intended to provide flexibility to allow us to offer a bespoke provision tailored to each student – e.g. shorter days for those that need it, along with many opportunities to excel through extracurricular activities such as the creative and performing arts, science, games and sport. The aim of a part-time timetable is to gradually build to a full-time timetable as and when the student is ready.
