All students, including those identified as having special educational needs and disabilities have a common entitlement to a broad and balanced academic and social curriculum, which is accessible to them, and to be fully included in all aspects of school life.

At St George’s, we aim to provide and ensure quality teaching in the classroom with the need and requirement of differentiation and being adaptable being paramount. We offer further support to students through one to one interventions, specific styles of learning, and use of resources to remove barriers to learning. Our key focus is to raise and nurture the aspirations and expectations of all students with SEND.

When appropriate, we devise individualised learning programmes for our pupils. We also organise a framework of learning support within our mainstream classes, in a number of subjects and for different age groups. Pupils with a variety of learning needs can make progress at their own rate, while at the same time increasing confidence in their ability to tackle a variety of subjects within the school curriculum.

Separate teaching of literacy and numeracy skills is provided for a few of our pupils by specialist teachers. Pupils are taught in groups which are deliberately kept as small as possible, given the resources available. The School also runs clubs for pupils who need to improve the standard of their work. Some of these are by invitation only. In addition, where appropriate, there are paired reading arrangements. We also invite some pupils to take part in a series of literacy skills lessons, which are taught in a series of intensive termly units.

Whatever help a particular pupil needs, we understand the importance of close liaison with parents in monitoring the progress of these pupils.

By all these means, we offer the opportunity for pupils of differing abilities to develop to the full – and ultimately, we encourage them to make the most of the opportunities the school has to offer.

St George's School works under the government's Code of Practice for Special Educational Needs called ‘Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0 to 25yrs’.

The school has a history of seeing education holistically, where class teachers, house staff, parents and pupils work together to support a pupil's learning.

The key points of the new code are:

• Interventions need to be in place in a graduated manner.
• All teachers follow the principle of “quality first” teaching for all pupils.
• All interventions for a pupil's learning must follow the process of "assess, plan, do, review". For a pupil with special educational needs, this means that working with Learning Support, class teachers assess the pupil’s needs, plan the lesson, teach the lesson and then review the pupil's progress and learning outcomes.
• To support a pupil's education, we run various clubs to improve elements of their learning.
• As a school, we have access to a range of specialist advisory teachers. They support the school by delivering INSET to staff or suggesting strategies to support a particular pupil's learning needs.
• Our aim is for all pupils to achieve the best possible education and other outcomes.

At St George’s School, we recognise the importance of our students’ wellbeing as they grow and develop into young adults. Our goal is to support our students to build healthy relationships and develop emotional resilience in order to thrive and achieve their full potential. Emotional wellbeing has been identified as an indicator of academic achievement, success and satisfaction in later life. Evidence shows that mental health and wellbeing programmes in schools, can lead to significant improvements in children’s mental health, and social and emotional skills.

Our aims:

• To promote positive mental health and wellbeing in order to develop a culture of acceptance and understanding.
• To provide early help and signposting to wellbeing services.
• To respond to all students in need with direct support through our pastoral support team with referral to specialist services as and when required.

How do we support our students?

St George’s has a strong pastoral system within each house, led by the Head of House and supported by the Deputy Head of House, Tutors and Pastoral Assistants. Student Services provides a safe and welcoming space for all students to access support for their emotional health and wellbeing at any point during the school day. Student Services is staffed by our House Pastoral Assistants and overseen by the Mental Health Lead and the Pastoral Support Manager. We have a range of services that we can refer young people to within school, including our School counsellor and mentors from Directional, DSPL7 (Delivering Specialist Provision Locally) and Links Outreach.

Our 6^th form Health Ambassadors play an important role in promoting emotional health and wellbeing throughout the school. They also support our year 7 transition through friendship clubs and checking in with students on their playground duties.

Our PSHE curriculum and Friday 5 programme provides opportunities for students to learn about mental health issues and how to look after their own mental health. Students are engaged in our annual Promoting Positive Relationships Survey, sharing their attitudes towards their own mental health, which in turn ensures that our Friday 5 programme is relevant and meets the needs of our young people, creating a school environment that is focused on nurturing their mental and emotional well-being.

If you would like support for your young person’s mental health, please refer to the Student Services Team on 01582 716237, who will be more than happy to assist. Alternatively, you can contact our Mental Health Lead, Mrs Grainger, via email: hgrainger@stgeorges.herts.sch.uk

If you need immediate help in a mental health emergency:

Phone 999 – for an emergency intervention or a life-threatening condition

Phone 0800 6444 101 or NHS 111 option 2 – for urgent mental health needs

Phone 0800 6444 101 – for help and guidance

Please see our ‘Health and Wellbeing’ policy in the statutory information section, for more information about how we support our students at school.

Other (external) information: Support and Resources for Young People's Mental Health

At St George’s we recognise that students are gifted in many different ways. We firmly believe that all members of our community should experience ‘stretch and challenge’ in their learning journey, regardless of their starting point.

This challenge is not constrained to the classroom and academia, but is school-wide and includes character and personality traits. Over 400 of our students participate in competitive sport via school (often on Saturdays) and the programme of over 20 House events that form the Endeavour Cup, provides opportunities to develop leadership, teamwork and resilience.  St George’s is one of the largest schools in the South East partaking in the Duke of Edinburgh bronze award and Dragons' Den competitions are open to all. We continue to offer a huge array of residential and day trips.

Students recognised for their high academic attainment may be offered additional opportunities that include, but are not limited to;

• Crest Bronze Award Scheme
• HPQ and EPQ qualifications
• Visits to universities, including a languages trip to Cambridge University
• More Able Mentoring
• Arkwright Scholarship.
• Bank of England Competitions
• UKMT Maths Challenges
• Physics Olympiad
• Chemistry Olympiad

"The objectives of the National Curriculum will be best supported in those schools which have a broad, balanced and up-to-date provision of library books and resource materials". DCSF 1989

We aim to:

• Support the curriculum by providing resources in all media at all levels of age and ability.
• Provide pupils with the necessary information skills to successfully utilise these resources.
• Promote the enjoyment of reading books through fiction, non-fiction and current news platforms.
• Provide a pragmatic and successful use of Information and Communication Technology.

Resources

The Library has approximately 21,000 resource items, including popular fiction, non-fiction, biographies, reference books and four daily newspapers, more than twenty journals (many targeted at the GCSE and A Level syllabus).

Information Skills

All Year 7 pupils have Information/Library Skills lessons from the Librarians. The aim is to make all pupils at ease in the Library and able to undertake their own research, retrieving information and using it successfully as independent learners. There are also regular timetabled visits to the Library with their English teacher, with organised promotions to encourage a wide range of reading, such as the opportunity to shadow books shortlisted for the Carnegie Awards.

Information and Communication Technology

In the ICT Suite there are thirty networked computers available and 16 Ipads for student and staff use; all provide Internet access.  

The Library catalogue is available across the school network with all resources key-worded for ease of information retrieval. Relevant articles in back copies of periodicals are indexed, to assist students with wider reading for subjects.