Vranch House is a centre for the treatment of over 2,000 outpatients with physical difficulties, a provider of various therapies throughout Devon and an independent Day School in Exeter for children with significant physical difficulties.
Find out more...Last updated: 29/11/2023
I gained my conductor-teacher diploma at the International Peto Institute in Budapest, Hungary in 2007. The same year I completed a sign language interpreter diploma. Following my move to England I worked at Robins Respite Centre and at Dartington Primary School, providing supply to Bidwell Brook School and Vranch House. I joined the Inclusion Team at Vranch House in 2005. I was supporting mainstream settings on adapting the curriculum. In 2011 I celebrated the birth of my little boy and the completion of the Masters in Special Educational Needs; 2012 brought me my second child, a little girl this time. In 2014 I took on the exciting challenge of the headship of Vranch House. The colourful personalities of the children, the supportive families and the brilliant teaching and therapy staff help my work everyday.
It is stated in our Safeguarding Policy that staff move to different class groups every two years. The new class teams are:
Class 1 - Teacher - Michelle Woodgates, BSc Early Childhood Studies, PGE Early Years, PGCE in Learning Disabilities - Profound, Severe & Complex (Distinction)
Teaching Assistants:
Class 2 - Teacher - Chloe Bond, B.Ed(Hons), QTS
Teaching Assistants:
Class 3 - Teacher - Deborah Down, BA(Hons), PGCE, Diploma in Child Psychology
Teaching Assistants:
During the school day most of the children are regularly taken out of the classroom for individual therapies. To enable the therapists and the teaching staff to work to the same timing we created school days with five 40 minute sessions. All classes start the day with circle time - registration, sharing feelings, weather forecasting, sharing news and discussing the daily timetable by completing the visual timetable. During some lessons each day the children mix and join small groups of children from other classes who are working towards similar goals. Many therapy sessions take place and are incorporated into class time to lessen the time pupils need to spend out of the classroom.
There is a morning and an afternoon break each day. Each afternoon all children attend therapy or educational sessions in the outdoors. There are whole school assemblies to celebrate special achievements as well as to learn about the topic, RE and to see and hear about the news and different cultures of the world. We have regular visitors to assemblies talking about their interests.
With the introduction of the new timetable a school bell was installed to mark the end of the lessons and break times. Many of our pupils attend mainstream settings and are familiar with the bell. So now "we are a proper school" as one of our pupils said.
The needs of our pupils vary greatly and there is no existing scheme of work that would offer appropriately differentiated learning for our pupils.
The four teachers researched the National Curriculum, the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum, QCA, SEAL and other documents and wrote our own curriculum. The curriculum is based on the seven areas of learning to make sure we are offering a truly broad and balanced learning experience to all children. The whole school curriculum then differentiated by the class teachers according to the children's age and development.
We have changed the assessment tool the teachers are using when assessing pupil progress. The use of this new tool enables us to be more in line with the assessments of our mainstream partner schools.
The decline in number of pupils being included in mainstream settings is due to the more complex needs of the school children. Vranch House promotes inclusion and is keen to set up and support such placements in the children's own community.
In June 2014 the whole school walked from Lympstone to Exmouth. We saw many different types of transport which tied in with our topic (transport) in the summer term. We are hopeful that this was the first of many annual whole school trips.
Families are invited quarterly on a Saturday morning to exchange information and experience with fellow parents over a cup of coffee whilst their children are taking part in art and craft and game activities organised by staff volunteers.
The Disability Equality Scheme and Accessibility Plan for the coming three years contains some exciting big plans, such as the complete rebuild of the hydrotherapy pool building; the toilet area of Class 3 will be refurbished as well as the speech and language therapy room.
The Whole School Development Plan for the coming year include enhanced teaching of writing, improve bank of switch operated toys and small equipment, reinstate the school council, create an indoor sensory trail and a greater outdoor growing environment.
The detailed Disability Equality Scheme and Accessibility Plan and the Whole School Development Plan are available from the Head Teacher.
Termly ‘My Goals' are written and evaluated by all Vranch House professionals, involving parents and pupils. We changed the layout to make it more pupil centred and to follow the seven areas of learning. We send home the teachers' planning and termly leaflets with ideas on how parents can support their child's learning.
Pupils at Vranch House make good progress when their baseline achievements are taken into account. Teachers carry out continuous assessments to ensure that the targets set for the pupil are appropriate and challenging. Termly full assessments are recorded in individual assessment folders as well as the evaluation of each ‘My Goal'. At the end of each academic year the achievements are compared to targets set the year previously.
The total number of pupils of compulsory school age on roll for at least one session - 17.
Percentage of pupil sessions (half days) missed through authorised absence - 12.25% and through unauthorised absence - 3.07 % (largely due to unavoidable problems with one pupil).
Some of the pupils continue their education in their mainstream schools, if they move to full inclusion before secondary age. Some pupils go on to secondary mainstream or special schools depending on what is the most appropriate provision for the child's individual needs.
Extracts from Ofsted report in May 2012:
‘Vranch House School provides an good quality of education.‘
‘The outstanding quality of welfare, health and safety of pupils, including safeguarding, and the outstanding provision for their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development ensure that pupils make outstanding progress in their personal development.'
What the school could do to improve further:
Learning goals are set by the teaching, therapy and nursing team in consultation with the parents and the child, as well as the mainstream setting. All children are given individual goals at each lesson.
Teachers in key stages 1 and 2 use the same assessment tool. Regular moderation takes place within Vranch House by teachers and teaching staff in the mainstream partner schools. All pupils are assessed termly to track progress and refine targets.
Many therapy sessions take place and are incorporated into class time to lessen the time pupils need to spend out of the classroom. Teaching staff and therapists plan their sessions according to the whole school topic. For example during our topic ‘space' the pupils in hydrotherapy session learnt to float in the pool like astronauts would do in space.