Our Schools
Appletree Treatment Centre (ATC) Schools do not have School websites, below is a summary of our approach to Education at ATC, for further information please contact admin@appletreetc.co.uk.
We have two DfE registered schools Appletree school and Fell House school providing full-time education and covering all areas of the National Curriculum. All class sizes are small with no more that 5/6 children per class.
Overcome the fear of failure - One of our first tasks is often to help the children to overcome their fear of failing at school. This can take some time and many children require individual support to help them settle into school routines. We work on the principle of gaining success in small steps with high incentives for achievement.
During the school day at Appletree, we provide an interesting and stimulating environment in which each child is appropriately challenged to reach their full potential in an atmosphere of care and trust.
Our educational learning environments have a combined influence on the child's social functioning, educational and emotional development. We provide an alternative to a concentrated mainstream education, which has failed our children in the past. Although our are children between the chronological ages of 6 to 12 years their emotional development is well below this and they have missed whole sections of progressive development. Our children are under emotional stress and therefore do not interact easily with other children or adults. This inhibits their ability to learn.
Our approach - Our programme provides early years experience, such as play and other expressive activities for children who have been denied them. This helps the children to build relationships and gain basic skills and confidence, which can be used to help them to study more formal educational work. The children are taught the skills necessary to give them hope of one day returning to mainstream education. They are expected to work both independently and in groups.
Throughout all the activities the children are encouraged to listen by sitting quietly, to give each other turns to speak, to listen attentively and respond to what they have heard. They are encouraged to take turns in contributing to conversation or discussion.
The children are given the opportunity to participate in role play. This allows them to learn how it feels to be someone else, have a different self concept and other duties and responsibilities. By pretending to be someone else they assume a greater ability to communicate other's needs and feelings, to feel differently about themselves and to empathise with others.
Our children learn to adapt speech to different situations, use a widened vocabulary and think about how they are communicating.
Achieve their full potential - Our vision is that all our pupils will achieve their full potential, as a school we do this by:
- Assuring the best possible delivery of learning experiences in the classroom.
- Having a range of group and individual interventions designed to support those with identified needs.
- Offering a rich and varied menu of activities designed to engage and motivate pupils, raising their aspirations, enhancing their personal and social skills and creating a positive view of learning
The ‘Inclusive Package’ our Schools provide includes:
- Providing small group work focused on overcoming gaps in learning
- Assessment by our Speech and Language Therapist, followed up with individualised programmes of intervention and the acquisition of resources
- Assessment by an Occupational Therapist, followed up with individualised programmes of interventions and the acquisition of resources
- Outdoor and adventurous activity sessions
- Farm based activities, such as horse riding
- Expressive Arts workshops and performances, based around music and dance
- Development of an outside classroom area
- Development of a Forest School Curriculum and delivery of this by a qualified Forest School Leader
Activities – Curriculum - Our children receive a curriculum which is deemed appropriate for their needs. When a child is placed they may have missed out on the normal stages of educational development which takes place in a pre-school establishment.
Many parts of the national literacy and numeracy strategies are used but modified to suit each child's special need. They are taught in short bursts of time which add up during the week to more than the national average. The other schemes of work for every subject area are also modified and simplified in order to stimulate confidence to progress.
They access all aspects of the National Curriculum, enabling those who are able, to take the National Curriculum Assessment Tests at age 11 along with their peers in the mainstream. In past years we have had pupils achieve levels 4 and 5 in their Key Stage 2 tests.
Reporting - Placing authorities will receive information as to the progress of pupils through individual education plans, PEP’s, assessment results and termly review meetings.
In relation to this the following areas will be discussed:
- The progress made towards narrowing the gap
- An outline of the provision that was made since the last meeting
- An evaluation of the cost effectiveness, in terms of the progress made by the pupils receiving a particular provision.
Pupil Premium Grant is a Government Policy on allocating additional money to schools, specifically targeting children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Appletree Treatment Centre’s Independent Schools are not directly given these payments; the grant is paid to the Placing Authority for child or young person in their care. The Placing Authority has responsibility for allocating each premium and deciding what provision should be made for each child or young person.
Placing Authorities having different approaches to the allocation of the premium. If a Placing Authority allocates a grant to Appletree Treament Centre, the young person's Statement of Educational Needs and their Personal Education Plan will influence how resources will be provided for the individual to help them achieve their potential.
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