Specialist Resourced Provision - Bedenham Penguins
The Resourced Provision at Bedenham consists of 12 places for children with an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP), with Social, Emotional and Mental Health Needs as a primary area of educational need.
Penguins Class, which is the name for our Resourced Provision, is situated in a safe and quiet area of the school and consists of two large classrooms and a dedicated outdoor area which is well resourced and spacious.
Penguins has a supportive and nurturing approach that understands the needs of all children and has developed an exciting and creative curriculum based around the needs and interests of the children.
Our aim is to build resilient learners who can manage their emotions when they face challenging and difficult situations. We do this by:
- understanding the complex needs of our children and identifying strategies to best support them;
- supporting each child to help self/co-regulate and build resilience to manage their emotions.;
- embracing every opportunity to develop skills in core learning;
- working collectively with our children, their parents and caregivers, and other professionals to ensure individual needs are assessed, reviewed and achieved;
- working with mainstream class teachers to ensure re-integration into a long-term setting is effective and successful.
The staff within the Resourced Provision are highly skilled in supporting children with complex needs and are led by an experienced senior teacher. We also have an ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant) who works with the children in both individual and group sessions.
The children in Penguins play an active part within the school and have the same opportunities as the rest of the children. They participant fully in the life of the school including wider school events and extra-curricular activities, such as residential trips, school discos, Sports Day, Bikeability and school assemblies, as well as other events held throughout the year. We have also had children holding student ambassador roles, including Team Captain and Sports Leader.
At the start of their journey at Bedenham, the children are based within Penguins Class. When they are ready to be re-integrated, they join their mainstream class, with support. Depending on the individual child this could be for one lesson or day a week, for a particular subject, or for a morning or afternoon session. This is part of the child’s long-term plan and is discussed and reviewed by staff, parents/carers and the child at review points throughout the year.