Gendered and non-gendered toilets and accessing water around the site during the school day

We do continue to have both gendered and non-gendered toilets within school. Our E Block toilets all have a contained toilet and wash basin, so students are encouraged to use those at breaktime and lunch (these are supervised by staff) if they prefer that to communal areas. We also encourage students to bring water bottles and use the water fountains in the canteen and E block during the day, rather than the toilet washbasins, to top up their water.

Setting in Maths and Sparx

The research base, benefits and reasons around using mixed ability are on the website on the Curriculum overview page.

With regards to setting of SPARX work. Staff are to adjust the homework curriculum as they see to benefit the class. This could be by getting students to do pre learning or by consolidating knowledge at a later date. Meaning that homework will have both of these features. SPARX is a system that adjusts to the student, meaning that if the student is getting all of the questions correct, the questions will increase in difficulty. If a student is finding it difficult the questions ease in difficulty. Videos are also provided to support students.

How SEND students are supported across the school

SEND training is delivered to all staff by the SENDCO on the first day of term and a follow-up twilight session is delivered by the SENDCO to teacher trainees, Early Career Teachers and teachers who are new to the school in the first half term of the academic year.

All teaching and support staff have access to a range of training in SEND and Inclusion through SENDCO-led CPD sessions and WAGOLLS, EP, SEMHL and CCT Teacher-led training sessions and Local Authority and external SEND organisation training offers.  In addition, all Finham staff can attend the Lion Alliance suite of training sessions led by national leaders in their field, which in the last two years have had a focus on SEND and Inclusion and Behaviour Management. 

Communication between the school and parents/carers

A summary of all communication home has been collated and has been made available to parents/carers so they are aware of what they can expect a certain points of the academic year.

The letter home (08/01/2025) explains all forms of communication and how parents can engage with the school and who they should contact regarding specific matters relating to their child. This includes how Bromcom is used in order to regular update parents and carers with day-to-day information about their child.

Parents are always encouraged to use the contact tab on the home page of the website if they do not know who to make contact with directly. Contact that comes in to the school in this way is then disseminated to the most relevant staff member by the school admin team.

Parents and carers are still encouraged to use the studybugs app to report a child’s absence.

For information all staff email addresses follow:

initial.surname@finhampark.co.uk

For ease of reference, these have always been hyperlinked on our website on the relevant curriculum subject page.

Teaching in English and use of Sparx

Our English home learning at Key Stage 3 centres around building and maintaining regular reading habits, whilst also promoting reading for pleasure. It is designed to be personalised, offering students the chance to read what they are interested in. The platform we currently use for students to record this, Sparx Reader, includes regular, low stakes quizzing to help regularly reward students.

Sparx Reader offers books for students within their zone of proximal development, meaning students should be able to access all the books offered and thus develop their reading skills and confidence in accessing increasingly more challenging texts, which they will encounter across the curriculum at KS3, 4 and beyond. Students can select books they want to read from the personalised options generated for them, but we also allow students to read their own books and record what they are reading on the system. Students can unlock Gold Reader for regular reading at any level, but we have unlocked this feature for students when asked to help promote a personalised approach: please contact your child’s English teacher if you want this option for your child.

Using the Sparx Reader platform, students are able to earn regular rewards which we use to help praise students and offer rewards outside of the system, including reward points, physical copies of books and VIP lunch passes. The accuracy level provided from Sparx Reader allows students to receive support in their library lessons or further intervention during mentor time.

Students also read a physical copy of a ‘class reader’ in their English lessons in each year of Key Stage 3, alongside two in their personal development periods. Students have further access to physical books in their fortnightly library lessons in Key Stage 3 (as well as the opportunity of using this excellent provision outside of lessons) and there are several reading stations around the school where students can take a physical book to read: Mr Amos and the PE department are also running their World Book Day book swap for Year 7 again.

Review of students with SEND

The SENDCO/Deputy SENDCOs offered a meeting to all parents of students on the SEND register in the Autumn term, to review progress and support and ensure that all Pupil Passports are up-to-date.  Pupil Passports provide teaching staff with student-centred information which helps them to plan and adapt their lessons to ensure the best learning outcomes for students with SEND. 

Feedback relating to homework and communication home regarding feedback

 

We are currently reviewing the way homework is being set and the communication with parents with a view to moving all of this over to Bromcom in the medium term. Staff have been reminded about setting and communicating homework on the staff training day in January 2025.

Low level disruption in some lessons in key stage 3

We would expect all staff to follow the school's behaviour policy with regard to the issuing of a C1-C5 within lessons for any behaviour that impacts their own or others learning. C3 and above involve a formal consequence and potential removal from the learning space. Patterns of behaviour are monitored on a weekly (pastoral team) and half termly (senior leadership team) basis so that any patterns of behaviour can be identified with a particular focus on students who are repeating and not amending poor behaviours.

Any higher-level behaviours would also involve communication home and further support from or pastoral/senior leadership team. Any student who is struggling to amend their behaviours of a period of time will receive ongoing support through various interventions in school but also escalated consequences, which could include; being withdrawn from lessons, suspensions from school, and as a last resort a period of time spent at another school which could become permanent. 

Face to face parents evenings

We offer face to face parents’ evenings for key transition points at school i.e., Year 9 and Year 11.  Like with some schools locally, all of the other parents’ evenings are online.  We take parent feedback every year and make adjustments where we can, but overall the preference is for online meetings. 

Subjects where there are mixed ability teaching rather than setting

In Key Stage 3 students are taught in mixed attainment groups and have been in almost all subjects for many years. Successive research over decades has found that children make the most and fastest progress when grouped with pupils with a range of different talents, attainment levels and skills. On the whole, they are also proven to be much happier and less anxious during their education as a result of being grouped in this way for their learning. Teachers engage in a wide range of continuous professional development to ensure that our teaching strategies and support for all students is effective. On the curriculum page on the school website there are links to educational research, including the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF).      https://www.finhampark.co.uk/page/?title=Curriculum+Overview&pid=42         

Who to raise concerns with in terms of in lesson behaviours

The first point of contact would be the individual subject teacher or the head of department if issues are linked to a specific subject area. This information can be found on the school website.

If there are more general concerns your child's mentor or college leader are the best point of contact. If you do not know which mentor group of child your college is in this information can be found via the MyChildAtSchool app within their timetable. You can also raise a general query via the contact tab on the school website.

Use of mobile phones in school

Information around the use of mobile phones in school can be found on the school website, on page 11 within the Behaviour Policy.

The school’s current position is that phones should not be seen at all during the school day, unless a member of staff allows students to use them for learning purposes e.g. calculator, online quiz, and will be confiscated on all other occasions if seen.

This was reviewed in the 2023/24 academic year and is one aspect of school life that is continually reviewed and amended to address current trends that we see relating to their use by students in school.

Maths mock exam papers

Mock papers are discussed in class however they are not discussed question by question. The results are analysed and then topics that the class got wrong are discussed and delivered by the teacher. The curriculum is adjusted to suit the class to close gaps on misunderstandings. Teachers are instructed not to go through questions that majority of the class got correct.

Students go through papers each week as part of their weekly paper, questions in the classroom are also exam style questions meaning we are practicing exam style questions very frequently. 

The link between the SEND department and wider school

Finham Park is committed to providing high quality teaching and support for all students with SEND.  If parents have concerns, they can raise them with classroom teachers directly, with the College Leader/Deputy College Leader or directly to the SEND Leadership team through the PA to the Director of SEND, Jacqui Bevan:  j.bevan@finhampark.co.uk

Please see full SEND Information and SEND Leadership details on the school website.