Brookside is a unique school in Somerset in that it has the Children’s Centre on the same site and offers Specialist Provision classes within the main stream of the school. There are two classes, an Early Years and Key Stage 1 class and a Key Stage 2 class.

The Early Years and Key Stage 1 class follows a Foundation Stage style curriculum that offers learning through play, experience and exploration. The pupils are encouraged to develop independent skills within their social and self help development.

The Key Stage 2 class follows the Equals Schemes of work where appropriate and the National Curriculum differentiated to meet individual children’s needs.

The school uses bsquared as an assessment tool for those children who have special educational needs. It takes a P scale and breaks it down into smaller steps so that all progress can be noted and assessed. At the end of each academic year this information is forwarded to Caspa which provides the school with a national comparison of results.

Communication is of the utmost importance within the Specialist Provision and all staff  have a qualification in Somerset Total Communication. Recently there has been twilight training in the use of PECS (Picture Exchange Communication), Communication with a focus on objects of reference and work stations to support independent learning. Photographs, symbols, signing, objects of reference and simple language are used throughout the team. Each pupil has his/her own personal curriculum that is developed to best meet his/her needs in learning and development.

We have links with relevant therapists who support the children by developing personal programmes for the staff to follow. We have a fully equipped therapy room from which therapists can work if necessary and which is used for the implementation of personal programmes.

We are fortunate to have excellent resources to support the children in their learning. We have a modern multi sensory room and have recently added to its resources with ultra violet lights and activities to develop a body awareness programme. These resources will also support those children with a visual impairment. We also have a soft play room, a trampoline, sensory garden and class garden. All these areas form part of each child’s personal timetable.

We have access to a hydrotherapy pool once a week and this forms a vital part of a therapy programme for those children that require it. We also swim weekly at the local swimming pool.

As part of the education programme within the specialist provision we have a weekly trip into the community to support the development of social and self help skills.

We are committed to inclusion at its best and achieve this by looking at the individual child and his / her needs. We have a number of children from the specialist provision that are now successfully included within main stream classes and similarly, we have some children from the main stream classes that join the specialist provision for specific areas of learning.

We have a very experienced staff team who have an understanding of Picture Exchange Communication, TEACCH, Team Teach, feeding, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and many other areas of specialist education.

For further information and to see how much we enjoy our learning visit class pages 5 and 12.