Rowden House School
Special needs catered for
Rowden House school provides individualised care and education programmes for children and young people aged 11 to 19 years, with severe learning difficulties and challenging behaviour.
Specialist facilities
The school is set within several acres of grass and woodland. This provides a peaceful, safe and spacious environment for students.
Facilities include: ICT room, craft areas and pottery with kiln. There is also a purpose leisure barn which has a soft surface gym, a sensory room and an interactive play room.
The site is easily accessible with both the classrooms and accommodation in single storey buildings.
Young people can enjoy the woodland trails and cycling within the safety of the site, as well as enjoying gardening in the horticulture area.
Support services provided
Our approach to education ensures that learning experiences extend beyond the classroom to encompass every opportunity for pupils to develop to their full potential.
Communication skills are a priority in our learning programmes. Our Speech and Language Therapists assess pupils and focus developing skills. This is underpinned by a range of strategies in a total communication environment.
Challenging behaviours are addressed by implementing individually focussed positive programmes. These are developed with our Education Psychologist who supports staff to ensure a consistent approach in all environments. In addition, our incident recording system enables us to provide detailed records of behaviours and outcomes so these can be analysed and appropriate solutions implemented.
We provide lots of opportunities for our pupils to demonstrate and celebrate their achievements. Together with the young person, parents, teachers, carers, social workers and key workers we establish annual objectives for the young person and individual education and care plans identify learning targets which are assessed and developed throughout the year. In Key Stage 3 the curriculum follows a topic based approach. In Key Stages 4 and 5 programmes of study are based on the EQUALS Curriculum Framework.
Campus facilities include an ICT room, designated craft areas and a sensory room. Our young people are able to exercise in our purpose built leisure barn and relax in our play room, wet room and UV (dark) room.
Outdoor learning is offered to all pupils and offers a fantastic opportunity for all to experience and learn in a woodland environment. The main ethos of outdoor learning is to foster learning through exploration and play. This allows the pupils to learn new skills but to also to discover and learn from the woodland for themselves. A garden and horticulture area provides opportunities to plant and grow flowers and vegetables, incorporating opportunities for learning both practical and academic skills.
Work-related learning is an important component of the Rowden House School post sixteen curriculum and promotes key skills in preparation for adulthood. Our post sixteen provision includes a very successful work experience program managed by our own work experience co-ordinator, who goes to great lengths to ensure the suitability of each young person to their work placement. We currently have six local businesses supporting us including two farms, a caf�, an elderly care home, a mail order company and a medical equipment supplier, all of whom provide outstanding opportunities for our young people to benefit from the experience of a real working environment.
Those pupils deemed not �work ready� have accessed our on-site work facilities with our maintenance team and health and safety officer. Each participating Pupil has a tailor made program including information packs, any communication aids, equipment or clothing necessary, regular feedback sessions with both pupils and placement providers and is supported at the placement by a member of the Rowden education team. Our work experience scheme has proved over the years to have enhanced our young people�s confidence, communication and development of teamwork skills and has created awareness within the community of what the young people at Rowden House School can achieve.
Our pupils live in small group residential bungalows built around a central courtyard. We create homely environments that provide life skills training as well as having all the home comforts you would expect. We encourage our pupils to follow as many family experiences as are practically possible. Each young person has a room of their own which is personalised for them from the start of their time at the School.
All young people have a Placement Plan with an integrated Health and Wellbeing element. This is reviewed in consultation with the Health Promotions Manager.
Prior to admission all young people�s parents or carers are required to sign medical consent forms. A copy of the signed consent record will be kept in the young person�s case file.
Each young person is registered with the local GP, Dentist and Opticians. If required they have access to the CAMHS service through a referral from the GP. They have further support from our consultants who work in the areas of Psychiatry, Psychology, Speech and Language Therapy and Occupational Therapy.
Home school links
The school encourages and facilitates close contact with families. A five bedded self-catering lodge is available for visitor�s use. A regular News Letter keeps families informed about the activities and training provided by the school. All pupils have access to the use of a telephone and our keyworker system ensures continuous contact between School and home.
General environment
The school is set within several acres of grass and woodland. This provides a peaceful, safe and spacious environment for students.
The site is easily accessible with both the classrooms and accommodation in single storey buildings.
Aims and philosophy
We believe that every child has a right to live a fulfilling life, and develop their potential educationally, emotionally and physically through:
- Providing a safe and stable environment
- Providing a firm foundation for ongoing social and educational progress
- Ensuring consistency and continuity across both the educational and residential areas
- Individualising programmes to suit the young person�s needs and ensuring progression
- Developing communication skills
- Improving undesirable behaviours
- Self-evaluating progress on a continuous basis
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