West Lea School

Everything we do at West Lea is focussed on providing ‘Learning for Life’ for pupils aged 4-19 with special educational needs.Our ethos is centred towards innovation, independence and inclusion. Placing great importance on personalised learning, our curriculum is built around literacy, communication, numeracy, ICT, independence, health, creativity and confidence. Our aim is to equip each pupil with a ‘suitcase’ of skills to help them progress on to further education and into the world of work.

Aspiring to serve our local community, we use our vast knowledge and expertise within special educational needs to help mainstream schools in the vicinity to offer interim respite to those who need it and a school place for the few who cannot cope within a mainstream setting.

With caring teachers and support staff, we offer a safe, secure learning environment and meet the daily pastoral and academic needs of all our pupils. With classes based over three campuses, each providing a distinct pathway to learning and development, we provide outstanding levels of encouragement and support.

Life for pupils at West Lea is a journey towards independence, this is only possible if there is a true synergy between our ethos and a parent's aspirations for their child. If this is for you, then come to West Lea and let's take this challenging step together.

Believing that to truly flourish children must feel valued, we focus on what each child can achieve and celebrate their successes. Recognising that every one of our pupils has quite specific requirements, we also place great importance on personalised learning. By bringing learning to life through trips, clubs, work experience and other extra-curricular activities, we encourage independence and develop the interests that help prepare each child to take their place in society.

Our vision is to seek an enriched understanding of the needs of our children, so that the response is targeted and effective, delivering the best possible outcomes. Through this deepened knowledge, and via the skills and expertise of the staff at the school, including the thoughts and wishes of our children and their parents.

Our aim is to work beyond standard ‘developmental’ and ‘teaching’ models; with a broad/widened definition of these key concepts that takes full account of our children’s needs, capabilities and aspirations for the future. A reality is that full independence and making an economic contribution is not something that some of our children can achieve.However, our vision, aims and ethos looks to celebrate the achievements of each child, within the context of his/her abilities and potential.

We acknowledge the interdependence between outcomes, which means that our focus is on paying attention to ‘fundamental’ outcomes, such as maximising communication abilities, which opens doors to opportunities to socialise and be active. An understanding of these ‘interrelationships’ allows the school to take a ‘holistic’ approach to the development and education of each child.

In order to meet the desired outcomes for our children, we acknowledge the importance of developing communication skills for each child, and fostering the ability in our staff to have the knowledge and skills to be able to ‘listen’ and understand. We will work to ensure that each child has a ‘voice’ and the ability to communicate, which will open the doors to further opportunities, such as socialising, being active and more independent, which will in turn promote the child’s feeling of security and self-esteem.Furthermore, the school aims to be an ‘advocate’ for the children and parents, helping to amplify the child’s voice, within the school, local community and beyond.

Having a job and the ability to earn money in adulthood is important to our children. The school aims to ‘shine a light’ on the opportunities for our children to enter the world of work, supporting and providing access where possible. Our aim is that each child has the opportunity to be ‘meaningfully occupied’ post school and able to make an economic contribution to society. We also acknowledge that this outcome may not be achieved for all our children, however that does not necessarily represent a poor outcome for those children, instead all achievements are seen and celebrated within the context of each child’s abilities and potential.