Welcome to Spa School. Spa is an Outstanding (Ofsted 2015) Special School for students aged 11-19. We provide excellent education and opportunities for young people with autism.
Our pupils
We are really proud of our students and our school. We support all our students to reach their full academic, creative and personal potential. We bring out the best in all of them.
We offer a rich and interesting curriculum tailored to the needs of each student. We have a beautiful school and have created a specialist autism friendly environment. Our students are safe, happy and motivated to learn. They are supported and challenged in all their learning. Each year our students make excellent academic progress. Communication and independence skills are prioritised in all aspects of the curriculum.
All core and foundation subjects of the National Curriculum are taught. (with the exception of Modern, Foreign Languages). The whole school curriculum is a means of realising our central vision:
In addition to the National Curriculum core and foundation subjects, all students have access to a number of other areas to support their development, particularly speech and language therapy. We are a special school and aspects of our whole curriculum reflect this.
The school has a strong tradition of extra-curricular activities, including residential, day trips, cultural visits and weekend activities. The school has a successful record of fund raising to support the above.
All students work towards targets agreed as part of their Individual Education Plan. Some students have access to additional support for literacy or specific learning difficulties.
Where appropriate, our students take part in the national end of the Key Stage 3 assessments in Year 9. Students also work towards accreditation at the end of Key Stage 4, in Years 10-14.
With the range of cultures and religious beliefs we have in our society today, it is important that we learn together about each other’s practices. Southwark as a community has a number of different faith groups within its borders. There is therefore a diversity of distinct sincerely held beliefs.
Information about these diverse cultures and beliefs is covered in Religious Education, where we follow the agreed syllabus from SACRE. Appropriate consideration is given to issues of Theory of Mind, which may limit access to the subject for some students.
The school has a excellent enrichment programme which nurtures individual talents such as yoga, street dance, martial arts, cooking, cycling, sailing, swimming, and archery.
Through partnerships our pupils have the opportunity to perform on stages such as Shakespeare’s Globe and the Young Vic, and we work regularly with other world-leading cultural organisations such as Tate Modern, Corelli Dance and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. After-school clubs, holiday programmes and residential trips also help our pupils develop confidence.
Every student has a daily reading lesson at Spa. Students work towards a personalised reading targets which are reviewed each week. Teachers plan and deliver a range of reading activities matched to the student’s individual needs. Teaching activities will be practical and engaging allowing students to approach the target in a range of ways and gives opportunities for rehearsal of key reading skills.
The English curriculum in Key Stages 3 and 4 focuses on high quality literature. Staff have completed Power of Reading training through the CLPE and use the reading sequences with each class. The reading curriculum becomes increasingly more functional in its focus as pupils progress through KS4 and 5. Greater emphasis is placed on developing reading skills which link to life skills. All students complete accredited courses in reading by the time the end of Key Stage 5.
Each class has a range of books including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, books suitable for whole class shared reading as well as books on the interactive whiteboard. We have a beautiful central library where classes change their books, carry out research and visit for their reading lessons. Students are encouraged to take books home each day to enjoy.
Reading is taught throughout the Spa curriculum with a strong emphasis on developing reading skills for life. These skills are developed through practical lessons such as cooking, design and technology and humanities. Text is prepared according to the ability of each students and will be offered in communication in print words and symbols.
Please do not post:
Thank you once again for doing your part to keep Edarabia the most trusted education source.
Twitter
In my opinion this school is very safe. Children cannot run away. Also teachers are qualified and know a lot about students growth activities. There is good lunch.
By Loannis (Jan, 2018) |