 Welcome
Welcome to our new newsletter Right Spaces, Right Places, sending you regular updates about how our service is evolving to better meet the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in the borough.
We are currently undertaking a SEND transformation programme, making sure children get access to the support and education they need.
In Spring 2023, we were awarded a grant from the Department for Education (DfE) as part of a programme to improve our SEND services.
The grant from the DfE is to pay towards the deficit, however as part of this multi-million pound investment, we in return need to make significant changes to our SEND programme. Until the grant was awarded, money was being spent to reduce the deficit rather than invest in service improvement.
We are in the early stages of a SEND improvement project, which will introduce a range of new support, services and opportunities for children and young people with SEND, families, local schools and organisations. Some of these are already in progress and include:
- Improving education for children who can spend part of their time in mainstream schools by re-desiging existing resource bases and introducing new SEND units, which will offer a higher level of support and close the gap between resource bases and special schools.
- Opening of one new early years centre and three new special schools for children with SEND.
- An early years strategy to support earlier identification of need and signposting to support.
- A service for schools so that they are better equipped to support children with SEND.
- A new post-16 strategy to provide better opportunities for school-leavers with SEND to continue education and training.
- Improve the way we commission and quality assure services, as well as working better with partners.
- Better access to information for parents through a re-designed Local Offer website and support.
All these will mean more children with SEND from Wokingham borough will benefit from new and improved local spaces.
 SEND parents survey
We want to gather some data that will help us understand the impact of the SEND improvement programme in the long term, and this will be reviewed annually.
If you have a child or young person with SEND, we would be grateful if you could support us by filling in this survey. If you have more than one child with SEND, please complete one for each.
 New early years centre opens
Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are settling in at the new Addington Early Years Centre, which offers a small bespoke learning environment for children from three to eight years old.
The centre, which is at the site of the old Farley Hill Primary School, is run by Addington Special School.
The first phase has seen the centre open to 16 new pupils who are settling well into spaces adapted specifically to cater for their needs, including accessible indoor and outdoor classrooms, a reading area, and spaces for children to go to help them regulate.
As well as having special spaces, a large team of dedicated staff are on hand to support the children with all their needs, helping them to feel safe and settled, as well as providing whole family support from a family support worker.
Phase two of the centre is expected to be ready for September 2024, which will increase the number of places available to a maximum of 40 and will include three more classrooms, a sand and splash room, a forest school and a medical room where therapists will have a space to work with children.
 Oak Tree opening
New special school Oak Tree School is coming to the end of its first term after opening its doors to pupils in September this year.
The school, based in Winnersh, offers 150 places to children and young people from Year 1 to Year 13 with an education health and care plan (EHCP) for autism spectrum conditions and associated complex needs, including speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) and social, emotional and mental health (SEM).
Run by Maiden Erlegh Trust, the school is a partnership between Wokingham Borough Council and Brighter Futures for Children (on behalf of Reading Borough Council), to increase the number of school spaces available to children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Pupils at Oak Tree School are supported to learn in an environment specially designed to meet their needs. The building has been designed with accessibility at the forefront, with accessible parking, wide corridors, ramps, lifts and changing areas.
The pupils’ learning needs are met with study booths and break out spaces, small classrooms and a high number of teachers and support staff. Health and wellbeing needs are catered for through physiotherapy and sensory rooms, as well as on-site specialists such as occupational therapists and speech and language therapists.
The pupils follow different curriculum pathways that are tailored to suit their needs, from focusing on skills such as communication, problem solving and independence through to working towards formal qualifications.
 Outstanding news for Chiltern Way Academy
Chiltern Way Academy, a special school for children aged eight to 16 with autistic spectrum condition, is celebrating after achieving 'Outstanding' in an Ofsted inspection earlier this term.
The school was taken over by Chiltern Way Academy Trust in 2020 and includes specialist teaching areas, a sensory room and different spaces for sports and games.
The Ofsted report, published in November, praises the focus that is given to preparing pupils for the future, with the opportunity to develop their interests and talents and achieve qualifications.
The daily routine was highlighted, including how it helps new pupils settle to the school and prepares all to be ready to learn, by each day starting with 'orientation and regulation' sessions helping them learn strategies to focus on learning.
Pupils enjoy attending the school and feel valued, and parents commented how their children are thriving.
You can see the full report on the Ofsted website.
 New school providers to be announced
The providers for our two new special schools are set to be announced next month, as a rigorous application and interview process draws to a close.
We were pleased to secure funding from the Department for Education (DfE) earlier this year for two new special schools, which will offer a combined 240 new school places for children.
Interested parties had the opportunity to apply to run one or both of the schools with applications closing at the end of August. Since then, the DfE have carried out assessments and interviews with interested parties, with support from our teams.
The schools are set to open in September 2026 and we are looking to house both at Rooks Nest Farm to create a SEND school hub, which would allow for shared facilities.
 Progress on new resource base and SEND units
Two primary schools have been chosen to house new SEND units, after all schools in the area were invited to apply to run them earlier this year.
Currently, the options for children with SEND are:
- Mainstream school, where around 80 to 100 per cent of time is spent in mainstream classes with additional support when needed.
- A 'resource base', attached to a mainstream school where children spend around 50 per cent of their time in the school and 50 per cent getting specialist support in the resource base.
- A 'specialist school' for those that need the highest level of support in a fully adapted environment.
There is currently a very wide gap between the level of support in a resource base and what a special school provides, so we are developing a new kind of provision to address this gap.
The SEND units will offer a higher level of support than a resource base but are for children who would benefit from time in a mainstream school. Around 70 per cent of the time will be spent receiving specialist support and time in the mainstream will be planned around the individual child's needs.
The two schools will be doing some consultations with the current school community, and more details will be released once this has taken place.
Alongside introducing new SEND units, we are also re-designing our resource bases to make sure that what they offer meets the current need.
As part of this the Indigo Resource Base at Maiden Erleigh School, which opened in 2021, continued to grow with the completion of the conversion works of the Silverdale Community Centre.
Indigo Resource Base offers secondary-aged pupils with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Social, Emotional and Mental Health Needs a dedicated resource space, therapy room, sensory room and specialist SEND classroom.
 In other news
Expanding team
A new Local Offer Coordinator started in October 2023 to support with improved access for children, young people and their families to information regarding Wokingham’s Local Offer.
A new, permanent SEND Team Manager has been recruited and starts in January 2024, alongside a new area SENCo (special educational needs coordinator).
All schools have a SENCo whose role is to oversee the SEND policy, co-ordinate support and work with parents, teachers and other professionals.
Both will work closely with schools and families to provide effective support to children and young people with additional needs and/or disabilities.
A new Preparation for Adulthood (including Post-16) Lead will be starting in February 2024.
They will support with developing and improving pathways to employment, supported internships, post-16 education for children and young people with a range of additional needs and/or disabilities.
Speech and language outreach launched
Highwood Primary School has recently launched a new speech and language outreach service, joint funded by us and health and delivered by Highwood Primary School.
Schools to support investment into SEND services
Earlier this term, school's voted 93 per cent in favour of pooling resources from their funding to improve local SEND services.
The money contributed will go directly to services that will support the schools and the children and families that attend them.
Early years parents forums launched
The first drop-in of a newly formed early years parents forum has taken place, run in collaboration with SEND Voices Wokingham and our early years area SENCo.
The monthly sessions offer parents of early years children who have additional needs the opportunity to drop-in and get information and advice.
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