Proposal to start a Specialist Resource Provision at Hampton High from September 2021

We were thrilled to be approached by AfC (Achieving for Children) about setting up a Specialist Resource Provision for students with ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) and mild to moderate learning difficulties.

AfC approached us in Summer 2019, following our Good Ofsted judgement, and we had planned to progress with this from September 2020. We viewed this as an excellent opportunity to really live out our values as an inclusive school. We also recognise from our previous collective leadership experience in different schools, that such a provision can have a really positive impact on the entire school community and the outcomes for all students, as teaching and learning is immeasurably enhanced.

Covid19 prevented us moving forward with this for September 2020. However, we are firmly committed to setting this provision up for September 2021 and are now consulting widely about this. The information for this can be found below:

Since a review of its local provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in 2017, Richmond Council’s children’s services provider, Achieving for Children (AfC), has worked with a number of mainstream primary and secondary schools in the borough to establish a new or expand an existing ‘specialist resource provision’.

A specialist resource provision (SRP) can be defined as ‘a mainstream school teaching space where places are reserved for children who have a specific type of SEND which requires an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), and who are taught mainly within mainstream classes, but require a base and some specialist facilities within, the school concerned’. Several other mainstream schools, primary as well as secondary, in the borough already successfully operate SRPs, for children and young people with a variety of different needs.

Hampton High, at the request of AfC, is proposing to open, in September 2021, a specialist resource provision for up to for 20 pupils with Social Communication Needs including Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and Mild to Moderate Learning Difficulties. Pupils will have an EHCP or, rarely, will be undergoing statutory assessment for an EHCP.

The capital funding required to convert some of the school’s existing accommodation for this purpose will be entirely provided from an allocation of funding which the Council has received from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and which must be spent on providing new places or resources for children and young people SEND.

The Council will also provide revenue funding to pay for the costs of staffing and resourcing the SRP. A Teacher-in-Charge will be recruited to lead the staff of the SRP.

The SRP will build up its pupil numbers over a three- or four-year period, up to its capacity of 20. Those children will be admitted onto the school’s roll in addition to the planned intake of 180 children per year.

In order for the proposal to go ahead, a business case need to be submitted to, and approved by, the ESFA. In making the business case, we have to demonstrate that we have undertaken consultation with parents/carers and other stakeholders in our community. I would therefore be grateful if you could complete the survey here by Tuesday 1 December 2020.

Yours Sincerely,

Rebecca Poole

Headteacher