Rationale

One of the greatest problems facing the world today is the growing number of persons who are excluded from meaningful participation in the economic, social, political and cultural life of their communities. Such a society is neither efficient nor safe.

We understand that schools and their families can find challenging behaviours difficult to manage within a mainstream setting, and that sometimes, the only solution is to suspend a pupil for a period of time. 

Our nest team at Waterside, work with the excluded super hero and their school, to ensure that they receive a quality education during their time away from their host school. They meet with the Head of School of Waterside, who takes short term responsibility for the suspended super hero and together with the highly qualified staff, work on ensuring a smooth and painless transition back into mainstream provision - whether that is their current school or not.

The work of the team has been recognised as some of the best provision offered and is valued highly by colleagues across the Borough.

If your super hero (child), is suspended, you will receive a call from a member of the Waterside team to arrange provision, answer questions and deal with your anxieties. The host school will also receive a call from the team to ascertain levels, conduct issues and lots of other really useful information about the super hero.

If you have any questions, then please do not hesitate to contact us directly, and we will answer them for you.

Assessment

If your super hero has been identified in needing a short term assessment space (maximum of 6 weeks), this can be arranged by their home school via PFAP (Primary Fair Access Panel). Your school make a referral to the panel who sit every 2 weeks. The panel decide if there is enough information to make the right decision for your super hero.

If they do come to Waterside - the process is different to suspension as :

• the home school agree to provide a full time member of school staff to work with the super hero and our team, so that they can learn how we manage behaviour and mirror our expectations
• once a week, a member of the school community (including the head teacher) visit us at Waterside so that the super hero is still attached to them, and knows that they will be returning
• each week, the team at Waterside provide an overview of the triggers, the standard of work and progress made so that the school is ready to receive them at the end of six weeks with all the knowledge they need
• we begin to transfer your super hero back to their home school over a 2 week period and we ensure that they are all confident in moving forward

Since we started this work, the success rate for super heroes staying within their home school and no longer being suspended is immense.