Welcome to Mayfield School

Mayfield School is an all age [2-19years] school for pupils with severe and profound learning Difficulties. We moved into our present building in 2002 and are fortunate enough to have purpose built provision which includes sensory and soft play rooms, a hydrotherapy pool, specialist curriculum classrooms and spacious grounds which are currently being developed. The school enjoys pleasant surroundings and is close to two other schools, a Children's Centre and local amenities such as parks and shops.

All members of our school are very proud to belong to it because it is a caring, safe, supportive and fun place to be. We are committed to the rights of our young people to receive an appropriate and meaningful education and believe that it is essential to celebrate the smallest steps of achievement. We are also committed to safeguarding our pupils through policy and practices that are clearly designed to protect them from harm.

We hope you enjoy sharing this site and welcome your interest in our school.

The school works in 4 departments - Foundation, Primary. Secondary and Further Education. With the exception of FE there are Key stage leaders for each department and in addition one assistant headteacher assigned to Foundation and Primary and one to Secondary and FE.

The pupils are grouped in to 13 classes 4 of which are for pupils with the highest levels of medical, mobility and sensory needs.

Each class of 8/9 pupils is staffed with one teacher and at this time with at least 3 assistants. Very occasionally individual pupils will have fulltime1:1 support for either significant medical issues or challenging behaviour. All pupils will experience a variety of teaching situations from whole group, small group or 1:1 for part of their day.

Inclusion in our school is about being able to access appropriate learning and being included in the process so PMLD pupils will have individualised education plans which may be delivered in their class base or in another class group.

All pupils have and IEP which targets access to communication, learning behaviour and ICT needs. Targets are also set in literacy and numeracy and the IEP is sent home every half term for parent's information and reported on in annual reviews.

Home school communication is very important as parents know their child best. We have home school books for regular communication, telephone contact for less usual issues, and IEPs, annual reviews, reports and a parents evening in July for more formal communication. Parents are also invited in to share special activities and events.

More details of the school can be found in the Governors section under School Profile.

Mayfield School uses a differentiated approach to enable our pupils to access the National Curriculum in a broad and balanced way. In addition we extend our curriculum to encompass emotional literacy and various therapies to further support our pupils. The focus is primarily on teaching learning skills, as well as subject knowledge, looking at what is most appropriate for each individual pupil, wherever they may be in the school. We do recognise, however that for some of our pupils with life limiting conditions our teaching may become of secondary importance for a both pupils and staff. When planning our lessons we look at the developmental levels of each pupil to match our teaching to their levels of understanding; providing progressive and continuous learning experiences whilst also building upon previous learning. Pupils are taught in class groups based upon their age and levels of support. The lessons may be delivered within the classroom, other specialist teaching rooms or in the wider community. Whilst some learning experiences are presented to a whole class group, others may be offered to smaller groups of pupils or on a one to one basis. These may be teacher or assistant led or offered by other professionals linked to the school (physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, music therapist etc).

Mayfield is a School with a very special ethos that children not only enjoy being a part of, but one that has a dedicated Community of workers who go far beyond the normal expectations in providing a very high standard of education, Support and Care and in doing so are able to let each pupil develop to their best potential and quality of life.

The Governors are a wide selection of individuals who have many varied skills and who are dedicated to the development of not only the children, but all the staff. They meet as a full body twice a term, operating the familiar committees of Finance,Personnel, Curriculum and Building and Grounds that feed into these full meetings and are an active and supportive body to the School.