Welcome to Westfield 

Westfield School is a Primary age special school which caters for children experiencing Communication and Interaction difficulties within a moderate learning difficulty / mild learning disability range. It is expected that the vast majority of our pupils have a diagnosis of ASd alongside other difficulties such as Global Developmental Delay, anxiety, sensory processing, ADHd and dyspraxia for example and / or a severe speech, language and communication difficulty

Children experiencing difficulties in these areas are often overwhelmed and experience anxiety and frustration within a busy mainstream setting. This may have caused them to have difficulties consistently accessing learning within a larger mainstream class setting and impacted on their ability to make progress within the National Curriculum. Their needs may also have caused them to present behaviours that are challenging to a mainstream school such as running away, hiding, refusals or meltdowns.

Westfield offers these children a smaller group setting with plenty of space, together with a specialised curriculum and teaching methods to address their needs and make school a positive learning experience. Visitors to the school and parents often comment on how quiet and calm the school is and pupils show that they enjoy their learning and feel safe and cared for.

We provide the full National Curriculum and our pupils attain within the range expected for children within a moderate learning difficulty range. Please see the curriculum section of the website for more detail about this. We also deliver a specialist learning curriculum designed to address the difficulties children of this needs range typically experience. We deliver relevant provision to each child through an embedded delivery model that is supported by therapists rather than a withdrawal intervention method. Please see the provision guide for more information. Westfield also has a large Forest School on site which children learn in during weekly sessions. Please see the Forest School section of the website. Provision related to our pupils’ needs lies in the following areas:

• Speech, language and communication: with particular focus on the impact this has on learning, verbally expressing wants and needs and social communication.
• Sensory processing and integration: with particular focus on developing the child’s ability to manage their own levels of arousal in response to sensory stimuli.
• Motor skills: with particular regard to the impact this has on academic recording and using equipment and resources across the curriculum as well as accessing typical toys and games.
• Social and Emotional learning: with a focus on recognizing and responding appropriately to emotions within themselves and others
• Emotional regulation: with a focus on developing independence in recognising and responding positively to their emotional state moving from co- to independent regulation.  
• Social skills and behaviours: with a focus on initiating and forming relationships and recognizing and using the link between cause and effect of events and choices and consequences of different actions
• Attentional and inhibitory control: with a focus this has on learning, school-based social behaviours and forming and sustaining relationships
• Memory and working memory: with focus on the impact this has on learning and social behaviour

By addressing the difficulties the child has in processing and responding to the world around them, we are successful in ensuring that the majority of our pupils:

• make expected or better progress across the curriculum relative to their starting point (NB due to their learning difficulties, our pupils are not expected to attain at the same level expected of their chronological age group
• develop independence in self-care and self-management
• become successful members of a group and small community