What We Offer

The Willows School is committed to developing pupils as individuals, enabling them to achieve their full potential.

What We Offer

The Willows School is committed to developing pupils as individuals, enabling them to achieve their full potential.

At all Key Stages, our curriculum is structured to help pupils to secure success:

  • academically,
  • personally, and developmentally, and

  • in life beyond school.

School Ethos and Values

Our leaders are determined to provide a positive and welcoming atmosphere and culture. Our staff team are proud and committed to supporting pupils to secure successful futures. We support pupils to achieve well by overcoming their individual barriers to learning.

Our core principles mean that we:

  • value each pupil equally as individuals

  • embrace difference

  • have high aspirations and expectations of staff and pupils

  • meet pupils’ needs and build on their strengths

  • harness creativity, skills and interests

  • identify support to manage and overcome barriers and difficulties

  • develop self-confidence, esteem, and resilience

  • engender integrity, courtesy, trust, care and respect in all aspects of school life

  • provide a safe and welcoming environment

  • be valued members of our local community

dream - school Blackburn

Dream

believe - school Blackburn

Believe

Achieve

Our Therapy Team

We work collaboratively with our therapy team, being part of the therapeutic web around the child. The enhances our trauma informed and trauma responsive approach, building a safe and secure environment for our children to be able to access learning. We incorporate principles from the PACE model (Hughes 1997), further enhancing our trauma informed and attachment building environment; promoting ‘connection before correction’ to enable our children to engage in situations with more tolerance. Also maintaining our child-centred focus (Rogers 1957), weaving in acceptance, congruence and a belief in each of our children to achieve to their full ability.

Our psychotherapists attend each child’s Child Looked After (CLA) reviews, and Personalised Education Plan (PEP) reviews in line with the needs of the child, having input into risk assessments and positive behaviour support plans. Relevant information is gathered by the therapist, and a personalised, targeted therapy plan is formulated.

Much of our work begins by developing safe, secure relationships with each child, our therapy team work alongside our education team to enhance these relationships and offer pre-therapy work (Prouty 2002), created for those who have challenges in psychological contact and connection. This is with an aim to offer 1:1 direct work when a child is ready in line with the therapy plan. Our therapy team also deliver in-house training to up-skill us as a whole team in response to our pupils’ needs.