The strength of working together

Information about the school

Trinity Fields School and Resource Centre is the only special school serving the county borough of Caerphilly.  Currently there are 159 pupils on roll aged from 3 to 19 years.  Nearly all pupils have a statement of SEN for severe learning difficulties, physical and medical difficulties, profound and multiple learning difficulties or autistic spectrum disorders (ASD).

Nearly all pupils come from within the county borough and a very few come from a neighbouring local authority.  All of the pupils are from English speaking backgrounds.  Around 40% of pupils receive free school meals.  A very few pupils are looked after by the local authority.  

In addition to the provision on the Trinity Fields site, the school operates two satellite classes at Cwm Ifor Primary School and St. Cenydd Community School.  A further resource centre, led, managed and based at the school, works in partnership with the local authority to provide a range of services to support pupils with additional learning needs in mainstream schools across the local authority.  These services include the Caerphilly Autistic Spectrum Service, health based clinics, an outreach and inclusion service, youth and leisure activities, and respite and home support services.

Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

The local authority has engaged with all stakeholders to undertake a full review of its SEN provision.  From the outset the local authority made a firm commitment, supported by headteachers from across the local authority, to continue to develop its only special school as the hub of these developments with other SEN services closely linked to the hub.

As part of this approach, the local authority continued to provide funding to the school following the successful “Unlocking the Potential of Special Schools” grant to further develop the role of the school to support SEN developments across the local authority.  

Caerphilly’s ongoing financial commitment to Trinity Fields has enabled the following highly effective and valued services to be developed:

Outreach teacher/Home-school support worker

Trinity Fields employs a full-time outreach teacher and a ‘year round’ home-school support worker.  Both of these posts involve very close partnership working with other schools across the local authority and with parents, carers and wider family members.

The work of the outreach teacher and home support worker ensures that pupils benefit from an integrated approach that enables strategies implemented successfully at school to be supported within the home.  In turn, the implementation of positive home routines, for example at bedtime and morning, impacts positively when pupils come into school.   This greater contact between school and home also enables families to benefit from support and to access specialist funding streams and signposting to other organisations and services.   Overall, parents and carers feel that the service provides them with a valuable link to talk through wider issues and ensures that their voice is heard.

Caerphilly Autistic Spectrum Service

Caerphilly Autistic Spectrum Service (CASS) service offers support to children and young people aged 2-19 years with a diagnosis of ASD, who attend mainstream schools or SRBs living in Caerphilly County Borough Council.  It is a unique service that combines the more traditional outreach teacher role with home and communication support for children, young people and their families.  This integrated model focuses on developing an effective multi-agency approach to supporting young people, their school and families.

CASS recognises that children and young people diagnosed with ASD require all of those who are involved in supporting them to understand their needs and provide consistency and stability in all aspects of their lives.  The service has developed into a highly effective service that provides an innovative package of support to young people, their families and schools.  This support includes the following:  

Training: CASS offers a range of recognised and licensed training courses, which families can attend at the point of diagnosis to support them in understanding their child’s diagnosis and developing their strategies to support them in the home. CASS also runs a range of bespoke training courses for professionals working with pupils with ASD.

Home support: Home support includes working directly with children and young people to implement strategies and approaches advised in training to parents and carers.  Alternatively, support may be based around advice and the loaning of resources, or supporting the family with referrals to other appropriate services.

School support: CASS provides support to maintained schools to help them to meet the needs of pupils with a diagnosis of ASD.  This support may include modelling good practice, advice, preparing or loaning of resources and staff training.

Communication support: This provision often involves working closely alongside speech and language therapists.  Our communication support worker uses a range of strategies to promote communication at home and at school.

Leisure and holiday services

Our leisure and holiday services are part of a service commissioned by Caerphilly Children’s Services.  The school provides high quality, short-term respite, play and youth work for children and young people (8-17 year olds) with severe and complex learning and physical disabilities and difficulties.  A safe and stimulating environment is provided for children and young people to have fun participating in activities of their choice.  A highly skilled team supports the children and young people to enhance their social and independence skills whilst accessing a range of opportunities within the school local community.

Services are registered for a maximum of 20 children and young people. There are currently 100 spaces available between ‘Saturday Club’ and school holiday schemes, with the service working with about 65-75 families throughout the year. 

Specialist respite services are also provided for a maximum of three children and young people who are referred by social services.  This close partnership working between the school and social services ensures bespoke support for the child when the family is experiencing very difficult times and there is a risk of family breakdown.

Satellite bases in mainstream schools

The school was approached by the local authority several years ago to support some of its SRBs in mainstream schools.  This support involved recruiting teachers with relevant experience and specialist pedagogy to lead SRB classes.  As part of this support, the school has developed bespoke partnership agreements with the local authority and host schools, outlining the roles and responsibilities of the host school, the local authority and Trinity Fields School.  For example, the school retains the line management (including performance management and professional learning) of teachers within these satellite bases; and the pupils remain on roll of the host school.

This approach has helped to facilitate the sharing and development of specialist pedagogy, as well as ensuring pupils in the SRBs have access to more specialist teaching and resources.  

Trinity Fields satellite bases in Cwm Ifor Primary and St. Cenydd Community School

The governing body of Trinity Fields has worked closely with the local authority and governing bodies of two local schools to establish satellite classes in a primary and secondary school.  In these satellite classes the pupils remain on the roll of Trinity Fields with all staff working in the satellite base employed by Trinity Fields school.  Bespoke partnership agreements that document the roles and responsibilities of the host school, local authority and Trinity Fields underpin this innovative approach to meeting the needs of pupils with SEN.

The close partnership working between Trinity Fields and mainstream schools has helped to supporting wider SEN developments within the three schools, particularly to share expertise and teaching approaches.  The confidence, independence and communication of Trinity Fields pupils have improved, while pupils in the mainstream schools have developed their understanding of disability and its effects.  Finally, the behaviour of all pupils has improved.  Mainstream pupils are far more mindful of Trinity Fields pupils, particularly when on the playground; they include and support pupils as required.

How have you shared your good practice?

Our highly effective collaborative practices have been widely shared with colleagues within the local authority, consortium and across Wales.