James Brindley School seeks to provide a high quality education in a supportive and achieving environment for all children and young people unable to attend mainstream schools because of health related needs. We want to support your child with their education.  We will work with you to try to ensure that Short Term Provision/home teaching will progress as smoothly as possible, but we also strive to make sure that the pupil returns to school, even on a part-time basis, as soon as their health allows.    

Referrals for Short Term Provision, including home teaching, can only be considered if there is clear and current medical information stating that the pupil is too unwell to attend school. We would normally expect this to be provided by specialist medical staff e.g. hospital consultant, if the illness warrants a significant period of absence from school.

If the pupil is able to leave the home, but not attend their mainstream school classes, we will try to deliver teaching away from the home if we can. This could be on a 1:1 basis at their school, at one of our teaching centres or at an alternative location, such as a local library or community centre.

Before any Short Term Provision/home teaching is put in place you will receive a visit from a member of our Short Term provision team who will gather necessary information including:

• Risk Assessment
• Curriculum requirements
• Parental Consent forms
• Monitoring Forms
• Home/School agreement that will need to be signed by parent/carer

Teachers will expect to keep a regular weekly time with you.  This should be adhered to, and only changed in exceptional circumstances. Continued lack of pupil engagement with us will mean we review if we are the right provision to meet your child’s needs.

Currently, our teachers work within school hours only.

We know that not being able to go to school can be quite isolating for pupils, so we recommend that you speak to your child’s school to see if they can remain involved on a social level. This should help to make reintegration back to school a little easier.

Parents/Carer would need to ensure the following:

• the child is ready for teaching regularly, on time, properly equipped and appropriately dressed.
• the environment should be smoke free
• animals must be kept out of the room at all times
• you should provide a suitable place for the lesson, preferably with a table. This must be downstairs unless sp
• ensure there is a responsible adult present in the home.
• let the school know about any concerns or problems that might affect my child’s work or behaviour
• support my child with homework and other opportunities for home learning
• attend meetings and other discussions about my child’s progress
• discuss the Home School Agreement with my child
• support school in following national, local and school policy and procedures with regard to safeguarding children.

James Brindley School will:

• seek to achieve high standards of work and behaviour through building good relationships and developing a sense of responsibility
• tell parents/ carers about any concerns or problems which affect their child’s work or behaviour
• be welcoming at all times
• discuss the Home School agreement with your child
• Contact and share information with professional agencies if there are safeguarding concerns regarding your child.
• Contact your child’s school and share information with them.

Safeguarding Issues

In addition to the teacher, there must be a responsible adult in the house at all times. Usually this would be the parent/carer, but could be a relative you trust, of 18 years or over.

Please greet our staff in person when they arrive, and although we do not expect you to sit in the same room, we do expect you to be available if you are needed.

Under Birmingham Safeguarding policy, guided by Ofsted, we have a responsibility to have sight of children we work with, to check they are safe and well if they are absent from lessons. There will be a consistent response to all families on any lesson cancellations. If we are unable to see your child this could lead to safe and well-being checks being carried out by Children’s Services or the Police.

• If a lesson is cancelled, the teachers will still visit you in the allotted time. They will have a brief chat with you and your child, then leave work
• If your child is being looked after elsewhere, please let us know when you contact the school and we will visit the alternative address
• If the cancellation is due to a medical appointment, we will discuss in advance with you, visiting at an alternative time
• If the door is not answered, we will visit again in adherence with our Safeguarding Policy
• If you have any questions please get in touch with the school
• As part of their lessons, teachers may use a laptop with pupils. This will be supervised at all times.   

Getting in Touch

If you need to get in touch with a member of staff, for example to alter or cancel a lesson, please do not contact that person directly, but go through our Short Term Provision and Transitions Officer (see Contact Us page) who will make sure they receive the message.

 We monitor all cancelled lessons closely. If necessary, a review will be called to consider our input.

As part of their lessons, teachers may use a laptop with pupils. This will be supervised at all times.   

Which school is responsible for my child’s education?

Unless you are told otherwise, your child will be dual registered to James Brindley School. This means they are also still a pupil at their mainstream school and work will be supplied from the teachers there. Pupils normally return to their schools when medically well enough. Your child’s school will retain overall responsibility for their education but we do work together to ensure that your child is progressing and is safe and well.

Feedback

Please take a minute to give us some feedback on how we're doing by completing our online Parent/Carer survey for 2019/20 below:

Parents/Carers Survey 2019/20