Prospect School provides day education for boys with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. Students’ needs are met in a small, nurturing environment with a highly differentiated curriculum. We offer a wide range of extra-curricular activities designed to enhance the wider learning opportunities for our students for the time they spend with us.

Prospect School is a Local Authority Maintained secondary special school for boys aged 11-16. All our students have Education and Health Care Plans (EHCP) for social, emotional and mental health issues. Some students have additional needs which impact their learning, such as, Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASC) and Dyslexia.

Prospect School is a place where everyone is treated with respect and is of equal worth.

Our vision is encapsulated in our motto ‘Raising aspirations, building futures’ and is underpinned by our core values of Respect, Believe and Achieve.

Our vision is to develop a highly effective learning environment. To enable every student, regardless of their starting point and personal challenges, to achieve their full potential both academically and socially. To prepare them for future life and to support them in becoming good citizens. Our students are at the heart of all we do, as we strive to significantly improve their life chances and create opportunities for them to succeed.

To achieve our vision, we will undertake to:

We believe everyone in our school community should have a clear understanding of how their behaviour demonstrates our school values.  To support this we have developed our Prospect Behaviours:

We recognise that the public sector equality duty has three aims, to: eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct under the Act, advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not; and, to foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do
not.

We have considered how well we currently achieve these aims with regard to the protected groups under the Equality Act (race, disability, sex, gender re-assignment, age, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership, religion or belief and sexual orientation).

We have also involved staff, students, parents/carers and others in the following ways:

• We have embedded identity, diversity and equality into the policies, practices and curriculum at Prospect School, creating an environment where teaching and learning experiences are inclusive and strive proactively to eliminate discrimination, promote equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people; while ensuring that the school’s values and ethos preserves, reflects respond to and
  above all respects the identity and diversity of all students and the wider school community.
• We have extended and developed our PHSCE curriculum to encourage our students to recognise and celebrate diversity at school and in their community, focusing on the benefits of living in a diverse society.
• We have introduced a ‘Student Voice’ body and forums for tutors and support staff, creating space for discussion and a process to engage and listen to the student voice and staff feedback, in order to create a culture in which it is normal for students to cooperatively shape their learning, and for staff to contribute openly to progressive decision making, encouraging reflection and strengthening our school community.
• We are in regular contact with parents/carers, encouraging their proactive involvement, not only in their child’s experience of education, but also listening to their views and opinions as we develop and strengthen our practices and procedures.

Our Equality Objectives are:

Please see our Equality Policy below for more informaiton.

The Governing Body is made up of twelve people (we currently have five vacancies), who each have a unique role to play in the work we do. Some are parent governors, staff members or appointed by the local authority. We each appreciate the fantastic work that is being done throughout the school, by both students and staff, and feel privileged to be involved in such an amazing school.

We work well and efficiently as a team with an emphasis on openness and we abide by the same core values as the school: respect, believe, achieve.

The Clerk to the Governing Body is Jane Robertson. Attendance by individual governors can be seen by looking at the minutes of Governing Body meetings or by using the link below. Associate governors may not vote at meetings of the full Governing Body but they may vote on any committees of which they may be a member. No governors currently have any business or pecuniary interests in the school. Note that minutes from meetings are available upon request.

If you would like to talk to us then please contact our Chair of Governors, Russell Kew at [email protected].

What do we do?

Governors are volunteers who come from a range of professions and backgrounds. They bring their different skills, expertise and time to support and challenge the work done at Prospect School. They have the all-important strategic view, which drives the school forward to provide the very best education possible for every student.

There are three core functions:

1. Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction.
2. Holding leaders to account for the educational performance of the organisation and its students, and the performance management of staff.
3. Overseeing the financial performance of the organisation and making sure its money is well spent.

Governors are becoming more accountable and play an important role in the school. The best way to describe how they work is to be a ‘critical friend’; challenging and questioning through reading reports, undertaking visits, governor training and attending meetings. They keep up to date with current political trends and changes in the law relating to education.

Committees

Our Board of Governors operates three committees as follows:

1. Finance and Resources Committee. Chaired by Russell Kew, the Finance and Resources Committee consider items in relation to finance, staffing, health & safety and building & premises.

2. Pay and Performance Committee.  Chaired by Russell Kew, the Pay and Performance Committee focuses on holding the headteacher to account for the performance of the school.

3. Head Teacher’s Performance Committee.  Chaired by Becky Rogers, the Head Teacher’s Performance Committee ensures the headteacher is working to suitable objectives and receives timely feedback about their individual performance.

Our Governors

Former Governors within the last twelve months

We are proud of our recent Ofsted inspection which awarded our school ‘Good’ in all judgement areas.  Please visit the Ofsted Website to see our latest reports.

We value all feedback and invite parents and carers to visit the Ofsted Parent View website.