Windmill Hill School

Windmill Hill School is a secondary special academy that supports students aged 11-18. We are working towards Luton council's vision for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND):

• Supporting young people with SEND
• Develop a range of quality local provision
• Enable children and young people to play, learn, live and work within their local communities
• Preparing children and young people for their adulthood where they can live and work in Luton as independently as possible. 

The schools’ vision is to enable our students to become Successful Learners, Confident Individuals and Responsible Citizens. 

Windmill Hill School values define our school culture and binds our learning community together, we aim to ensure our students Achieve through Compassion, Responsibility and Respect.  

Windmill Hill is located in a mixed residential / business area, close to Luton train station, the town centre and a number of green spaces.

The Local Governing Body of the school is responsible for determining and administering the policy relating to the admission of students to the school.  The Local Governing Body is guided in that responsibility by the requirements of the law, their understanding of the school’s purpose and consultation with the Head Teacher, Creating Tomorrow Multi Academy Trust and Local Education Authority representatives. 

Having consulted the LA and others in accordance with the requirements of the law, the Local Governing Body has set its planned admission number of 120 students aged 11-18 years by September 2024.

Assessment

For a student to be allocated a place at Windmill Hill School they need to have an Education, Health and Care Plan.  Parents should direct their request for a place at Windmill Hill School to Luton SENAT team in the first instance.

Luton Special Needs Assessment team (SENAT)

Entrance Criteria

The criteria below reflects the primary duty of our school to provide for children with severe and complex learning disabilities, within the local and national inclusive education agenda.  All children admitted to the school will have:

• Been offered a place following full consultation with the parents, children and the subsequent recommendation of the local authority Provision Panel.
• An EHC Plan naming Windmill Hill School and describing primary learning needs within the severe and complex learning disabilities range
• A need for continuous access to highly differentiated learning resources and environments, and small class groups to enable purposeful learning and progression to take place.

All student progress is recorded using Evidence for Learning.
Students with PMLD are assessed using Routes for Learning.
Students with SLD are assessed using Looking at Learning and for some, OCR accreditation.
We have three distinct curriculum pathways that are each tailored to meet the individual needs of every student and enable successful Preparation for Adulthood.

Supporting and working with parents

At Windmill Hill School we work in partnership with parents and concerns can be discussed with the Family Workers, the Class Teacher, staff and senior leaders where appropriate. At all times we strive to involve parents in the education of their child and there is at least weekly contact through Class Dojo, emails, website and social media updates, parents' evenings to discuss progress, an Annual Review and End of Year reports.

Additional support provided in school

The school works closely with health care professionals and external agencies including School Nurses, Speech and Language Therapists, CAMHS, Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Educational Psychologists, the Visual and Hearing Impairment teams.

The school is developing its therapeutic offer and currently involves music therapists and speech and language therapists for both individual students and small groups according to need.  Therapists also advise on whole school approaches that benefit all our learners.

Staff Training

All the staff undertake a rigorous induction programme including Safeguarding, Team Teach and Moving and Handling Training. The school has an on-going training programme to ensure the needs of all students are fully met and that the school keeps pace with emerging technologies

Transition

The school works closely with the transition team from the LA to ensure that parents and students are well prepared and informed about the choices available to them when they leave school.
The school runs a comprehensive careers programme from Year 7 to help students make appropriate choices post school, this includes work related learning opportunities and work experience.

Headteacher: Michele Lentes

Acting Deputy Headteacher: Kerri Stenhouse