The Dovecote

The Dovecote is a Specialist Resourced Provision at Shipston Primary School that aims to meet the needs of children who are unable to access a full time curriculum in a mainstream class owing to their complex needs with Communication and Interaction difficulties including autism spectrum condition.

Our Dovecote Vision

To equip our children with the toolkit they need in order to fully participate in the wider life of the school through access to the whole curriculum. To work in partnership with parents/carers, mainstream staff and outside agencies to develop children’s self-regulation skills, increase their independence and prepare them for their future lives.

Shipston Primary is a fully inclusive school committed to supporting all of our children to become successful people who understand themselves and can form positive relationships. Children in the Dovecote will be supported as part of a bespoke and highly individualised integration package to work towards being gradually integrated into a mainstream classroom, where possible. As every child is unique, the timescale for this will depend upon the individual child. At the core of our ethos is that children feel valued, safe and secure within their environment.

There will be a maximum of 8 children in the Dovecote, all with an Education, Health and Care Plan, and they will be supported by lead teacher Katy Lamb, with Teaching Assistants Sarah Turner and Sammie Aubrey, plus our wonderful team of support staff.

We are excited to be providing this provision for the children who live in our local area with the support of the Local Authority. For more information on Warwickshire Resourced Provision and information about the county admission process, please click on the link https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/sendspecialistsettings

Our SEND Vision

At Shipston-on-Stour Primary School we strive to deliver high quality provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and to improve their educational outcomes and access to a broad range of social opportunities. To successfully achieve this we aim to work with parents and carers to ensure each child’s individual needs are met and offer high quality educational provision which ensures good individual progress and achievement academically, socially and emotionally. We will endeavour to do all we can to deliver effective provision for individual children so they can make good progress, reach their potential and successfully move on to the next stage of their education. We continually work to build a culture that gives all children a sense of belonging. We also collaborate with our partners including external agencies and the local authority to work together and share good practice to enable the needs of all children to be met to the highest possible standard.

At Shipston Primary we believe that everyone can achieve if we work together, never give up and show the Shipston Spirit.

We opened The Dovecote in September 2024, to provide a specialised resource provision working specifically with children with communication and interaction difficulties. One of our main aims within the Dovecote is to integrate our children into mainstream life as much as possible at an appropriate level in a variety of different ways inside and out of the Dovecote provision itself. All children within the unit have an Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP) bringing a variety of personal targets in addition to those academic EYFS and KS1 targets.

We aim to offer children working within the Dovecote a bespoke curriculum planned around them and their needs, ensuring that our curriculum content is accessible for all of our pupils. Progress is closely monitored in areas such as communication and interaction (including speech and language), social, emotional and mental health, cognition and learning and sensory and physical needs. Learning within the Dovecote is practical, hands on, experiential learning that is led and guided by the children and their interests. The children are immersed into their learning whilst being given the opportunity to develop their emotional regulation and well-being and having access to a multi-sensory learning experiences to enhance the mainstream curriculum.

Structure of a day in The Dovecote

When children first join the Doves class, their day will be determined by their individual need, and a staggered start may be appropriate in some cases. Our first priority will be helping children to build positive, trusting relationships with staff in Doves and to establish settled routines for the children. When staff are happy that this has happened, we will begin to support the children to develop wider relationships with the rest of the school.

The Dovecote will open at 8.45am for a 9.00am start. The children will be greeted by the Doves staff and helped to settle. The children will be shown a visual timetable of the day and have opportunities to share how they are feeling.

A typical morning might include:

• A communal breakfast or snack.
• Individual activities working on specific targets.
• Some lessons inside the main school with children of their peer group.
• Outdoor activities.
• Structured continuous provision and sensory play.
• Reflection time.

Lunchtime will take place at 12.00pm – 1.15pm. Children will spend time in Doves and socialising with children in the main school as appropriate on an individual basis.

A typical afternoon might include:

• Individual activities working on specific targets.
• Some lessons inside the main school with children of their peer group.
• Structured continuous provision and sensory play.
• Arts/crafts/music/cooking.
• Forest School.
• PE.
• Opportunities to work with peers from mainstream classrooms.
• Story time.

A day in Doves ends at 3.15pm, where children will be supported with gathering their belongings and ending the day with positive reflection time.

The online learning platform Seesaw will be used for all children to enable open dialogue with parents/carers. Each day is highly structured, the aim being that our children in Doves class gain the skills needed to access a mainstream classroom over time.