Headlands School

Headlands School provides high-quality education and care to children and young people who have difficulty managing their behaviour, preparing them for a happy and fulfilling adult life.

Headlands School helps children and young people aged 8 to 19 years old who are having difficulty learning as a result of challenging behaviour, including those with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties (BESD), Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Asperger's Syndrome. Our committed staff have high expectations for the students, helping them to achieve outstanding success in education and their personal accomplishments.

Key statistics

Age	Gender	Provision	Vacancies	Ofsted rating	Location	Membership and accreditation	Special needs provision
8 to 19 years old	Mixed	An independent special needs school that offers day and term time residential placements	Yes	Good	Vale of Glamorgan	NASEN, The National Autistic Society, NASS	ADD, ADHD, AS, ASD, ASP,BESD, Comm Diff, DYS, MLD, ODD, SP&LD, TOU

How we help

Education, activities and residential care are provided onsite and children may attend as boarders or as day pupils. At the heart of the school is a pupil support team, a multi-disciplinary group focusing on behaviour management, including regular consultations with local psychiatrists and the school's consultant clinical psychologist. Our pupil support team helps us implement behavioural management plans, which have emotional literacy assessments built in.

All our staff are trained in therapeutic crisis intervention (TCI), giving them the skills to respond to crisis behaviour and recognise trigger points. Staff are also trained in working with children who have autism. Every young person also has monthly meetings to discuss their progress and to collaboratively solve issues.

• Education: In addition to the national curriculum, the school runs a number of innovative initiatives, such as the Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network (ASDAN), offering activity-based learning. Headlands School also provides a Post 16 provision where students have individualised plans which involve part time placements at a local college, work experience and the facility to study for external and vocational exam and improve on their GCSE grades. In addition, we are currently awaiting Welsh Assembly approval for the provision of a primary school centre which will provide a Key Stage II curriculum.
• Facilities: Classrooms are well resourced with a range of books and learning aids. Specialist classrooms for subjects such as design technology are well resourced, and equipped with a range of learning and safety equipment.
• Residential care: Residential care is very high quality, with a strong emphasis on developing relationships and pupil's wide key skills. Residential care is provided on a weekly, fortnightly and term-time basis.
• Transitional care: When it comes time for students to leave the school, we have two independent living flats where students can learn essential life skills such as budgeting, cooking and domestic chores.

Curriculum

Headlands School has an innovative approach to education. As well as offering the national curriculum and national exams, we help pupils to develop their basic skills in literacy, numeracy and key skills. Our curriculum also includes an Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network (ASDAN), offering young people activity-based learning.

We work hard to understand each pupil's needs, supporting those who may have problems and carefully matching the work to the pupil's abilities. This helps them to make progress in their education and personal achievements. Our culture of continuous improvement and promoting best practice throughout the school helps to improve behaviour and reduce the time pupils spend outside the class during the day.

Headlands School provides a Post 16 provision where students have individualised plans which involve part time placements at a local college, work experience and the facility to study for external and vocational exam and improve on their GCSE grades. In addition, we are currently awaiting Welsh Assembly approval for the provision of a primary school centre which will provide a Key Stage II curriculum.

Key subjects include:

• English
• Mathematics
• Science
• Human and Social
• PE
• Design Technology and Information
• Art

 

Our extended schools programme, organised by both the pupils and staff, includes fishing trips, horse riding, surfing, rock climbing, scuba diving, arts and crafts, and many other activities including:

• a vibrant school newspaper that everyone contributes to
• educational trips to France
• snowboarding in Italy
• surf safari
• cycling down the Taff Trail
• canoeing
• annual 'It's a knock out' competitions and weekly sports fixtures with other schools
• an annual poetry slam on National Poets' day
• an annual whole-school eisteddfod every March celebrating the Welsh patron saint

Pupils also benefit from a range of opportunities to be involved in the local community, such as participating in and producing drama events, visiting old people's homes and attending the local leisure centre. This enables our pupils to become more confident in their abilities and their relationships with others.

Contact details

Principal: Matthew Burns
Phone: 02920 709771
Email: headlands.school@actionforchildren.org.uk
Post: Action for Children Headlands School, 2 St Augustine's Road, Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan Wales CF64 1YY