Fountain House School

• Location: West Yorkshire
• Gender: Male & Female
• Age Range: 6 – 14
• Capacity: 5
• Ofsted Rating: Good

Fountain House School is an Ofsted Good ‘with outstanding features’ school, and is designed to provide specialist education for a maximum of six pupils, who are already being cared for by Five Rivers Child Care.

“”Pupils know that each day is a fresh start. Pupils said, staff ‘come back and love us every day”, (Ofsted 2023).

Facilities

Within Fountain House School itself there are three separate classrooms. Two of the classrooms are in the main building and the third is a newly developed log-cabin, situated in the garden, adjacent to the school building.

The upstairs classroom in the school building benefits from a high ceiling and lots of natural light. It is also well equipped with:

• Four private study booths, each with a desktop computer (with controlled internet access). Each booth allows our pupils to personalise their learning environment.
• Library area, equipped with a various of books, linking to all abilities.
• Four desks for classroom/group activities.
• A large flat-screen TV and a large whiteboard, both for teaching purposes.
• Multiple storage facilities, for the pupils’ workbooks and various teaching resources.

This combination of bespoke spaces and equipment is purpose-designed to aid the delivery of a tailored/differentiated, ever-changing curriculum. The classroom is also decorated in line with the specific topics being covered, and proudly displays an array of the pupils’ completed work, celebrating their outstanding achievements.

The downstairs classroom is a fully functional classroom catered for no more than 2 pupils. It’s fully equipped with a laptop computer, an interactive whiteboard, a multitude of displays to match what’s being taught etc, a library and various storage facilities for both staff and pupils to store their resources and belongings.

The school building has two toilets (male and female), which are cleaned and maintained daily.

The log-cabin in the garden, provides the school with another classroom. This was built and became operational on March 2023. Within this spacious cabin is the following:

• A large flat-screen TV and a large whiteboard, both for teaching purposes
• A chill out area, if a pupil requires some self-regulation time
• A multitude of books, all to suit the age-range of the pupils who study within
• 3- fixed heaters

• Multiple storage facilities, for the pupils’ workbooks and various teaching resources.

Pupils who study in the log cabin can access toilets in the main school building.

Statement by a young person, via Southern Authority:
“I love Fountain House School, more than any other school I’ve been to. I feel safe, welcome and my opinions are always listened to. Our timetable is really fun and not what I expected when I first arrived. All the staff in school are great and really look after me. I never thought I would, but I actually enjoy school.”

The school day

Arriving at the school: We expect pupils to arrive promptly at 9 am for intro/check-in. Intro/check-in lasts for five minutes and allows the staff to meet and greet pupils, check how they are feeling and discuss plans for the day. This gives staff an opportunity to attune with the pupils and assess what frame of mind they are in. Pupils will start their first lesson of the day at approximately 9:05 am.

Praise and awards: Points are awarded for punctuality, behaviour and effort each day, and we set additional personalised targets, chosen to minimise unwanted behaviours and strengthen areas for development. The points earned are displayed in the classroom and tracked electronically for analysis. Each day, and weekly, they are totalled up and can earn pupils rewards in the form of cash and trips.

Personalised learning and support: The timetable is personalised to respond to individual needs and interests, while also meeting the requirements of the national curriculum and SMSC.

We also offer personalised transitions (step-down processes), which enables our pupils’ future educational providers to receive key information, advice and guidance, to assist with planning the next stages of their educational pathways.

Assessment

Pupils at Fountain House School are regularly assessed, both formally and informally, to ensure that they are making all-round progress, academically, socially and emotionally. We see this is a core activity in the therapeutic process, and these assessments are communicated to the team. Pupils are assessed in a series of formats, at regular intervals. These include:

• Daily assessment through the B Squared assessment tool, observations and class discussions
• Regular quizzes and academic challenges
• Homework tasks (weekly)
• Weekly ‘Pupil Voice’ sessions
• End of unit/term assessments in all areas.

We report assessment results in a series of ways:

• Marking pupils’ work, so they are aware of ways to improve
• Weekly summaries of pupils’ progress in a series of areas (mini-reports)
• Termly reports for social workers
• Educational summaries for all professional meetings
• Governance reports to our Board.

Enrichment and extracurriculars

We set great store by school trips and the enrichment they bring. These have included places of worship, such as a mosque, a synagogue and York Minster, to raise awareness of diversity and difference in the wider community. Similarly, there are other places of worship that will be visited in due course. We have also arranged previous trips to various adventure centres; local live sports events and museums; talks by the local police to raise awareness of bullying and violent behaviours; and joining a local library to promote and improve reading. All of the above is aimed towards promoting British values.
Additionally, extra-curricular activities are offered on-site, such as:

• One-to-one swimming lessons at a local swimming pool.
• Local facilities where a wide range of sports can be accessed and areas of interest encouraged, by agreement with staff.
• Each term we hold a World Cultures week on a specific country of choice and examine their culture and beliefs. Also, the pupils undertake cooking activities linked to the World Cultures scheme.
• At the end of each academic week, pupils can enjoy an activity of their choice, provided they have earned enough points throughout the week. This can range from trips to the local theatres to attending the local golf driving range.

Our curriculum

At Fountain House, the curriculum encompasses all of the planned activities organised to promote learning and development. It includes activities that meet the formal requirements of the national curriculum as well as essential opportunities to provide a nurturing 24-hour programme, tailored to the complex needs of all pupils. We ensure that everyone in our care receives a broad, balanced education that takes into account the individual differences of their backgrounds, abilities and needs, in order to make their education relevant to their particular circumstances. We aim to teach our pupils how to develop into happy, confident and responsible people, who can trust and co-operate with others while developing their understanding and skills so that they can reach their full potential.

As a school we cover all core subjects:

• Numeracy
• Literacy
• Science

We also offer a number of foundation subjects, such as:

• Art
• ICT
• PSHE/RE
• Geography
• Design Technology
• Food Tech
• History
• World Cultures

Geography, Design Technology and Food Tech are covered in our outdoor learning environment ‘The Incredible Farm’, which we attend once a week. The outdoor provision gives our pupils the chance to experience an alternative approach to classroom learning. Since it began in 2017, it has proved to be extremely successful academically, socially, emotionally and physically.

We also cover Physical Education (PE) each week, and with an alternative approach attached to it: we use a wide variety of external provisions, enabling our pupils to experience unique learning opportunities, ranging from Parkour (free-running) to moto biking. We believe in giving our pupils select experiences that they wouldn’t ordinarily get the chance to try again.

Our unique approach

Overall, our curriculum has an ‘incentive to learn’ approach. This means that if a pupil completes work and/or adheres to their personalised targets, they will receive money tokens which can be cashed in at the end of each term for real money. We believe that our pupils need a push or a reason to learn, and by offering them prizes for targets, we encourage them to engage more frequently and effectively.

The Attachment and Trauma-Sensitive Award validates schools that demonstrate a culture of compassion and nurture, fundamental components for getting children into a state of ‘learning readiness’. The award is issued only to providers who can demonstrate they have met its rigorous quality standards.

While a selection of our school policies are available to download, please contact education@five-rivers.org if you can’t find what you’re looking for.