The Base

Gloucester Road Primary School offers two alternative classrooms, Leopards and Leopard cubs, known as ‘The Base’ which offers an alternative learning environment for students with Social Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties that are expressed as extreme dysregulated behaviour.

These behaviours can result in difficulty accessing the mainstream classroom and therefore the Base provision focuses on a sensory based approach to learning with intense support, reduced demands and small children to staff ratios to ensure children receive the support they need.

Children in The Base access a full national curriculum which has been adapted to their individual needs allowing them to make individual progress across all areas of development.

The Base is staffed by a Teacher and Teaching Partners as follows:

Miss Jenkins

Mrs Shortman

Our Key Question this term is :

How are Kenya and England different and the same?

Read our project map Here

Reading in Leopards

In Leopards, each student follows a bespoke intervention programme to support their reading which might include 1:1 phonics interventions or 1:1 reading comprehension with a member of staff. The students are read to daily during English lessons or at the end of the day and are encouraged to read at home and in school. Students read daily to an adult and books are targeted at the children's individual interests and changed when completed,

Maths in Leopards

Maths is taught daily in Leopards with the children receiving adapted lessons and teaching to support their learning needs. We explore the different maths topics in practical ways, linking the topics to real life contexts and using our reasoning and problem solving skills to solve mathematical problems.

Please find some links below if you would like to support at home:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=number+bonds+to+10

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=number%20bonds%20to%2020

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=number%20lines

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=times%20tables

Writing in Leopards

Writing is taught daily and is based on a book each term. We explore different aspects of grammar that help us to build sentences and the children write one outcome a week in their writing books, this could be a paragraph, a letter or a story. The other lessons are used for discussion, oral practice of sentences and developing their ideas. Children are supported in their writing through scaffolding which could include sentence starters, colourful semantics, pictures or the use of iPads or technology to support their individual needs.

PE in Leopards

The children in Leopards are given the choice to rejoin their class for PE on their class's PE day and have a Leopards class PE lesson every week.

Multi-sensory approach

In Leopards, we take a multi-sensory approach to learning. Some benefits to the mulit-sensory approach, which involves presenting learning in ways that engage multiple sesnse, are:

Improved memory: Engaging multiple senses creates more neural pathways for storing and retrieving information.
Better understanding: Multisensory learning can help students understand relationships between concepts and transfer information.

Critical thinking: Multisensory learning can help students develop critical thinking skills.

Engagement: Multisensory learning can help engage the whole class or group.

Discovery: Multisensory learning can help learners discover their learning style and the techniques that work best for them.

Play in The Base

In The Base we prioritise time to play; free play , play based lessons for learning and play directed by an adult :

Play is crucial for developing children’s communication and language skills, as well as supporting their learning and wellbeing.

Play provides endless opportunities for children to hear and explore the power of their voice, and practice using new and familiar sounds and words.
Play stimulates cognitive development; it supports language development, enhances problem-solving skills and encourages creativity.
Play unlocks opportunities for children to practice their home language(s) and encounter new words.
Play removes barriers, it is inclusive and accessible to all. All forms of communication support play; including facial expression, body language, signing, touch, eye contact and speech.
Play supports a variety of skills, physical, gross and fine motor, which will also support writing. Active play promotes muscle development, develops imagination, communication skills, and helps coordination and overall health.
Play enables children to practice, revisit and embed deeper learning through experimentation and repetition.
Play facilitates natural curiosity, enabling children to make connections, understand what is seen, heard, and experienced in their world.
Play enables children to develop independence, perseverance and turn taking skills, supporting them to negotiate and build relationships.
Play provides a safe space for children to explore and learn to manage their feelings, helping them to build resilience and develop empathy towards others.
Play fosters a love for learning, develops imagination, and helps children grasp concepts in a fun and engaging way.

National Literacy Trust, 2024

Lua - The Base Dog

Lua, the Base Dog joins Leopard's class four days a week. She supports with regulation and emotional literacy, helping the students to name their emotions and develop strategies to regulate themselves, she listens to children read, supports the children with mental health and is shown extra special work that the children are proud of. Research suggests that consistent, positive interactions with pets may also help children develop better social skills, empathy and even self-confidence.

Contact

Please contact the teachers using Seasaw, or you can catch us after school or book an appointment if you would like a meeting. We will do our best to answer any queries as soon as possible.