The Engage pathway supports pupils within their home schools to re-engage with learning. Placements are delivered solely through Outreach work in the mainstream school, supporting pupils to remain a part of their school community. Pupils will receive four, 2-hour sessions each week. Ideally, these sessions are two morning sessions and two afternoon sessions. The placement length is 12 weeks.
Pupils will access a variety of assessments throughout the first two weeks of placement including: Wellcomm, Sandwell, Phonics check, reading fluency check, sensory check. These assessments will be used to inform a clear baseline of skills/knowledge and areas of need. Gaps identified through early assessment will be used to plan personalised precision teaching sessions which will be delivered throughout sessions.
Outreach sessions will consist of in-class support to enable pupils to access input and learning tasks, delivered by their mainstream teacher, alongside their peers. Precision teaching sessions will be used to target gaps in learning or specific needs identified. These sessions may also be used for pre-teaching or providing challenge.
A Thrive session will be delivered during each outreach. Pupils will be assessed 6-weekly, and staff will work from individual Thrive action plans. These sessions include a key, mainstream adult to support positive relationship building in school. During each outreach session, pupils will also access the Readers for Life curriculum. These sessions will work alongside Phonics and reading delivered in mainstream, to increase vocabulary, language structures and verbal reasoning skills.
All induction assessment data will be added to Student Support Plans. Key workers will then add to these plans weekly to create a narrative around progress against targets. Pupils will have targets in key learning areas, in addition to targets regarding SEMH, behaviour, attendance/engagement. Review meetings will occur 6-weekly.
Example timetable for an outreach sessions:
| Time | Activity |
| 9am | In class support for phonics input |
| 9:10am | Readers for Life |
| 9:20am | In class support for Maths input and start of task |
| 9:40am | Precision teaching of identified gap |
| 9:50am | Thrive sessions |
| 10:10am | In class support for English input and start of task |
| 10:30am | Supporting playtime |
| 10:50am | Precision teaching of identified gap |
*Timetables will be bespoke to pupil need and mainstream rhythms to ensure pupils are supported to access key elements in class, whilst also being supported by interventions.
As part of the First Base Engage pathway, schools have access to a 1 hour CPD session to be delivered by Raedwald Trust staff on the home school site towards the end of the pupil’s placement. Topics include:
- ”An Introduction to SEND” – the four broad areas of need
- “Understanding Brain Development” – the principles of brain development and how it affects behaviour
- “Understanding and Managing Challenging Behaviour” – the “what” and “how” guide to managing challenging behaviour
- “Super Listening & Ready to Learn” – addressing attention, following instructions, classroom readiness
- “Focus & Finish” – addressing low engagement, task avoidance, short attention span
- “Ready, Respectful, Safe” – Whole behaviour reset & expectations
- “Supporting SEND” – how to support SEND students to make progress
- “Creating a Positive Learning Environment” – the role of the TA
