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Special Schools on the Web.
In recent years many Special Schools have created web sites to highlight their good practice, inform parents, share resources and provide accessible online content for their students. This article provides a quick overview of several school created sites and the resources and content they offer.
Special School Web sites
- Meldreth Manor
- Priory Woods
- Portfield School
- Abbey Hill School & Technology College
- Calthorpe School
- Frank Wise School
- Horton Lodge School
- Ifield School
- St Christopher's School
- Longmoor School
- Little Heath School
Meldreth Manor
Link: Meldreth Manor Homepage
Meldreth Manor was the first Special School with an online presence and the site provides a wealth of content for students and teachers. A switch accessible route is provided which steps through content for students page by page. Text in this section is also supported by symbols and a large number of images. The switch site outlines the work and successes of Meldreth Students and include samples of work and information about the projects various groups at the school and college have undertaken. A further section of the site, maintained by Richard Walter, targets teachers and supporters and provides tutorials on the creation of accessible multimedia activities for students. Creating Switch Accessible Multimedia covers techniques for the creation of learning materials for switch users in a range of common software packages. The Examples Section contains a collection of exemplar accessible resources for download.
Priory Woods
Link: Priory Woods Homepage
Priory Woods has probably the busiest Special School site on the Web. The site is built in several sections to cover online activities, downloadable resources, school and curriculum information. Our Groups showcases the work and achievements of Priory Woods pupils with a large collection of work and photographs. The Resources Section constitutes amongst the Net's largest collection of accessible multimedia for pupils with Special Needs including switch accessible music videos, cause and effect software, talking books and a broad range of elearning activities. Kids Only houses a large selection of accessible online activities for learners with Special Needs.
Portfield School
Link: Portfield School
Portfield's welcoming site provides information to parents and pupils, introducing staff and the work of the school with many photographs. Sections on the work of the school, staffing arrangements and each of the classes are included. The school makes all its policy documents available for download in the Policies Section. Portfield's site also includes a virtual tour of the county showing the pupils favourite beauty spots: see The Minibus Trip.
Abbey Hill School and Technology College
Link: Abbey Hill School
Abbey Hill is a Specialist School and Technology College. Using plenty of photographs the school's website showcases excellent provision and the work of its students. The site provides many sections covering curriculum, news about the school and also provides a selection of Online Activities for students. Dave Barlow, a teacher at the school, is currently compiling a second edition of the free SEN Resources CD which contains many useful pieces of Freeware and Open Source software for learners with Special Educational Needs.
Calthorpe School
Link: Calthorpe School
Calthorpe School's website provides a photo-rich guide to its facilities, aims and partnerships. A news page keeps parents up to date and the latest school and departmental newsletters are also available for download. Examples of the children's artwork are displayed in an online gallery. The school has recently gained status as a Specialist Sports College and a section of the site provide photographs of the excellent facilities and sports programmes available to the school.
Frank Wise School
Link: Frank Wise School
Frank Wise is an award winning school and pioneer in the use of video in schools. A selection of videos are available in the news section of the site. The site provides regular monthly bulletins to friends and parents and the school newspaper, 'Wise Up',can also been downloaded from the site. Their website provides a large amount of information for parents and professionals including copies of the school curriculum frameworks as PDF via the Professionals Section. Frank Wise is also developing international links via the Comenius Project, you can read about this in the School Weblog.
Horton Lodge School
Link: Horton Lodge School
Highlights of the Horton Lodge School website include a gallery of classroom displays and a photographic tour of the school. The Aims and Policies of the school and a Prospectus for download are available from the information section of the site. The school departments each have a section providing photos of the pupils work and the classroom settings. Online games and activities are provided on the Pupils' Page. News items and details of forthcoming events at the school can be accessed via the Calendar Page.
Ifield School
Link: Ifield School
Ifield School provides a good range of information about its work and practice. A photo tour of the facilities and showcase of pupils work can be taken here. Details of previous events and work can be found on the About Ifield page. The Pupils Section of the site provides links to research sites, safe search engines and other information about the school and its routines. A Parents Section provides detailed information about the school policy including access to download Governors Reports and the school prospectus. The Parents Section also contains a large collection of external links related to Special Needs and relevant support organisations. Ifield houses a consultation and training centre for professionals, details of this work are available in the SMILE Pages of the site.
St Christopher's School
Link: St Christopher's School
St Christopher's website provides an overview of the school environment, which additionally provides full-time residential provision for some students. Photographs of pupil's at work and the facilities throughout the site put across the warmth and ethos of the school well. Sections include information on home-life at the school, therapy provision and news items . Vacancies at the school for staff posts and volunteer workers are advertised via the Jobs Section.
Longmoor School
Link: Longmoor School
Longmoor describes itself as a small school with BIG resources and this is much in evidence as you take the School Tour. An Events Section will include information for parents and pupils is being created and will include downloads updated each term including news items and details of training events for professionals hosted at the school. The school has received several awards for the outstanding quality of its provision which are described on the Awards Page.
Little Heath School
Link: Little Heath School
Little Heath School provides a wealth of content about the school, day-to-day routine and the work of its pupils. Information for pupils ranging from the daily menu to a travelogue of the world's most traveled teddybear is provided. Classroom facilities and pupils' work are displayed via a series of 360 degree panoramas in the Virtual Visit pages, in addition to a more conventional picture gallery. The site features a community forum encouraging former pupils to keep in touch and also to host public and private discussion about the school.