Outdoor Learning is an important part of the broad and balanced curriculum at Silverwood School. We see the importance of encouraging our pupils to interact with the world around them and develop their ability to manage risks in a safe environment.

Through Outdoor Learning, we work to develop the pupil’s tolerance and respect for each other and their environment as well as developing self-esteem and instilling our positive values.

Pupils take part in a wide range of Learning Outside the Classroom (LOtC) activities as part of their normal lessons but also have a dedicated LOtC curriculum. Our Tree Awards have developed as a progressive curriculum that runs throughout KS3 at the Rowde campus. Pupils take part in a range of activities including bushcraft skills, gardening and caring for our farm animals to gain their awards.

At KS4 some of our pupils complete a WJEC Preparing for work qualification in Land based studies including Horticulture and Animal care. Pupils also have the option to complete their Duke of Edinburgh Award while at the school which includes Volunteering with woodland management on site, developing their expedition skills and completing their Expedition sections.

By supporting our staff through training and development to enhance their skills we are able to provide an award winning program of Outdoor Learning that meets the individual needs of all pupils.
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The facilities at Silverwood School provide an inspiring learning environment and include a 20 acre campus with woodlands, a Victorian walled garden, a farm animal area and a purpose built Outdoor Learning centre. Our sixth form college has a well-developed sensory garden, including water feature, a poly tunnel and an outdoor café area for pupils to run.

The opportunities for LOtC aslo include visits into the local communities to help our students find their place in the community and develop essential life skills. 

​You may be aware that the government allocates additional funding to schools in the form of the Pupil Premium. There are various circumstances which can attract Pupil Premium funding, including children who are eligible for Free School Meals (FSM). For full details please get in touch.

The governing body meets as a full governing body at least one a term (six terms per annum) – see this year’s meeting dates below.
There are two committees – Standards and Resource each of which also meet five times a year.
Membership of the Committees (along with roles and responsibilities and declared interests) is detailed in the following Governance Structure and Attendance PDF document:
GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE AND ATTENDANCE AS AT OCTOBER 2023

The role of the governing body is a strategic one, its key functions are to:
Set the aims and objectives for the school.
Set the policies for achieving those aims and objectives.
Set the target for achieving those aims and objectives.
Monitor and evaluate the progress the school is making towards achievement of its aims and objectives.
Be a source of challenge and support to the executive head teacher and leadership team (a critical friend).

Silverwood School is a member of Challenge Partners who are an education charity, led by practitioners, through which schools collaborate to improve each other and the education system as a whole, so all children benefit. For more details please read the following Governance News Article

​2024/25
Thursday 3rd October - Full Governing Body meeting
Wednesday 13th November - Standards Committee meeting
Wednesday 20th November - Resource Committee meeting
Thursday 5th December - Full Governing Body meeting
Wednesday 15th January - Standards Committee meeting
Wednesday 22nd January - Resource Committee meeting
Thursday 6th February - Full Governing Body meeting​
​​Wednesday 12th March - Standards Committee meeting
Wednesday 19th March - Resource Committee meeting
Thursday 3rd April - Full Governing Body meeting
Wednesday 7th May - Standards Committee meeting
Wednesday 14th May - Resource Committee meeting
Thursday 22nd May - Full Governing Body meeting
Wednesday 18th June - Standards Committee meeting
Wednesday 25th June - Resource Committee meeting
Thursday 3rd July - Full Governing Body meeting

Eteach is a leading international education recruitment service, where teachers, school leaders and support staff look for the latest jobs and where recruiters attract the best employees.  

School terms dates are the same no matter which site your child attends. Please find the attached document for full details...

This area is currently under construction, please check back soon for more details.

We understand that starting at a new school is often a worrying as well as an exciting time. The transition support at Silverwood is matched to the child's age and stage of development. 
 
Where a child may be starting at a different point in the year to the main intake, there will be a bespoke transition package. Where your child is entering with the usual intake, eg. the start of a new academic year, there will be a package created to support the group transition. 
 
Following confirmation of a place at Silverwood, please do not hesitate to contact the school who will be happy to direct you to the Transition Lead to answer individual questions. ​

Silverwood School caters for pupils with Special Educational needs that cannot be met in mainstream provision. Silverwood School caters for three hundred and sixty pupils from the ages of four to nineteen.

Silverwood School has three campuses: Chippenham, Rowde and Trowbridge, including an associated post-16 provision which is linked to Chippenham Campus. 

There is extensive new building work planned for Silverwood School and due for completion in Autumn 2023. This will focus predominantly at the Rowde Campus for additional provision to cater for a wider range of ages and needs.  

​Each campus caters for specific needs and, therefore, Silverwood School will offer provision at the most appropriate campus to meet pupil need. Where provision is not offered at the closest campus to where the pupil lives, this will be shared with the LA. Where a preference for a campus is named this will be taken into consideration but Silverwood cannot guarantee to accommodate this preference. Campus designation will be reviewed annually.  

​A pupil may be considered for a place at Silverwood School if: ​

To view the current prospective parent tour dates, please click here

​If you are considering a special school place for your child and wish to look around Silverwood, please use the website to complete the register of interest form so we can direct your query to the correct Open Evening and Campus provision. Please note that we are unable to accommodate tours during the school day except in exceptional circumstances, and this should be directed through your SEND lead worker.  Please do see the school Admissions Policy for further details as well as the exit criteria. 

The Department for Education requires schools “to create and enforce a clear and rigorous expectation to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.”

We are committed to promoting fundamental British values through a wide range of explicit and implicit educational activities. British values are promoted through our social, moral, spiritual, and cultural, (SMSC) education which permeates through the schools’ assemblies, curriculum, ethos, student voice, teaching and learning and our commitment to inclusion.
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Our approach to promoting fundamental British values follows equal opportunities guidance which guarantees that there will be no discrimination against any individual or group, regardless of faith, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, political or financial status, or similar.

The Department for Education (DfE) provides additional funding, known as Pupil Premium, in order that specific groups of pupils, who may be disadvantaged by virtue of their family circumstances, can be supported in their progress and attainment.
 
Please see the documents below relating to our use of Pupil Premium funds

The Silverwood Catch-Up strategy is targeted at the whole provision, including all pupils, subjects and qualifications with equal importance.
 
The entire staff team at Silverwood along with the pupils and their families are fully committed to ensuring that the partial school closures and enforced absences have a minimal impact on the pupils’ learning and well-being.
 
The strategy is underpinned by both internal and external professional advice, and aims to ensure that every member of the Silverwod community regardless of their particular circumstance, receives the education, opportunities and outcomes they deserve.
 
For more details please read the reports below:

Schools must use the funding to make additional and sustainable improvements to the quality of the physical education (PE), physical activity and sport they provide. This includes any carried forward funding from the 2019 to 2020 academic year.
 
This means that the PE and sport premium should be used to:
1: Develop or add to the PE, physical activity and sport that our school provides
2: Build capacity and capability within the school to ensure that improvements made now will benefit pupils joining our school in future years
 
Please read the information below which gives details of our PE and sport premium and how we allocated/allocate funding

View our current Ofsted report
​(Last inspected on 3rd and 4th July 2023)

For more information about Silverwood & Ofsted, please visit this external link...

This page is currently under construction, please check back soon for more details

​For any enquiries please contact - [email protected]  or contact:

​Or if you have concerns about a child and want to contact someone outside the School please contact:
Wiltshire Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) 0300 456 0108 (08:45am-5pm Mon-Thurs) and (8:45am-4pm) Friday
Emergency Duty Service 0300 456 0100 (5pm - 8.45am)
If a child is in immediate danger or left alone, you should contact the police or call an ambulance immediately on 999.

Designated Safeguarding Lead:
Terri Chard

Designated Governor for Safeguarding:
Hayley Holland

We believe that childhood is a special time. Children should be cherished and nurtured and young people should never experience abuse of any kind. We are clear that as a school we have a responsibility to keep them safe and free from harm.
 
We recognise that the welfare of children is paramount in all the work we do and in the decisions we take for all children, regardless of; age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation have an equal right to protection from all types of abuse. We keep the welfare of the child at the centre of our school.
 
Some of our children are additionally vulnerable because of the impact of previous experiences, their level of dependency, communication needs or other issues relating to physical or learning disability. We will work in partnership with a range of other agencies to promoting young people’s welfare, and ensure they can achieve the best outcomes. Staff are happy to challenge when there are professional disagreements.
 
At the Silverwood School we have a strong ethos of safeguarding by ensuring it is kept as the school’s top priority. We have a safeguarding team that provides training and facilitates this ethos throughout the school. We ensure that all staff uphold safeguarding best practice through our policies, procedures and code of conduct for staff and volunteers.
 
We have developed an effective online safety policy; additionally, online safety training is offered to all parents through free safeguarding workshops. We will share current information about safeguarding and good practice with children and their families through personalised sessions with children and group opportunities either through support work or online sessions for families and within the school’s newsletter.
  
All staff keep current with their training. The Designated Safeguarding team have regular supervision to ensure that all staff can safeguard children effectively. They also engage in a wider safeguarding network within the county and the South West. 
 
Any records made or stored are used professionally and securely in line with data protection legislation and guidance. We will use our child protection and safeguarding procedures to share concerns and relevant information with agencies who need to know. We will involve children, young people, parents, families and carers appropriately.


We have behaviour policies that ensures that all children feel safe in the school
 
We provide a safe physical environment for our children. We have built a safeguarding culture where staff and volunteers, children, young people and their families, treat each other with respect and are comfortable about sharing concerns. We use a variety of communication so that everyone’s voice is heard and valued.

Here is a link for an Early Years Activity Library
Here is a link for the Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage

Open information sessions at Silverwood School (3 x per year)
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Pupils issued with EHCP (Education Health Care Plan)
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Consultation of school placements
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School place offered
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TISMs (Transition into School Meetings)  (Term 5)
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Visits to existing settings (Term 6)
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New starter session – Information sessions, including other professionals (for example Learning Disability Team, Wiltshire Parent and Carer Council), support with information sharing paperwork. (Term 6)
Stay and Play sessions (Term 6)
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Home visits and outreach work (Beginning of Term 1)
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Stay and Play sessions/Phased Inductions (Beginning of Term 1)
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Planning meetings with Speech and Language Therapist and other Professionals (Term 1)
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Annual Reviews of EHCP (By end of Term 2)

At Silverwood School, we aim for all pupils to develop a love of stories, books and reading. Books are an integral part of our curriculum and our classroom environment. We see all of our pupils as readers and we ensure that phonics and spelling is taught across all Key Stages.
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Within the Pre and Semi Formal Pathway, pupils continue to receive Phonics teaching using Twinkl Phonics during each literacy lesson.
Within the Formal Pathway pupils receive dedicated spelling and Phonics teaching as part of each timetabled English lesson.  Pupils are assessed regularly and when they have achieved all aspects of Level 6 phonics they will explore challenging texts during Guided Reading sessions.  

Each pupil will be baseline assessed and their phonic knowledge will be assessed and monitored termly. This data will be used to inform provision. Groupings are flexible and pupils are able to move between groups to allow for timely challenge and support.
 
At Silverwood, we recognise that assessment data will demonstrate the progression of pupils’ reading and spelling skills. The impact of our Phonics provision will also be demonstrated by pupil’s engagement with stories, their enthusiasm for sharing books and their growing independence in engaging with texts at home and school.

Communication is at the heart of life; it is pivotal to sharing our joy and sadness, building relationships, advocating for ourselves and engaging in learning. At Silverwood School we want to provide an environment that fosters a sense of safety and promotes self-advocacy and regulation, in order to enable our students to develop communication skills for life. We recognise that communication is all-day, every day and seek to offer meaningful opportunities for students to experience, learn and practice their communication skills.

Nicky Caslin – Lead SENCo
Faye Booth – Total Communication Lead
Hannah Simkins – HCRG Speech and Language Therapist
Angela Fairgrieve – HCRG Speech and Language Therapist
Ruth Jones – Speech and Language Therapist
Rosie Raikes-Palmer – AAC support
Becky Nottingham – SENCo
Julie Inglis – SENCo
Katie Baxter – SENCo
Ciorstan Malcolm – SENCo 

The Communication Bill of Rights sums up everything we strive to achieve at Silverwood. It is a tool that informs our students and supporting adults as to what and how communication should take place. It speaks to students feeling confident to advocate for themselves, asking questions and seeking support with their communication. It helps adults set their expectations too, in terms of what support they must be providing and considering when working with our students.​

Many students at Silverwood use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) to communicate. AAC may look different for everyone and so we immerse all our students in a Total Communication Environment. This allows each individual to discover their preferred way of communicating. 

All students at Silverwood have access to a Total Communication Environment. The AAC strategies used across classes include:

Our staff model AAC at every opportunity, for a variety of different purposes. This enables Silverwood students to develop secure communication methods that can be used at school, at home and in the wider community. 

The Silverwood communication team have developed a core vocabulary of signs and symbols that we believe everyone should know. We use Makaton signs and Widgit symbols to teach this vocabulary to our pupils. You can learn these signs by watching some of our pupils and staff model them in the video. We encourage parents to use this vocabulary at home – please contact a member of the team for support or resources. 

NHS Speech and Language Therapy support is provided by HCRG Care Group. The Speech and Language Therapists offer regular scheduled visits to school. They provide advice and support for children and young people who have an open episode of care for communication or dysphagia (swallowing), or both. This advice is written in a speech and language plan which is shared with parents and worked on and monitored by teaching staff. Parents can schedule a review of this plan when they feel it is necessary by calling Single Point of Access 0300 247 0090.
Further information about the service can be found on their website

All pupils at Silverwood School will access either Phonics or Guided Reading sessions as part of the literacy curriculum.​

At Silverwood School we use the VIPERS framework as a key element of our literacy curriculum.  VIPERS is an acronym to aid the recall of the six key areas which we feel pupils need to know and understand in order to improve their comprehension of texts.

We have 100 fiction books that we recommend all our pupils experience/ read before they leave us.  These are books voted for and compiled by The Times Educational Supplement and the National Association for the Teaching of English.  The books are suitable for children of all ages and include old and new, classics and recently published stories.