Every child belongs. Every child can achieve.
At OAK Multi Academy Trust, we believe that an excellent education should be accessible to every child and young person, whatever their background, circumstances or individual needs.
Inclusion is central to our vision of Together we grow great schools. We want our schools to be places where children feel they belong, where their individual strengths are recognised and where high expectations are matched by the support they need to succeed.
We believe that inclusion and educational excellence go hand in hand. Our ambition is not simply for children to be present in our schools, but for them to participate fully, achieve well and enjoy their education.
Our journey towards a more inclusive trust
Developing a genuinely inclusive trust has been a deliberate and important part of OAK’s development.
Our schools have always benefited from colleagues with considerable expertise and commitment to supporting children with additional needs. Over recent years, we have worked to bring that expertise together, strengthen our collective approach and make inclusion a more consistent feature of our work across the trust.
We have made significant progress, including developing specialist provision, strengthening support for pupils with additional needs and achieving positive outcomes for disadvantaged children.
We are proud of what has been achieved, but recognise that inclusion is an ongoing journey. We continue to learn, evaluate our practice and identify where we can do better.
Inclusion in practice
We believe that inclusion begins with the everyday experience of children and young people in our schools.
Excellent teaching, positive relationships, ambitious curricula and a clear understanding of individual needs are fundamental to our approach. We want colleagues to have the knowledge, confidence and support to adapt their practice so that children can participate, learn and achieve.
Our work extends beyond special educational needs and disabilities. We recognise the importance of addressing disadvantage, supporting attendance and engagement, promoting wellbeing and understanding the barriers that some children and families experience.
We also recognise that children may need different forms of support at different stages of their education. Our approach combines high-quality inclusive teaching with targeted interventions, specialist expertise and additional provision where appropriate.
Working together as a trust allows us to share expertise, develop colleagues and learn from effective practice across our schools.
Developing specialist provision
An important part of OAK’s inclusion journey has been the development of specialist provision within our schools.
Our Riverbank provision at Brookside Primary School and Starlings provision at Overdale provide additional support for children with communication and interaction needs.
These provisions reflect our commitment to developing expertise and creating opportunities for children to receive appropriate specialist support while remaining connected to wider school communities.
We recognise that the right educational environment and support will differ between children. Our aim is to work with families, professionals and other partners to help children access provision that meets their needs and supports their development.
We also recognise the important role of specialist schools and services within the wider education system, and the opportunities for mainstream and specialist colleagues to learn from one another.
Our ambitions for inclusion
We want OAK to continue developing as a trust where inclusion is evident in the culture, leadership and everyday practice of every school.
This means continuing to strengthen the expertise of our colleagues, developing our provision and evaluating the experiences and outcomes of children who face additional barriers to learning.
Our ambitions also extend beyond OAK. We believe that trusts have a responsibility to contribute to the wider education system, and we are keen to work with other schools, specialist settings and partners to share expertise, learn from one another and develop more inclusive approaches.
We do not believe that any one school or organisation has all the answers. There is considerable expertise across education, and we see collaboration as essential to making progress.
Ultimately, our ambition is straightforward: to ensure that more children and young people, whatever their needs or circumstances, have the opportunity to belong, achieve and thrive.