Danesgate School

Danesgate School

The Danesgate Community is a specialist provision for pupils with a high level of Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs (SEMH) who require a supportive and nurturing learning environment with experienced and qualified specialist practitioners to reach their potential holistically.

It provides a full time place for 120 children and young people from Year 1 to Year 11 who have struggled to thrive in mainstream school, despite significant adjustments to the learning environment and curriculum offer. This often will have included access to commissioned external Alternative Provisions and bespoke support through additional staffing and reasonable adaptations. In many cases, prior to placement, children have experienced sustained periods of dysregulation, disengagement and some will have had significant exposure to school behaviour systems including internal and external suspensions and potentially permanent exclusion.

Pupils will have an EHCP with a primary need of SEMH, with or without a diagnosis of ADHD and/or ASC with the provision described within the EHCP matching that within this specialist setting. Danesgate pupils often have experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences and/or have neurodiverse characteristics that are best met in the environment this setting offers.

Pupils who join Danesgate are often well known to support services in the city and the setting has strong relationships with Youth Justice services, CAMHS and Social Care due to the children and young person’s needs and challenges. Danesgate offers a high quality educational experience for pupils aged 5-16. The model includes teaching in small groups with a high ratio of staffing and with a focus on each individual to create a positive and encouraging learning environment. Positive working relationships are the key to making young people feel valued, allowing them to grow in their confidence and self-worth.

While Danesgate offers a range of qualifications to support a wide range of abilities, they also focus on each pupil understanding and embracing their special educational needs and building life-long skills and strategies to manage these independently. Pupils take part in a wide range of SEN interventions to develop learning and to build social communication and interaction skills and emotional resilience. The expectation is that children will transition back to mainstream school or will progress to mainstream local providers at Post 16 and will go on to contribute to their wider community in a constructive and sustainable manner.