The Beacon Folkestone

The school opened its doors for the first time in September 2016, creating a new single school from the Federation of Foxwood and Highview School.Within that Federation, both schools attained independent Ofsted Outstanding judgements in June 2014 and the move to our new building gave us the chance to build on this to create a wonderful new single schoolFoxwood provided education for pupils with Profound and Severe Learning Needs and Highview for pupils with Complex Needs. The journey from individual schools, through Federation in 2010, Teaching school status in January 2015 and then in September, forming a Foundation Cooperative Trust alongside 18 special schools across the County has been amazing and we are looking forward to this new and exciting chapter in the School’s life.The brand new school building, specifically designed to meet the needs of the pupils at the two schools, caters for 342 pupils aged 3-19 years with Profound, Severe and Complex Needs (PSCN).We will also continue to provide training and support for mainstream schools through the Specialist Teaching and Learning Service team managed by the school. This team offers support, training, outreach advice and guidance to our mainstream colleagues. In addition, the Beacon has both conference and meeting facilities and regularly hosts nationally renowned speakers on its courses.The Beacon also hosts a Multi Agency Support Hub. This is one of four centres across the County that brings NHS colleagues, paediatricians, speech and occupational therapists, and nursing services, alongside children’s social services and portage colleagues into one cohesive centre. We are proud of the strong partnerships this brings to benefit the children and families of Shepway.In addition to the general teaching rooms the building provides specialist teaching spaces (such as art, science, music and drama), a 3 court sports hall, medical/therapy spaces (such as a hydrotherapy pool, physiotherapy and sensory rooms) and a fully functioning detached house for the delivery of Life Skills programmes.The school provides a personalised ‘3 tier’ curriculum with students accessing learning at the appropriate level within 3 distinct ‘zones’. Each zone (EYFS&KS1, KS2&3, 14-19) has a unique ‘look’ and ‘feel’ to ensure that students feel safe and secure in their learning whilst ensuring appropriate challenge to achieve outstanding progress in all respects.In this way, the Beacon is building on the expertise of both ‘Outstanding’ schools to create a single centre of excellence for “Learning, Support and Development.”We hope you enjoy finding out about our amazing students, our amazing school and our amazing provision!

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