Principal’s message to families – 29th November 2024

Engage Develop Aspire Communicate

Our vision: Working towards successful futures

Reflecting on our week at Dawn House School, it’s been a busy one with quite a few achievements! We successfully survived our yearly Residential Ofsted inspection- a huge well done to all involved, the Residential and safeguarding teams particularly. This was Niamh and James/ first inspection at Dawn House and the inspectors were highly impressed by their leadership and organisation of the team, as well as the practise and activities within the residential provision.

We had a planned 2-day review of our Education provision carried out by Neil Maslen (our Director of Education) and Andy Lole (education consultant), working alongside Senior Leaders. The feedback from this is incredibly positive, particularly focusing on areas identified as areas for development in our Education Ofsted inspection last June.

Alongside this we have also put most of the finishing touches to our reading garden. The plants are in, the fairy lights are up, the sun is shining (today at least!) and the 50th Birthday mosaic that we all made has pride of place on the wall!!

The Sensory bus has its new birthday logo on and we are excitedly awaiting the delivery of our new flagpole!

Can I introduce John Bennett, Natalie Meyrick and Judy Clegg from the School Advisory Board (SAB) at Dawn House School.

John and Natalie are parent members and Judy chairs the School Advisory Board. John is the residential champion, and Natalie is the health and safety champion.

The School Advisory Board is a way to make sure the views of parents and carers are heard by the school and by Speech and Language UK. Please find out more about John and Judy below.

We will be at the parents’ day on November 30th and we look forward to meeting you.

John Bennett – Parent Representative and Residential Champion on School Advisory Board

I have a 17 year old daughter who has been at Dawn House School for over 5 years now and an 11 year old son who is in mainstream education. My daughter is currently in year 12 so moved up into sixth form in September, she accesses residential provision 2 days per week for extended days.

My role on the school advisory board is to represent parents views and in particular their “lived experiences” as parents of children at the school. As parents of children at Dawn House School come from a wide geographical area, we rarely get chance to meet in person, unlike mainstream schools where the school run and playground are a daily meeting place for many parents. However, I hope to meet as many parents as possible at school events and my contact details are available from the school office.

As a parent of children with SEND I am motivated to support other parents of children and young people with SEND and am also a trustee of my Local Parent Carers Forum. I am keen to hear from parents with their experiences both positive and negative, so I am better able to represent all these views at the school advisory board. Please feel free to speak to me if you see me at any school events or email me at [email protected].

Judy Clegg – Chair of the School Advisory Board

I have been involved with Dawn House School for many years. Previously, I was chair of governors before we moved to a School Advisory Board as well as being involved in research and other projects with the school. As well as Chair of the School Advisory Board, I’m also a trustee of Speech and Language UK. I’m a Speech and Language Therapist by background and I work at the University of Sheffield. I’m a Professor of Speech and Language Therapy and do research about the needs of children and young people with speech, language and communication needs as well as teach students to quality to be Speech and Language Therapists.

I am very passionate about Dawn House School and how it supports children and young people to thrive. Please feel free to speak to me if you see me at any school events or email me at [email protected]

Judy, John and Natalie will be at the Parents Day on November 30th. We look forward to meeting you there and we can talk about the work we do on the School Advisory Board.

On that note, we look forward to seeing most of you tomorrow for your meetings with staff and for you to start your Christmas shopping at our Christmas Fayre!

Don’t forget that school is not open to pupils on Monday 2nd December!

 Best wishes,

Jenny