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The Bridge is a community special school in Islington, North London. We cater for pupils with autistic spectrum disorders, severe learning difficulties and profound and multiple learning difficulties. Our specialist area of work is addressing communication and interaction difficulties.
"This is an innovative school. We have new school buildings, sensory rooms, cutting edge technology, plasma screens... Also practice is innovative. We try out new stuff and ideas and support each other."
"This is a great place. It is a place that gives opportunities to learn about life and also equips the children for life"
"The school as a whole body really does its best to accommodate all children and address their individual needs"
The Bridge is located on two sites. The Primary Site is adjacent to Hungerford Primary School (which also incorporates a Children's Centre). The Secondary Site is joined to the new sports centre at Holloway School. Both schools are purpose built and opened in 2007. (Interactive maps)
We have state of the art facilities. Click here to view a short video demonstrating the building and facilities.
Many of our facilities have been enabled through donations from charitable trusts and city businesses.
These include:
The Bridge also has an Outreach Service and Training and Consultancy Service.
The Outreach Service works with referred pupils from mainstream Islington Schools who have autistic spectrum disorders, severe learning difficulties and profound and multiple learning difficulties. We support these pupils inclusion in the mainstream schools through providing advice and offering practical training to the staff working with the pupils.
The Training and Consultancy Service aims to share our knowledge and skills with others both within the Borough of Islington and beyond. We run a range of courses to introduce people to autistic spectrum disorders, severe learning difficulties and profound and multiple learning difficulties and develop their knowledge and skills in meeting the needs of pupils with these difficulties. Some of these courses are University accredited.
"The learning opportunities are great"
We also run a range of courses to develop understanding and skills in dealing with challenging behaviour. We have our own Conference Centre based at the Primary Site, but also deliver many of our courses at other venues.
The Bridge School has been recognised by the National College of School Leadership as a National Support School and the Headteacher has been identified as a National Leader in Education. This means that staff from the school are able to visit other schools who are facing challenging circumstances and agree support packages with them.
The Bridge is a Community School in the true sense of the term. We take our pupils out into the community as much as possible and we encourage parents and community members to come into school as much as possible.
"We are a family. There is so much teamwork and collaboration - each person has got something to bring"
We recognise that working with pupils with special educational needs requires a multi-disciplinary approach. We have social care workers, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nursing staff and a clinical psychologist all based in school. Staff from different agencies work side by side with class teams.
"There is really strong teamwork - teachers, TAs, therapists and other agencies."
An example of multi-disciplinary work is the school's project on using speech and language therapy assistants to work alongside other staff in classrooms. This is a project which has been supported by Islington and Camden Health Services along with the school. This project has been running for a year and initial evaluations are demonstrating increased opportunities for the pupils to access communication opportunities.
We also recognise that some pupils benefit from additional therapeutic approaches. At present we provide access to dance therapy, intensive interaction, psychotherapy, applied behavioural analysis and sensory integration for pupils with identified needs.
The atmosphere at The Bridge is a happy one for both staff and pupils.
"People are high-spirited and happy. The children bring that out of you."
"How happy I am working in this place. It is a happy environment, people work hard, people like the job. They really care for the children. They are really committed."
"School makes the children happy."
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