Highfurlong and Woodlands Schools

The secondary phases of Highfurlong and Woodlands Special Schools are to combine to form a new secondary special school “Centre of Excellence” on the site of Highfurlong School. This will provide a state of the art environment for young people with severe, profound and multiple and physical difficulties.

This development on an inclusive campus with Collegiate High School and Sports College and the Blackpool Sixth Form College will greatly enhance the education and life opportunities of learners from the school and their mainstream peers.

The school will form a “hub” for extended services and a multi disciplinary team that will meet the needs of the young people from the school, the wider campus and across the Authority.

The development of the new school will enhance the already high quality of teaching and learning that has been judged as “Outstanding” by Ofsted in both schools’ latest inspections.

Highfurlong School has gained specialist school status (Physical and Sensory) and Woodlands School is the only day special school to have been judged “Outstanding” in four consecutive inspections.

The vision of the school for its learners and community has been developed by both schools:

• To ensure that the young people are at the heart of the school - the centre of everything we do;
• To provide a happy caring school/extended learning community affording a safe and secure and supportive environment in which everyone feels valued and can thrive;
• To support the belief that paying meticulous attention to ensuring that each individual’s personal development and well-being are at the heart of what the school/learning community does and that this engenders an extremely positive ethos that every child matters;
• To facilitate our commitment to personalised learning;
• To enable an “I can achieve” belief and an optimistic view of every individual’s ability to reach their potential regardless of their needs;
• To engender respect and trust between young people and pupils and all adults;
• To support the belief that a dedicated, mutually supportive, well trained staff and very strong staff teams that strive for excellence ensure success at all levels;
• To develop a staff who are flexible and always seeking ways to further improve their own practice and be innovative in their approaches to their work ensures outstanding learning and teaching;
• To support the belief that by working in partnership with parents, governors and other stakeholders engenders a feeling of a common purpose with young people and pupils at the centre of an extended outward looking learning community.