The Sunshine room class is an non borough funded additional resource provision (ARP) set up by the school for 6 children. It is an adapted classroom that caters for children that require additional support due to their individual needs. Many of the children have an Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP) or undergoing this process, they may have a diagnosis of Autism, Down’s syndrome and/or complex Social and Communication Needs.

We work with each child’s family, allocated mainstream class teacher and the school SENDCO to place and plan for the children that require use of the room. The sunshine classroom offers a higher adult to child ratio than the mainstream classes, concentrating on the individual needs of the children. This allows individual target related learning and interventions to be delivered at a pace suitable to those allocated a place. All children using the Sunshine Room will integrate into their mainstream classes according to their individual levels of need and readiness, which is monitored daily.

Most of the children will access the mainstream experience on a daily basis after their settling in period. This may be as part of a whole school assembly, visiting their mainstream class, some children from mainstream joining your child in PE, at playtime etc. During these these times most of the children will be supported by member of staff from the Sunshine Room unless assessed otherwise.

Some children join us during an assessment period or make substantial progress and may move quickly to mainstream, others may make smaller personalised steps. All children allocated to the room are provided with strategies that are intended to help them improve their life skills and cope within their mainstream classroom. Transitions to mainstream are tailored and adapted to the individual child’s needs. We encourage practical and visual strategies that can be implemented in the child’s mainstream class and home. Our aim is to reduce a child’s co-dependence on 1:1 adult support and promote strategies that may increase their independence but it is important to remember that the children all have very individual needs and each experience for each child is very different.