Collective Intelligence
As the first stage of St Christopher’s ten-year masterplan unfolds, lead architect Delia Scarpellino shares some thoughts on the process going full circle.
Words by Tom Woods, Photography by Sam Jenkins
Helen Middleton arrived at Moor House School & College as an English teacher twenty-five years ago.
During one Year 11 comprehension lesson, she set the students a fairly standard question, which was to answer a question about fishermen and what they ‘harvest’ from the wealth of the ocean.
One child just wrote down: tin cans.
It was a puzzling answer, which had nothing to do with either the written question or the picture of fishermen that illustrated it.
Helen wanted to understand how the student had reached their answer. A little later, she sat down with him and asked about it. He explained without hesitation: ‘Harvest, Miss. You know, when we take tin cans to the church to donate to charity.’
It made sense; lots of children attend Harvest Festival at their local church. Not so many get first-hand experience of harvesting grain. Or fish.
The response has stayed with Helen.
‘There it was. A moment, for me, of understanding how a language impairment can impact a child. If we cannot make those multiple connections in language, the world will be a foreign place.’
Helen knew she had found her calling – and Moor House provided the perfect setting for her unfolding mission to understand and nurture the relationship that children have with language.
Moor House was founded in 1947 to help children with speech and language difficulties. Over its eighty years, the school has emerged as a centre of excellence in supporting children with DLD (Developmental Language Disorder).
Moor House is a charity and a non-maintained special school for day and residential students aged seven to nineteen.
Today, more than 200 children from across the country attend the school and college, placed by 34 different local authorities. As part of the organisation’s work, it conducts research into interventions for children with DLD in order to ensure a strong evidence base for its practice and to share more widely what works: research and insight gathered at the school feeds back into new strategies and methodologies that therapists and teachers can use in the classroom.
Innovative tools developed at Moor House are shared more widely. The SHAPE CODING™ System and The WHEEL OF INDEPENDENCE™ Framework have both been successfully implemented by therapists and teachers across the country and internationally.
Helen summarises this neatly:
‘Where things are working well, find out what it is that’s making them work well and replicate it. The SEND Code of Practice says that every child with SEND should be educated in a place where they can learn – and it shouldn’t be a fight. Every child has the right to an education.’
Her words are spoken in defiance of the UK’s current SEND system, which is faltering.
The government’s White Paper on education was on the horizon when Helen gave this interview. ‘Inclusion, for those children where inclusion works, is the right thing,’ she says, ‘but for the children who need them, there will always be a place for special schools.’
The White Paper, now released and open for consultation, aims to improve provision for those pupils in mainstream and identifies that specialist provision will be required for those pupils with the most complex needs - but how ‘complex’ is defined remains unclear.
Of further concern is the way in which the proposals increase the number of assessments pupils with SEND will require to obtain an Education Health and Care Plan, and the way in which the proposals will erode parental rights, with Tribunals being unable to name specific placements, but rather a type of provision.
Her words are spoken in defiance of the UK’s current SEND system, which is faltering.
The government’s White Paper on education was on the horizon when Helen gave this interview. ‘Inclusion, for those children where inclusion works, is the right thing,’ she says, ‘but for the children who need them, there will always be a place for special schools.’
The White Paper, now released and open for consultation, aims to improve provision for those pupils in mainstream and identifies that specialist provision will be required for those pupils with the most complex needs - but how ‘complex’ is defined remains unclear.
Of further concern is the way in which the proposals increase the number of assessments pupils with SEND will require to obtain an Education Health and Care Plan, and the way in which the proposals will erode parental rights, with Tribunals being unable to name specific placements, but rather a type of provision.
‘Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium.’
To shore up Moor House’s position in the fast-changing SEND landscape, Helen has brought the Kennedy Woods team in to help develop a ten-year master plan.
She has agreed to involve everyone in the design process. Teachers, therapists and children will all have their voices heard as the next chapter takes shape.
Helen says:
‘What I hope comes out of this is something that is achievable, and which will make a difference.’
In fact, what Helen really wants to see in ten years’ time is not made of bricks. She wants the students to be happy, safe and thriving. She wants DLD to be something people know about and understand, and she wants far fewer children at Moor House and in other specialist settings to be getting there through the challenging tribunal system.
Harvesting means to gather, and Harvest means to give. Helen’s story may have started with language, but it doesn’t end there.
‘For the students at Moor House, it’s not just about language,’ she says. ‘It’s about understanding the world. I think every child has the right to fulfil their aspirations. As educators, we need to make that happen.’
Words by Tom Woods
Director
Tom is on a mission to change the way we design schools. He champions the involvement of children and their communities in the creative process, and through the studio’s programme In The Making, he’s opening up careers in design to more young people.