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Our View
Part of the Cavendish ¿´Æ¬¿ñÈË Group, this Fulham school expertly helps children and young people with specific learning needs including dyslexia and dyspraxia to realise their academic potential. Alongside its prep sibling, it gives each pupil bespoke care to support their learning, boost self-esteem, grow skills and allow their natural abilities to flower. Caring, dedicated staff are a real feature; one pupil tells us, ‘This school has made me a lot happier. The teachers are so nice.’ Praise doesn’t get much higher than that.
Where?
Located right opposite Bishops Park at the bottom of Fulham Palace Road, the school backs onto the playground of a local primary and has a netball court-sized playground of its own. Bishop's Park has a number of tennis courts which the pupils use, and they also help with the gardening in the park.
Head
Matthew Potger, who has headed the school for a number of years, is passionate about allowing young people to express their creativity. ‘I am looking to create an environment where it comes out naturally,’ he tells us. ‘What do we have to do to make pupils feel like they can explore, feel confident, express themselves [and] have independent ownership of something?’ It’s a liberating approach that really works while helping pupils hit the mainstream milestones too.
Admissions
The school’s large catchment area covers practically every London borough, and new pupils can start year round with tours available on request. It’s an easy transition from the prep school, with older years already spending time at the senior site being taught by senior-school staff. Year 8s who are moving up also spend two full days in the senior school with the therapy team during their summer term.
Academics and destinations
The therapy and SEN teams work closely with pupils in and out of the classroom, ensuring everyone meets their ¿´Æ¬¿ñÈË, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), with regular reviews of what each individual needs. Occupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech and language therapy are all part of the rich offering, with each pupil given a bespoke programme.
Most pupils take seven GCSEs, which include English language, maths, combined science and options such as Spanish, PE and ICT. Some pupils are fast-tracked through English literature in Year 10, then take English language in Year 11. Everyone is given a laptop with Google Classroom. ‘This works very well if pupils need to work at home for a little while and then transition back into school,’ says Mr Potger. Last year, 86 per cent of pupils achieved grades 9 to 4 at GCSE, with 30 per cent getting grades 9 to 7.
About half of the pupils move up to the sixth form and the other half ‘go and do what they want to do with confidence’, says Mr Potger, whether that’s college in Kingston or Richmond or into the workplace.
Sixth Form
The school’s sixth form is in Hammersmith and takes pupils aged 16 to 21. It opened in 2020 with 24 pupils, and today it’s at full capacity with 76. Out of those, 75 are local authority- funded, and the head Steve Proctor regularly attends tribunals as a professional witness to help families navigate the journey with their EHCP applications. The very experienced post-16 learning-support department really knows the needs of the students, many of whom are used to hiding in the background if they come from mainstream schools. ‘We do something different that takes away the stigma of a SEN college,’ says Mr Proctor. ‘Everyone in the sixth form has something they are working on. It’s fully inclusive, and pupils find their people here.’
About a third do three A-levels, which they take over three years, and many do a mix of A-levels and BTECs. Others take purely BTECs, and pupils can also retake GCSE maths and English in the sixth form. ‘Teachers and heads of departments decide what is better for the student,’ says Mr Proctor. ‘We take our time and try to get it right. One-size-fits-all doesn’t work.’ Indeed, every student has their own timetable.
Pastoral care is bespoke too, with a huge amount of additional help available on a case-by-case basis. ‘We treat them as young adults, and support is tailored to what is in the plan,’ says Mr Proctor. All pupils have a tutor, with eight in each group, and a mental-health lead ensures each individual feels safe, supported, empowered and heard. There is also an on-site counsellor.
Outside the classroom, pupils go rowing, play football and tennis and learn self-defence, among other activities. On the day of our visit, students were putting on a showcase of music and art in Bush Hall in Shepherd’s Bush. As well as performing and displaying their work, they were also selling tickets, serving drinks and doing all the sound and lighting. ‘Showing that our students are employable is the message,’ says Mr Proctor. They also cook at a local Japanese restaurant, which has proved so popular that the school is offering Japanese-language lessons now.
Co-curricular
The under-16s have enrichment lessons, some of which are student-led. Football and gardening in Bishop’s Park are both popular. The school is in the special-needs school football league. Food tech (which is offered at both GCSE and as a BTEC) sees pupils concocting all sorts of tasty dishes, which they photograph and display on the wall. There’s tuition in piano, singing, drums and guitar, and both music and drama are offered at GCSE, as are art, photography and D&T.
Everyone does DofE in Year 10, with weekly lessons funded by the school. A recent bronze expedition included a student in a wheelchair. In Year 10, pupils also do a week of work experience, which the school organises.
School community
Pastoral care is at the heart of everything, with real sensitivity towards every student’s needs. There is a uniform to create a sense of belonging, but allowances can be made if necessary. Sixth-formers don’t have a uniform and address teachers by their first names. A whole-school common room means there are lots of inter-year friendships. Having fought hard for their children to get the right provision, parents are fully invested and, says Mr Potger, the school works with them ‘to strike the balance between therapeutic versus academic needs’.
And finally....
It doesn’t get much better than Burlington House School when it comes to providing a bespoke education for children and young people who aren’t served by a mainstream setting. Indeed, the sixth form is in the top one per cent for value-added in the UK of any college. Staff dedication is next-level and, together with the prep, the senior school and sixth form are superlative.