SRB
Our Specialist Resource Base
George White Junior School hosts a Key Stage 2 Learning and Cognition ‘Specialist Resource Base’ (SRB), also known as ‘Blake Class’. The base is staffed by lead teacher Charlotte Collison, Higher Level Teaching Assistant Caroline Jones and Teaching Assistant Bayley-Norton Butcher. We provide placements to children from schools throughout the county who are experiencing difficulties with their learning in the classroom. We currently have provision for ten full-time placements; the children spend four full days working in the SRB and Fridays in their home school. Placements generally last for two terms, after which time the children are supported in their return to their classrooms. The SRB gives the children opportunities to develop independent learning skills by offering an adapted curriculum designed to enhance confidence and self-esteem alongside building basic skills.
The SRB is part of Norfolk’s Local Offer for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/children-and-families/send-local-offer. Further information relating to the programme can be found at https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/children-and-families/send-local-offer/education-and-training-0-25/schools/specialist-education/specialist-resource-bases-srbs
If you are a parent interested in SRB provision for your child, please speak to the SENCO at their school.
Visits can be arranged by appointment via our school office.
The SRB can be contacted directly at srbgwjs@istnorfolk.co.uk
What are our aims?
The staff in the SRB are committed to finding out how we can best support the students in our classes and support the home schools to implement new strategies and ideas. Students have the opportunity to get 1:1 and small group support throughout the day and will experience different ways of learning.
On entry, children will be assessed in maths, spelling and phonics. These assessments will be used to create individual targets and inform teaching. Precision teaching will be used to address gaps in learning. Tasks will be tailored to the student’s emerging needs using a variety of different strategies. The aim is to find the way children learn best and apply that to their home school.
Current strategies we use include daily phonics, colourful semantics, precision teaching, repetitive daily work, target specific independent tasks and small group interventions.
We access other areas of the curriculum to support the child’s learning needs, focusing on confidence and esteem building as the ultimate bridge to increasing attainment.
We have strong links with our Special School partner Parkside, an Educational Psychologist and the Dyslexia Outreach Service and use these links to get support and guidance where needed for specific children as well as for training for staff to ensure current and relevant practice in Apple Class.
Below is an example of a day in the Apple Class SRB at George White Junior School.
Morning welcome and a soft start fine motor activity.
Phonics: Starting off with direct instruction reviewing prior knowledge, followed by introduction of focus sound. Children work in pairs to decode words containing the focus sound and then complete an independent spelling activity.
Guided reading: Children read a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts, some linked to ability to work on comprehension and some to encourage reading for pleasure with adult support for more challenging texts.
Spelling: Using a grapheme phoneme correspondence chart, children build independence to work out spellings of familiar and unfamiliar words. We also have daily practice of ‘tricky’ words.
Play time: Children in the SRB join the main school for assembly and play times. We have a large outdoor space with play equipment.
Maths: Hands on maths activities with small groups for targeted support. Focus on place value and four operations with coverage of other units to build familiarity of concepts so that children feel confident in all areas on return to their home school.
English lesson: Our English lessons are based around a book which links with our half-term topic. Each unit starts with word level work, building up to sentence level and then whole text activities.
Lunch: Children eat lunch and have play time as a group with other members of George White Junior School.
Colourful semantics: A variety of comprehension and sentence building activities linked to colourful semantics to support children with ordering ideas.
Target time: Children have dedicated time each day to work on individual targets.
Brain break
Topic Time: On three afternoons, we have lessons on foundation subjects. These include art, PE, history, science and geography.