Research School Network: H3 Federation – Learning Behaviours a Case Study Discover How H3 Federation’s Schools in Camden Transform Learning Behaviours and Support SEND Needs — A Case Study

Most schools claim to be inclusive and the majority are but it is still striking when you come across a group of schools, part of a Federation, who are truly inclusive in all respects. The H3 Federation in Camden is one such place where leaders truly live and breathe inclusion.

I had the privilege of spending some time with leaders in Haverstock, Heath and Harmood Schools and walking around them recently. James Hadley (Executive Headteacher) has overseen significant changes across the last few years. When you talk to him, he is quick to emphasise the importance of the Federation’s vision – ​‘a place for all to learn and to grow’ with the emphasis very much on ​‘all’. He talks calmly but passionately about ​‘the H3 Way’ and the importance of partnership and working together to provide the best possible education for every single student. Aspiration and inclusion is at the heart of all that the Federation does. It is also very much about provision for Camden beyond the Federation too and serving the community. The close working with Camden Learning, the Local Authority’s school improvement offer, is also striking. EEF Recommendation 1 in SEN in mainstream schools is truly exemplified across the provision – create a positive and supportive environment for all pupils, without exception.

There is a truly unique combination of schools in the Federation:

• Haverstock is a mainstream secondary school
• Heath is a KS3/4 PRU a
• Harmood is an SEMH School.

This has not, however, always been the case and James has overseen significant change in recent years. Until January 22, Harmood had been the PRU and Special School for KS3 students only and Heath had been the KS4 PRU and Special School. James was quick to see that this was not working and could not work. The needs of PRU students and those requiring a special school were very different and could not be met through existing provision. Hence the establishment of Heath as a KS3/4 PRU and Harmood as a KS3/4 SEMH school. James is held in extremely high regard by everyone at the Federation and his drive and leadership in overseeing the change was crucial. As the Chair of Governors observes he has always been skilled at ​‘seeing opportunities that that benefit the students and fit the vision as well as being financially beneficial to the Federation’.

As I walked round the school, I was particularly struck by the CRIB (Camden Re-Integration Base) provision. It is a twelve week programme for Camden secondary school students in Years 7 – 9 who are at risk of permanent exclusion. The programme runs three times a year with placements commencing in November, March and June. Again the provision is strong practice in terms of inclusion in the widest sense in Camden. The Federation works with nine Camden secondary schools who refer between 1 to 3 students per cohort with a current capacity of 14.

Students arrive at the CRIB which is attached to the main school but has its own entrance at different starting and finishing times from the main school – 9.00−9.15 each morning until 2.15 (Monday to Thursday) and 1.15 on Fridays. 

The day consists of five lessons, three of which will be core subjects rooted in the National Curriculum. Subject specialist teachers from Haverstock will deliver English, Maths, Science, Humanities, Art and PE. It is a 12 week intensive programme with the emphasis on turn around and getting the students back into their mainstream school. There is a strong emphasis on teambuilding and ethos support, re-integration and professional therapeutic input. The CRIB works with CAHMs, the Camden Prevent Youth Violence Service, Action Youth Boxing Intervention (AYBI), Speech and Language Therapy (SALT), XLP mentoring, Arsenal Community Programme, the Roundhouse theatre project, London Zoo and Metro Police Box Leadership. It is a massively impressive outward looking programme targeted at student need. As you walk round the provision, you are struck by the full size boxing ring in a large classroom and the outdoor astro pitch funded by the Arsenal Community Programme. Space continues to be utilised creatively. A clear academic rigor is maintained alongside high quality external support that maximises the Federation’s location in the midst of a vibrant Camden community. Again, it is inclusion being lived and breathed and you feel this as you walk around.

The CRIB provision exemplifies a number of the bullet points in the EEF SEN recommendation 4– compliment high quality teaching with carefully selected small group and on-to one interventions. The guidance talks about how interventions need to be used carefully. Significantly at the CRIB there are a huge range of bespoke interventions that utilise other agencies but they are time related with the aspiration of reintegration into mainstream.

Heath School, located near Hamstead Heath is a Pupil Referral Unit. It caters for local students who are either permanently excluded, have been on managed moves or who need a new off-site direction from their mainstream setting. It was previously known as CCfL Agincourt and only became Heath School in April 2023. Alex Wilson is the new Head of School and he talks with the same passion for inclusion as all of the leaders do. Alex describes Heath as ​‘welcoming and ambitious’ with the objective of ​‘empowering every student to flourish’. Again, the importance of seeing each student as an individual is paramount and the need to unlock potential and inspire a thirst for life. There is a recognition of the central importance of a rich and versatile curriculum.

Harmood is the third school in the Federation. It is a specialist secondary school for students with emotional and mental health (SEMH). It became an all through school in January 2022, having previously been the PRU and special school for KS3 students only. Every student has an EHCP with identified SEMH needs but most have additional needs in the areas of cognition and learning, communication and interaction and sensory processing. Many have also experienced trauma. These are high needs students but the school has a distinctly ​‘family’ feel to it. Whilst work on the curriculum is ongoing, as it is in every school to be truthful, a tailored education is offered to each student. The mantra is ​‘never give up’ on any student. The school has the resources, the specialist team and the commitment to ensure success. At the time of my visit there were 30 students on roll.

In the video below we see Beth Bailey – Head of Inclusion talking about how Pupil Profiles are used across the school and how staff are using them to support their teaching. There are some example Pupil Profiles below the video for further exemplification.

Amy Gwinnett shares how the pupil profiles support her as an English teacher to plan and support pupils with SEND in the mainstream setting. She also shares how the 5 a Day approach – focusing on scaffolding is supported further by the pupil profiles.

At Heath School, a Pupil Referral Unit and one of three schools that make up the H3 Federation in Camden, North-West London, tutor time starts with breakfast. In the tutor room of Scorpius, a KS4 group, students have just arrived for their 9am tutor session and are choosing from a range of options including cereals, bagels and juice. The first section of their 40 minute tutor time will be given over to breakfast and relaxed conversation with their peers, teachers and support staff, before in the second half breakfast items are cleared away and they focus on completing their ​“daysheets”, an activity designed to help them reflect on their behaviour for learning over the previous week, celebrating successes and identifying areas for development.

The approach typifies Heath’s priority to create a positive and supportive environment for pupils and managing behaviour in a positive and proactive way – recommendations set out in theEEF Special Educational Needs in Mainstream Schools guidance report. Schools like Heath are, of course, working in a very different context to mainstream schools and due to smaller pupil numbers and a higher staff-to-student ratio, are able to offer a brand of pastoral care which is more bespoke to each student and focuses more on the specific needs of individuals. However, although the challenges inherent to ​“scaling up” these approaches in mainstream settings are obvious, there is much that can be learnt from considering the philosophy of the approaches that are effective in PRUs and considering how they might be applied to mainstream. Collaboration and the sharing of good practice on SEND between mainstream and special school settings can be similarly enlightening, as we have already discovered at H3 through the relationship between Harmood, our SEMH Special School, and Haverstock, the mainstream secondary.

Central to the tutor time structure at Heath is the emphasis on proactively working with students to prepare them for the day’s learning in a way which will support positive learning behaviours. Providing breakfast not only tackles hunger but makes the initial interaction of the day a positive one. Staff and students look forward to the less formal, more unstructured part of the session and the opportunities for relationship-building that it brings. Heath’s recent successful OFSTED inspection highlighted that students ​“are much happier here than in their previous mainstream settings” and notes that they ​“recognise and value the relationships they build with adults.” Pastoral care through tutoring can too often feel perfunctory and impersonal – at Heath the strong relationships tutors establish with students, and their detailed understanding of their context and needs, make the process feel meaningful. Attendance at Heath is well above the national average for similar settings and although there are extrinsic motivations for this – students can earn payment in vouchers for consistent high attendance – just as crucial is the feel of the school as a ​“home away from home” which encourages students whose experience of education has previously been negative to attend. 

The proactive approach also extends to the completion of daysheets, in which students reflect on their progress against the Heath Character Virtues: Resilience, Self-Regulation, Kindness, Self-Discipline and Humility. The Character Virtues are central to the school’s personal development work. Students receive ​“shout outs” from teachers following lessons in which they have exhibited a character virtue and students’ progress towards embedding the virtues in their day-to-day behaviour is celebrated on a whole-school level. In tutor time students count up the shout outs they have received linked to specific character virtues over the previous week and use this data to reflect on their progress and set targets for the week ahead. Once they have identified a Character Virtue to focus on, teachers and support staff will help them to decide specific targets linked to this. In Scorpius a student who reflects that Humility is a area for development agrees that they will ask for help if needed in lessons; a student focused on Self-Regulation resolves to use breaks from lessons maturely and sensibly in order to manage their own behaviour when struggling to cope; the teacher suggests that a student could focus on Kindness by supporting other students with their work. Students are also taken through their timetable for the day and alerted to any changes,

The vast majority of mainstream schools set out values and characteristics that they ask their students to embody; but the pressures of curriculum delivery and the limited time set aside to focus explicitly on personal development mean that time and space for meaningful reflection on these is limited, and students are not given the opportunity to consider what these look like in practical terms. The intention in equipping students with specific strategies and skills related to the Character Virtues is not just to improve their behaviour and outcomes during their time at Heath, but to improve their chances of success in their onward journey after their time at the school, whether they make the successful transition back to mainstream school or stay at Heath until the end of Year 11 and move on to an appropriate Post-16 destination. There is always a risk that students who thrive in an alternative provision struggle when the more focused and structured pastoral support is removed.

The goal at Heath is to set students up for long-term success by increasing their understanding of themselves. OFSTED noted that students understood ​“how important the ​‘character virtues’ are at supporting them to reflect on their behaviour and to see what they can really achieve.” Heath’s Outreach Teacher works with schools to manage the transition when students return to mainstream. Part of this work is about supporting the students to use the strategies they have learnt at Heath so that they can successfully self-regulate. Just as key, however, is that schools fully understand the rich, holistic picture of the student and their needs that has been built during their time at Heath – and can therefore provide the ongoing focused support that the student needs.

Another strength of the provision highlighted through tutor time are the variety of opportunities provided for students to experience success. Students whose experiences in mainstream schools are often associated in their own mind with failure find that they are rewarded as ​“the most improved student” for the week (tracking students’ behaviour and engagement on a week-by-week basis means that each Monday can be a fresh start.) Students who find the classroom environment challenging may find that they excel in Food Technology and are announced as ​“Chef of the Week”. A truly holistic understanding of students and their needs means that their experience of success can be planned for; for many students at Heath, this will be the first time that they have experienced positive reinforcement at school.

- Does your school’s morning routine make pupils feel welcome and incentivised to attend and engage?

- Is there time and space in tutor/​form time for students and staff to build the kind of relationships that make students feel valued and understood, rather than focusing on administration and information-giving?

- Is your approach to behaviour proactive, focusing on ​“prevention rather than cure?” Are students given the time and space to reflect on their own behaviour, and are they supported in explicitly identifying practical strategies to help them manage their own behaviour?

- Just as your classroom teachers should be given the data and time to fully understand the needs of students in terms of teaching and learning, are tutors and pastoral staff given this opportunity in relation to personal development?

- Do your structures and systems provide opportunities for all students to experience success? Are students rewarded for personal development as well as academic success?