Collaborative Working

Recently we have been very lucky to welcome the children from the Lighthouse, which is the SEN provision at Meadowbank school, to our school every Monday. The children have been visiting Poplar 1 and Fir 2. They have been having lots of fun joining in with our P.E sessions, messy play and mark making activities and just spending time getting to know their peers. It’s been a great chance for our children to meet and greet other children from our community and for staff to connect and learn best practice from each other.

🌟 Exciting day at Rowan Tree Primary School as the Atherton and Tyldesley Sports Association brought together six different schools for an amazing yoga and dance workshops to our school.

Led by Vicky and Jaydan, pupils had a blast exploring the world of movement and relaxation. It was fantastic to see so many schools coming together to access the resources available within our Specialist Provision. Thanks to our Deputy Headteacher (Kathryn) for organising and everyone involved for making this day extra special!

 #CommunityCollaboration #ActiveMindsActiveBodies

Every Thursday, some of our children from the Engagement classes, have had the chance to join some their peers at Meadowbank Primary School for forest school sessions. The children have had lots of fun getting to know each other in the outdoors, playing and exploring. It’s been really beneficial for all of the children and they have really enjoyed it.

On Friday 29^th September members from our School Council attended an Art Workshop at Atherton St George’s Primary School. We helped to design and make clay bricks that will be used for a sign in Tyldesley Town Centre. Lots of Primary Schools from Atherton and Tyldesley have worked together to create this sign.

We are thrilled beyond words to announce that Rowan Tree Primary School has been honoured with the esteemed title of Specialist Provision School of the Year Award! This recognition reaffirms our commitment to excellence, and we are bursting with excitement as we continue to make a positive difference in the lives of our learners.

Staff at Rowan Tree Primary School are spreading the word about the impact of restrictive diets on their learners.

Back in 2019 the school recognised from staff and parent feedback that a high proportion of their learners had a restrictive diet due to their additional needs, with pupils often eating just one or two types of food. This was having a negative impact on the children’s weight, mood, oral health and ability to enjoy family meals.

Senior leaders committed time to researching avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) before developing a training plan for staff and families and a Food Facts curriculum which included daily personalised sessions for every one of the school’s 117 learners. 

Leaders know the Food Facts project is having a positive effect by monitoring each learner’s food intake and seeing the increase in the variety of foods and textures they try. This information is then used by staff to support the learners to further widen their diets.

Rowan Tree Primary is now providing training, resources and ongoing support to colleagues in mainstream schools across their local authority so that they too can support pupils with additional needs and ARFID. 

Judge Vijita Patel said: “The evidence base presented by the school in their submission clearly demonstrated the impact of their work. The way the school has tackled the challenging topic of diet and worked with pupils, staff and families to make it work so well is extremely impressive.”

– Tes Website