Sharing our Expertise

St Philip’s staff were pleased to be asked to present at recent OCN London SEND Conference and Standardisation Event which is the exam board used in our Post-16 department. Work produced by students at our school is considered to be exemplary and our staff were asked to share their successful model. Head of Post-16, Amanda Skidmore and Tom Morgan (IQA) were asked to give a presentation at this conference to colleagues from other schools about the programme we offer to students in Years 12, 13 & 14 in our school.

OCN London is a national not-for-profit awarding organisation that creates and awards qualifications and each year our post-16 students have great success in achieving accreditation from OCN. Post 16 students follow the OCN London ‘Skills for Independence and Employability’ curriculum. The units studied include Food Preparation, Household budgets, carpentry, painting and decorating and work placements. These skills provide Sixth Form students with opportunities to build independence, confidence and also consolidate skills they have learnt in KS3 and KS4 with a focus on using these in everyday situations.

It was a great honour for the work of the school to be recognized in this way. The conference also gave both Ms Skidmore and Mr Morgan the opportunity to hear about best practice from other schools and network with colleagues from across the SEND sector. The event was such a success that a network of SEND teachers is going to be set up following the session and OCN hope to run the event again next year.