INCLUSION: BIDE (Belonging, Inclusion, Diversity and Equality and Equity), Self-Awareness and Connection
Whilst ‘Inclusion’ is a term everybody uses, especially in schools, it can also be a confusing term regarding what it actually means. All of us at UPS, including staff and governors, believe that as well as there needing to be procedures in place to support our children and everybody in our school community, inclusion must be rooted in culture.
Since our amalgamation in 2017, our key goal was to draw together our community and create a sense of identity, belonging and togetherness, driven by our values of responsibility, respect, resilience, kindness, happiness and pride and our ethos of Growing Together. Empowered to Be More.’
Almost a decade on, we believe we have achieved this. However, there is always more to do. This page outlines how we strive to achieve ‘inclusion’ at our school, in the most complete sense of the word.
We use the acronym, BIDE, at UPS. It stands for Belonging, Inclusion, Diversity and Equality and Equity, and is backed up by a governing body committee, ensuring that our school embodies the vision that we set ourselves for real inclusion.
2026-27 is our Year of Self-Awareness and Connection and this has everything to do with inclusion. For us, inclusion means everybody is seen, heard and valued. It means that we have an understanding of everybody’s strengths and everybody’s needs. It means that we have an enhanced awareness of ourselves, what we need from others and what we can do for ourselves, leading to an enhanced awareness of each other and a greater capacity to connect – knowing that we all have our own stories which make us unique is key to this.
Every child and every adult at UPS has a ‘Me-Map’. A Me-Map is an integral part of our ‘Self-Awareness Curriculum’ (INSERT LINK), a part of our culture which enables us celebrate and reflect on our strengths and our uniqueness, enhance our sense of responsibility, resilience and independence, and to empathise with others. It enables us to better accept and respect ourselves, regardless of our neurodiversity, our behaviour and our feelings and underpins our school’s support for children with SEMH and SEBD.
Of course, there is much more to inclusion than culture…
Ordinarily Available Inclusive Provision
UPS is a mainstream school and, as such, it is the universal provision that we offer all of our children that must be the foundation for our children’s growth. Our ‘UPS Teaching and Learning Tree’, (see the link below) developed by staff at our school, illustrates the key areas that we feel support our children the most as a collective, with staff acknowledging that ‘connection’ will always be the most important facet of strong, adaptive and inclusive teaching and learning. In addition to this, the link below outlines the extensive strategies that are on offer in support of our children, enabling them to access quality first teaching. It takes into account the myriad Communication and Interaction, Cognition and Learning, Social, Emotional and Mental Health, and Sensory and/or Physical Needs of our children and sits alongside the next level of support and intervention.
Intervention and additional support
Around 18% of our children across the school have ‘special educational needs or disabilities’. Of course, this is just a number, and we all have needs of some sort, which illustrates how imperative it is to take a whole school approach. Some of our children are identified as having needs which should be supported by more than our Ordinarily Available Inclusive Provision and so interventions are put in place to further aid development. The needs mentioned above can often be met by quality first teaching, and with the support of additional adults, but sometimes, a little more is needed. The document below, ‘Additional Intervention and Support at UPS’, outlines our additional offer, elements which are sometimes specified on children’s APDRs and EHCPs (see our SEND page which outlines our offer further here (INSERT LINK)).
The ‘hub’ and the ‘den: Support Bases
Some of our children find accessing quality first teaching within our classroom setting extremely challenging. This may be because of their cognition, but also because of their SEMH needs or behavioural difficulties. There are circumstances where, in agreement with parents, some of our children spend time in the ‘hub’ (juniors) or the ‘den’ (infants). These are calm spaces which allow children to work at a pace and in an environment which may be more suited to their needs and importantly allow all other children to learn in a calm environment too. The rationale for these spaces can be found here: (INSERT LINK to proposal)
Supporting our most vulnerable pupils
As clearly illustrated above, inclusion is about meeting the needs of everyone. But what is also outlined above is that there are some children that might need something different than others. Our Pupil Premium Strategy (INSERT LINK) outlines what might be put in place for these ‘disadvantaged’ pupils and our SEND page again further outlines procedures and strategies in place for pupils who have additional needs.
Pupil Voice
Pupil Voice forms a key part of our sense of belonging within our school community. Our school council meets regularly to discuss all manner of issues, with every class having ‘Smart School Counsellors’ who lead and conduct debate.
Our BIDE pupil committee also meet regularly, with the purpose of ensuring that UPS meets its remit in enabling a sense of belonging, inclusion, diversity and equality and equity. Led by Mrs Helyar, our SENDCo, the BIDE committee feed back to all of our pupils in assemblies, just like the school council. The BIDE committee’s policy can be found here: (INSERT LINK)
Our Eco-Committee, led by Mrs McNutt, provides us with the drive to make the world a more sustainable place. We are a Green Flag school and have been for the last three years, with the Eco-committee highlighting the importance of sustainability and feeding back to our whole pupil body on the work they do and what we can do collectively as a whole school community.
Parental Engagement
Parental Engagement is crucial to our school community and indeed the growth of our school. We have held parent forums for a number of years (summaries can be found below), including SEND, wellbeing and belonging, and more recently we have merged these to be more holistically ‘BIDE’ and wellbeing-focused. We take great care and consideration when thinking about how everybody in our school community feels like they belong and we'd urge anyone who doesn't feel that way to let us know. We have a very open-door policy and trust that our parents understand and appreciate that, and that we are always open to support and challenge – indeed, this has made our school better, and continues to do so.
Equality, Equity and Diversity
We have an Equality and Equity Policy and Scheme (found below) and it is essential that our school culture allows for a feeling of safety, love and belonging to prevail throughout our community.
Our curriculum has been written with diversity and belonging at the forefront of our minds, offering opportunities for our children to be inspired by a range of figures of different races, faiths and beliefs and preferences, throughout history and today, and our assemblies and calendar ensures further opportunities to show how we respect everybody, regardless of any of the protected characteristics.
UPS is a UNICEF Rights Respecting School, enhancing our sense of belonging and responsibility to look out for everyone. More information on the RRSA can be found here: (INSERT LINK)
A sense of belonging and inclusion is cultural. Please see our pages on ‘Mental Health and Wellbeing’ and ‘Enrichment’ to see how this adds further to this culture.
INCLUSION STRATEGY
Please see our Inclusion Strategy via the link below…
