Residential and day care
High Close School offers both residential and day care to its pupils, maintaining the same high level of emotional and practical support from staff for both.
Residential units
We have four separate modern residential units, all based on the school campus, each providing living quarters for up to 10 young people.
Each one is named after a type of tree (Cedar, Pinewood, Acacia and Willows) and comes with:
- fully furnished individual bedrooms and shared bathrooms and showers
- a well-stocked kitchen and dining area
- a comfortable lounge
- a well-equipped games room.
We also have a day unit, Redwood, which offers a breakfast club and areas for play and relaxation during break and lunch times.
Every unit has a dedicated team of staff and onsite manager.
We have recently introduced a unit prefect system, giving the pupils the extra responsibility of maintaining the high standards of their own unit. This has been an extremely successful approach and has ensured that our pupils not only learn to take greater personal responsibility for their lives but also take extra pride in keeping their units in good order.
School security
High Close School is not situated in what might be considered a ‘high risk’ area. However, good practice demands that all visitors report to the main office to ‘sign in’, where they are issued with a visitor’s badge.
Adults who are not recognised as staff members may be challenged by staff when walking within the school grounds. Visitors to the residential units must also sign the visitors’ book.
The school has extensive CCTV coverage that is managed by night staff when pupils are in residence.
The high level of trust in staff, demonstrated by the young people, suggests an unusual amount of confidence that staff will respect every aspect of their privacy - Ofsted 2009.
