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Birches Green Junior School was established in 1929 and is one of the oldest schools in Erdington, celebrating its 85th birthday in 2014. We are proud of our rich history but also celebrate the developments and opportunities that we can provide for our children in the 21st Century. As a school, we are constantly striving to improve on our previous best to ensure that all children receive the best possible education to reach their full potential. We promote skills for life and the values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and respect and tolerance of others' beliefs and cultures. This will support our pupils of today to become the good citizens of tomorrow. We provide a broad, balanced, differentiated curriculum for all the children through a creative, cross-curricular approach and by providing a wide range of exciting, challenging activities and experiences for all pupils irrespective of ability, background, ethnic origin, or gender. Through the curriculum, we aim to prepare pupils for the opportunities, experiences, and responsibilities of adult life and to lay a firm foundation for future learning. We place a strong emphasis on the development of the basic skills necessary to be confident independent learners and successful adults. We also realize the importance of nurturing individual skills and talents. Our aim is that the curriculum will ensure: Learning is in a meaningful context for the children. It is stimulating and exciting. Inspires ‘Learning is for life. Takes learning beyond the classroom. Builds confidence, resilience, and motivation within our children. Enables children to learn to value others, their views, cultures, and beliefs. As a school, we also promote the fundamental shared values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. In our school, we make provision for pupils who have any of the needs. We know that some pupils will have difficulties in more than one of these areas and we will always do our best to meet their needs. The support in this table acts as a guide but the things we do may vary and actual support will be based on the specific needs of each pupil. All children in school have support within lessons through differentiation and teaching strategies. This means that activities are planned according to the level the child is working at. This can include a variety of ways including changes to the physical environment, changes to teaching styles as well as levels of adult support. View full school

We are a happy and thriving two-form entry Infant School with a fifty-two place Nursery. We offer high-quality education in a welcoming and caring environment. Newly built in 2001, our building offers excellent facilities and resources making our school bright and cheerful. We have a vibrant and engaging curriculum, which promotes active learning, where children can play, develop, and explore together, supported by a team of enthusiastic and well-qualified Staff. Everyone here at Birches Green Infant School works hard to develop positive working partnerships with Parents, Carers, Outside Agencies, and the wider community. Our School Vision: To create a caring, well-disciplined, and safe learning environment. To provide a broad, balanced, and challenging curriculum that enables all pupils to lead a healthy lifestyle, achieve their full potential, and encourages a lifelong love of learning. To provide equality of opportunity and to foster respectful attitudes towards the environment and others, which recognizes and values individual differences. To enable all pupils to have confidence in their own ability to be successful and develop as self-motivated learners. To develop positive working partnerships with parents and carers, outside agencies, and the wider community. To ensure that all members of the school community are valued, mutually respected, and encouraged to promote high standards of achievement. We follow Letters and Sounds for our Phonics Teaching, we use Jolly Phonics to share each grapheme and corresponding phoneme. We also use an online resource called Phonics Play. We use a variety of schemes to teach reading. We follow Oxford Reading Tree texts and more recently we have introduced Bug Club, an online library of books that children can engage with. Children's comprehension improves by answering questions about the book through the little bug character who appears on some of the pages. We expect everyone at Birches Green Infant School to show: Friendship Excellence Honesty And Respect View full school

The Birches is a relatively large specialist support primary school based in South Manchester catering for a vibrant population of truly outstanding children. From the very first time I walked through the doors of the school, it struck me how strongly the children are at the very heart of everything that the school does. The children are valued by a dedicated multi-disciplinary team of staff who will always go the extra mile. Through this highly experienced team, and excellent school resources, we can provide a challenging and rewarding learning environment for all of our pupils. One in which we can nurture them, to ensure that they grow, learn and develop in a safe, secure, and caring environment. We are a 143 place school that supports pupils with a diagnosis of ASC, SLD, and PMLD. The Birches is a fun, forward-thinking school that has communication at the heart of everything we do. Maintained by Manchester Local Authority, facilities include a hydrotherapy pool, a range of outdoor play areas, a sensory garden, two multisensory rooms, and two soft play areas. We offer a vibrant and exciting curriculum with independence, life skills, communication, and physical development as common threads of all that we do. We have a large staff team with a vast amount of experience of working with children and young people with learning difficulties. As well as teaching staff the school offers an onsite School Nurse, Physio team, Speech and Language Team, Sleep counseling team, Outreach program, and Occupational Therapy, and sensory integration. All pupils have an individual Pupil Personal Plan to support their learning which is supported by the curriculum. We invest in PE and Music based activities as key curriculum drivers. We have been accredited by the National Autistic Society as the first maintained school in Manchester to gain Autism Accreditation. We believe in forging a strong and positive partnership with parents, carers, and families. Organized events included weekly coffee mornings, Family Fun days, Christmas and Summer Fayres – We have an active supporting charity, Buddies of The Birches (BOBS) who organize various out of school events throughout the year, including a weekend away for families- We gained the Leading Parent Partnership award in 2011 and regained it in May 2015. We were recognized as Outstanding in all areas by Ofsted in 2016/17. We provide pupils with the enrichment of educational visits and community links. We take our pupil’s views and opinions very seriously, especially during School Council Election week. We have a healthy program for volunteers and students and are regularly supported by pupils from Manchester Grammar and Withington Girls Schools. As well as enrichment in the community the school is committed to developing its pupils creatively in areas such as PE and Music – the cheerleading team has represented the school nationally – Go the Birches Bears!! Pupils also take part in rebound therapy sessions, multisensory sessions, hydrotherapy, sensory and yoga sessions, wake-up shake-up sessions, sign to sing. The Birches School is located close to the Withington Community Hospital in West Didsbury, Manchester. The area benefits from the excellent road & public transport links to the city center and the airport. A short walk from either Burton Road or Wilmslow Road/Palatine Road which are served by busy bus routes, with services at least every 5 minutes and a regular night bus. Other attractions within easy reach that the pupils can benefit from including Chorlton Water Park, Fletcher Moss Botanical Gardens, Fog Lane Park. The neighboring suburbs of Withington and Disbury also offer a superb mix of shops for developing life skills and independence. Promoting British Values at The Birches Specialist Support School. The Department for Education states that there is a need “to create and enforce a clear and rigorous expectation on all schools to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.”The government set out its definition of British values in the 2011 Prevent Strategy and these values were reiterated by the Prime Minister in 2014. At The Birches Specialist Support Primary School these values are reinforced regularly and in the following ways. The Birches School Curriculum is currently under review and in an exciting phase of development. We have set ourselves the challenge of designing a more appropriate curriculum for our pupils one which is personalized and ensures that every child has the opportunity to achieve their full potential. We are creating a curriculum that recognizes and develops the whole individual and focuses on developing the key skills of Communication, Cognition, Physical Development, and Personal & Social Development (including self-help & life skills). These are all key skills that equip children and young people for life beyond school. Our curriculum will reflect and be responsive to the different learning styles of the pupils and build on individual strengths and interests. We hope to create meaningful opportunities both inside the school and out in the wider community which will enable our learners to make sense of the world they live in and transition into the wider community successfully with purpose. View full school