Policies

Statutory Information

Here you can find our school level Statutory Information. Additional policies or information is available on request. 
Please email us if the information you are looking for isn’t here: admin@valleybridgeschool.co.uk

Proprietorship

Valley Bridge School is owned by Spaghetti Bridge Ltd, a provider of specialist education and care.

Spaghetti Bridge Ltd
71 – 75 Shelton Street
Covent Garden 
London
WC2H 9JQ

0203 946 3970

Valley Bridge School have their own dedicated management team, under the leadership of the Headteacher. The management team are complimented by Spaghetti Bridge support functions covering, finance, IT, human resources and quality and compliance.

Oversight of the school is provided through the Governance Team.

Governance Team

The Valley Bridge Governance Team comprises of Directors of the Spaghetti Bridge board and group support staff. We encourage and seek regular contributions from staff, students, parents and community stakeholders.

The governance team is an effective critical friend, it supports the school successfully and sets challenging targets for improvement. Governance team play a strong role in setting the school’s strategic direction and are highly effective in the challenge and support they provide.

We aim to provide an open culture of challenge and support within Spaghetti Bridge. This process encourages open communication and use of data to steer strategy. We aim for consistency and quality. We work closely with key experts in various areas to ensure compliance and challenge as we are always striving for improvement.  

The core strategic functions are:

  • Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction
  • Holding the Headteacher and senior leaders to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils, and the performance management of staff
  • Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent

Chair of Governance Team – Stephen Bradshaw,
Tel: 01803 926555, or via stephen.bradshaw@spbridge.co.uk.

Complaints

2023/24 – n/a
2024/25 – 3

Ofsted Reports

Valley Bridge School’s Ofsted reports can be found here.

Policies

Admissions Admissions
Anti-Bullying Anti-Bullying
Assessment Assessment
Child Protection and Safeguarding Child Protection and Safeguarding
Relational Support Relational Support
Sex and Relationships Sex and Relationships Policy
Complaints Complaints
Curriculum Curriculum
First Aid First Aid
Health and Safety Health and Safety
Remote Home Learning Remote Home Learning
Risk Assessment Risk Assessment
SEN Policy and Information SEN Policy and Information
Accessibility Plan Accessibility Plan
Whistleblowing Whistleblowing
Exclusion Policy Exclusion Policy
Careers Education, Advice and Guidance Policy Careers Education, Advice and Guidance Policy
Rehabilitation of Offenders Rehabilitation of Offenders
Accessibility Accessibility
Privacy Privacy
Terms and Conditions Terms and Conditions

If you require a policy that isn’t listed above, please contact us at admin@valleybridgeschool.co.uk

Safeguarding

Valley Bridge school is in Whaddon. Whaddon is a small village within the boundary of Stroud District Council in South Gloucestershire, which is located less than a mile from Cheltenham town centre. Within the Gloucestershire Constabulary, Whaddon is in the Stonehouse boundary. There are lower rates of anti-social behaviour, burglary,  and substance misuse, compared to linked boundaries within Gloucestershire. However it does have higher rates of shoplifting, criminal damage and arson and vehicle crime.

Our students travel from several Local Authorities mostly in transport provided by the LA. The LA’s we currently have students residing in are Gloucestershire, South Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Wiltshire. We are also within reach of students from Bristol.

At Valley Bridge school we safeguard our students from risk through a strong safeguarding culture based in vigilance, respect, and curiosity, and by meeting the unique needs of each of our students through our Relational Approach.  This is supported by a comprehensive safeguarding staff development programme aligned with the needs of our students and by working closely with families to identify risks early and proactively plan to keep all students safe. Safeguarding is embedded in our curriculum through PSHE, covering topics like online safety, healthy relationships and keeping ourselves safe in the community.

Due to their particular needs, students at Spaghetti Bridge Schools can engage in a wide range of risky behaviour as well as often being highly vulnerable to abuse from others.  Each student has a Relational Support Plan that includes their level and type of need and risk, along with strategies and provision to support this risk.  This means that all behaviour that could generate a risk is not always considered safeguarding and instead can in many cases be classified as a relational support need that will be supported through personalised strategies.

The threshold for safeguarding is reached at Spaghetti Bridge Schools when reports or events indicate that, despite mitigation strategies and provision in place, a person has experienced or could be at risk of harm.  This includes risk resulting from emerging needs that are expressed in new and unexpected risky behaviour or for levels of risk for which there is not yet a support strategy in place.

Valley Bridge School has a full time non-teaching Designated safeguarding Lead who leads the school on developing relational support and individualised strategies to support students known and emerging needs and also leads on ensuring the safety of all pupils.

At Valley Bridge School we follow aspects of the National Curriculum and teach sex and relationships education as set out in our policy.
In teaching sex and relationship education, we have regard to guidance issued by the secretary of state as outlined in section 403 of the Education Act 1996.

Please click here for our consultation page and to complete our parent survey.

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Accredited Learning

In addition to GCSEs and Functional Skills exams, Spaghetti Bridge students are offered a number of accredited occupational qualifications. These include NCFE Enterprise Skills, Business and Enterprise, and Occupational Studies for the Workplace qualifications and AQA Project Qualifications

Preparation for and Pathways to Adulthood

The unique nature of Enterprise Learning, with its focus on real-world learning through a project-oriented curriculum that includes community activities, Industry Experts, and experience of work-environments, means that students are prepared for life beyond school throughout their time at a Spaghetti Bridge school. All students are also provided with Independent Advice and Guidance throughout their Spaghetti Bridge journey.

However, as they approach the time of their transition to a post school destination, it is important that our students’ curriculum begins to focus more on deciding and preparation for a specific post-school destination through our “Pathways to Adulthood” programme. While each student’s wider curriculum continues, an interwoven Pathways to Adulthood programme focuses on students’ development of specific skills and knowledge in the areas of Continuing Education and Employment and Independent Living. At this stage, each student also has a transition plan that details the steps needed to successfully transition to their life after leaving school.

PSHE, SMSC, RSE and FBV

The Spaghetti Bridge Three Phase curriculum and our Relational Approach ensures that PSHE, SMSC, RSE, and FBV are integrated throughout each student’s curriculum in an individualised and student-centred manner. In addition, we have developed a yearly PSHE and RSE curriculum, consisting of termly and weekly themes, a bespoke target cache, and group and individual sessions.

In order to ensure that our students develop their cultural capital, each school has a cultural calendar which links PSHE and SMSC themes to events and activities in their community.

Mathematics

Mathematics is about so much more than simply getting the answer right. Instead, we believe that mathematics can facilitate a new perspective on the world and foster creative and analytical thinking, a growth mindset, and confidence in one’s ability to learn. Therefore, our mathematics curriculum contains three areas: mathematical content, mathematical thinking, and mathematical mindset.

Mathematical content consists of the twelve areas of learning that form the conceptual structure of a mathematics curriculum.

Mathematical mindset is about how students relate to mathematics, are resilient in the face of mathematical challenges, view themselves as capable of mathematics, and see mathematics in a positive light.

Mathematical thinking is the way in which students use logic, reason, and divergent thinking to solve mathematical problems and how they apply their mathematical learning across the wider curriculum.

Spaghetti Bridge schools deliver mathematics both as part of Enterprise Projects and through discrete mathematics sessions. We believe in teaching mathematics across the curriculum as a key part of all subjects.

Spaghetti Bridge schools do not follow the National Curriculum in literacy, but instead have adapted this curriculum into our Mathematics Pillar, which allows us to assess, plan, scaffold and sequence each student’s individualised curriculum.

All students have the opportunity to pursue accredited mathematics outcomes, including GCSE and Functional Skills exams.

Spaghetti Bridge has developed our approach to mathematics through collaboration with the Jurassic Maths Hub.

Literacy

At Spaghetti Bridge, we want our students to have a love of reading, the ability to understand and manage information, and communicate effectively. Our literacy curriculum contains content in five distinct areas: comprehension, word recognition, speaking and listening, spelling, punctuation and grammar, and writing. These content areas are supported by a vibrant reading culture and the fostering of a learning mindset.  Literacy is delivered throughout the curriculum, is embedded in Enterprise Projects and is integrated into all subject areas.

Each student has an individualised Reading Plan linked to their relationship to reading.

Our literacy programme is supported by a comprehensive phonics programme based on the Ruth Miskin Trust Fresh Start programme. For students on a phonics programme, their phonics is delivered through a bespoke curriculum, which may consist of 1:1 sessions or be integrated into their wider learning.

Each school has a termly reading curriculum that is linked to the wider curriculum map with links to the PSHE curriculum and the Driving Question for the term.

The Spaghetti Bridge literacy curriculum provides opportunities for accredited learning, including GCSE and Functional Skills exams.

Spaghetti Bridge schools do not follow the National Curriculum in literacy, but instead have adapted this curriculum into our Literacy Pillar, which allows us to assess, plan, scaffold and sequence each student’s individualised curriculum.

Spaghetti Bridge has developed our literacy curriculum in collaboration with the Cornerstones English Hub and the Right to Read Programme.

EHCP Outcomes

Every student at Spaghetti Bridge Schools has an Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP) and this forms an integral part of their curriculum. Our schools take a student’s EHCP outcomes and break these down into achievable termly targets as part of each student’s Individual Learning Plan. These targets are then integrated into the student’s projects and wider curriculum and assessed on a termly basis.

A Knowledge Rich Curriculum

Children and young people today have inherited a world in which they have access to more knowledge than ever before; however, the knowledge curriculum is often delivered without context or sense of purpose. We have instead designed our knowledge-rich curriculum using Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy to support students to not just gain but apply and create knowledge. Our curriculum map covers the subjects of science, human and social, creative and aesthetic, physical, and technology and design education, with termly topics in each area. The curriculum spirals every three years, ensuring that students revisit and build on prior learning through a sequence of three progressive tiers of knowledge for each topic.

This curriculum structure allows us to build individualised pathways for each student that support ambitious progress across the curriculum in line with their individual strengths and needs.

Skills and Understandings

In addition to our knowledge curriculum, our pillars also focus on skills and understandings. Skills are specific abilities that are linked to a particular subject and understandings concern the role that a specific subject plays in our world. Our skills and understandings are sequenced vertically and horizontally as part of our curriculum map and built into Enterprise Projects.

Enterprise Projects

As much as possible, our curriculum is delivered in the form of Enterprise Projects.  In these projects, each student creates a piece of Beautiful Work of which they are proud.  The projects are oriented around a shared Driving Question, which makes them meaningful, and will have a real-world meaning, skill or focus. Project Steps, (such as brainstorming, making a draft, field work, and presentation) form the backbone for completion of projects, and provide the structure of enquiry for the students to progress and gain both the Subject Pillars and transferable life skills (timekeeping, budgeting, communication of ideas etc).  Projects are supported through collaboration with Industry Experts, who are professionals within a particular field and support our students to complete their Beautiful Work according to industry standards.

It is helpful to look at Enterprise Projects as the vehicle through which learning is delivered.  For example, in designing and building a garden, students can learn any number of topics, such as botany, engineering, mathematics, etc. Where possible, Reading and Maths are woven into projects through interconnected sessions that work towards the Driving Question and completion of the Beautiful Work. Projects also enable students to work toward their EHCP outcomes by enabling any number of areas of learning, such as teamwork and cooperation, emotional resilience, executive functioning, and creative thinking.

Enterprise Projects give students a sense of purpose in their learning and build strong connections with their community, both within and outside the school.

The Three Phase Process

Our curriculum is structured by the Three Phase Process, which allows us to adapt each student’s programme to their current level of need and sequence all future learning.

Overcoming Barriers – students develop their sense of trust, belonging, self-image as a student, and sense of their own potential.  

21st Century Skills – each student’s curriculum broadens to focus more on the skills, knowledge and understandings that will enable them to thrive in the 21st century. 

Community Ready – the student’s curriculum prioritises more the steps that need to be taken in order to successfully transition to their life beyond school.

The Three Phases Process ensures that each student’s curriculum is individualised and ambitious and that they are supported and challenged at the appropriate level on the way to becoming themselves and changing the world.

The Three Phase Process

Our curriculum is structured by the Three Phase Process, which allows us to adapt each student’s programme to their current level of need and sequence all future learning.

Overcoming Barriers – students develop their sense of trust, belonging, self-image as a student, and sense of their own potential.  

21st Century Skills – each student’s curriculum broadens to focus more on the skills, knowledge and understandings that will enable them to thrive in the 21st century. 

Becoming Community Ready – the student’s curriculum prioritises more the steps that need to be taken in order to successfully transition to their life beyond school.

The Three Phases Process ensures that each student’s curriculum is individualised and ambitious and that they are supported and challenged at the appropriate level on the way to becoming themselves and changing the world.