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This is a poem that one of our students wrote.
Whatley Quarry
Today we went to Whatley Quarry,
On the way there we saw a lorry,

Unfortunately this years sports day which was due to take place on the 10th July has had to be cancelled due to bad weather. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

At our boarding house there are chickens, dens and acres of space to play ballgames, hide in trees, set up water slides and have BBQ's. Girls and boys enjoy playing games of football together, swinging on the tree swing or just relaxing outside.

Dyslexia is a learning difficulty that causes problems with learning language-based skills such as reading, writing and spelling. Dyslexia is characterized by difficulties in processing word-sounds and by weaknesses in short-term verbal memory; its effects can be seen in spoken language as well as written language.  Dyslexia varies in severity and often occurs alongside other specific learning difficulties, such as Dyspraxia or Attention Deficit Disorder, resulting in variation in the degree and nature of individuals’ strengths and weaknesses.

Some adults and children with dyslexia or dyslexic symptoms may go through much of the schooling system, if not all of it, without anyone giving them adequate help to cope with their dyslexia.

Current evidence on dyslexia suggests that dyslexia is a neurological condition and that these difficulties arise from inefficiencies in language-processing areas in the left hemisphere of the brain which, in turn, appear to be linked to genetic differences. Dyslexia can also affect: concentration, short term memory, arithmetic, fine motor and communication skills.Dyslexia is genetic, it is known that there are several genes that contribute to a genetic risk of dyslexia which  can be carried down from generation to generation.

Adults and children with dyslexia usually find it difficult to analyse and work with the sounds of spoken words, and many have difficulties with short-term memory, sequencing and organisation. This means that it is more difficult for them to learn how spoken sounds map onto letters, which affects the ability to spell and the ability to decode or ‘sound out’ words. Although many dyslexic people can learn to use phonic, decoding, skills they typically need a great deal of instruction, and they often never reach a stage where these skills are fully automatic.

Dyslexia is not the same as a problem with reading. There are people who have difficulty reading but do not have dyslexia. Some people with dyslexia can read well, but have continuing difficulties with remembering and absorbing what they have actually read.  Dyslexia also causes problems in maths for the same reasons, people with dyslexia have difficulty recalling number facts.

Being dyslexic is no reflection on intelligence - it is about the access to your intelligence. Being dyslexic makes learning and remembering very challenging depending on the severity of the dyslexia in a particular person. Brain scanning studies have suggested that connections between different language areas of the brain do not work as efficiently as they should in people who have dyslexia.

The degree to which dyslexia causes problems, in learning and in everyday life, depends on many factors. These include the severity of the dyslexia, the other strengths and abilities that a person has, and the kind of teaching and support they may have been given. 

Chloe, a  Pupil at Edington, came from a Primary school in Wales where class sizes reached 35.

Staff at Edington had to first to overcome her loathing of the world at large, and schooling in particular. A very angry, very upset young lady she had been badly bullied in Wales, even by the her headmaster.  In one incident she was hung up on a coat peg and allowed to fall on her head. Her mother’s protests were ignored.

Chloe has a younger brother and sister, both now being taught by their mother at home.

“My mother had a big fight to get me into this school, and now she’s trying to get my brother here, too. I just wish he could come. I had three years of misery before Edington. This is a happy school.”

Why? “Because we are all the same here. We all have the same problems. No-one points fingers. No-one sniggers.  No-one makes me feel stupid.”

Chloe is in her second year at the school and hopes to go on to Shapwick. She is a school prefect and is in the top flight at Maths and is a girl with ambitions.

“I would like to be a professional photographer like my step-father.”
The school’s well-equipped photo labs could be her stepping-stone

If not a photographer, she wants to be a midwife.

Interview with Marcus, a local boy from Bridgwater who is aged 14 and is severely dyslexic.

His parents sent him to a Comprehensive.  Progress was zero so he was sent to another. Class size of over 30.  A keen footballer, Marcus had trials with Plymouth Argyll and Exeter.  Also highly rated at table tennis.  A boy who can hold his own, but admits both those early schools were “rough”.

“Sport was OK, and I made friends, but I didn’t learn much,” he said.  “It was no good.  My parents saw I was getting nowhere.  A disaster.”

So how about Shapwick?   “This place is nothing short of brilliant!  You enjoy work. That’s what makes the difference.”

Marcus spent a year at Edington and another two at Shapwick.

Favourite subjects:?  English in a class size of around a dozen, and media studies in a class of just six.  And now he pursues a dream.

He is enthusiastic about drama and the world of stage and screen. Loves writing.

One day wants to write film scripts and has the determination that could make it all happen.

"Why does this place work so well?   Why is the atmosphere upbeat and positive?

Because it works as a triumvirate, she says.   Teachers, parents and pupils are all pulling together.

From the outset it’s all about building relationships.  All about the recognition and respect we have for the pupils, and the recognition and respect they find they can give us.

Once I taught in a tough inner-city Middle School in the North. When I came here I at once found this is where I most wanted to be, and working with children who have dyslexia is the thing I most wanted to do.  After those 20 years I am still learning.

Teaching at this school can be fun.  Every teacher finds that is so. It’s rewarding for both the pupils and for us.  The children who find their way here, often with great difficulty, are so lucky. You cannot be unaware there are many others denied the same opportunities and help we’re able to offer.

Some pupils come here broken and angry.  Our job is to undo the harm that has been done and make them believe in themselves again.  Our role is to help them find themselves and discover that learning is something they can not only do – but enjoy."

Margaret Kingham, Deputy Head at Edington, Joined the school in 1987, Margaret has spent over 30 years as a teacher, 20 of these have been at Edington.

“It’s a great job – the best I ever had.

I once taught once in a Bristol Comprehensive with 2000 pupils on the roll and after three years I found there were still some pupils whose names I still didn't know. Here, you know everyone of them within months.

This school’s success?  Well, it’s remarkable, it’s rewarding, but it’s not rocket science.  The secret of this place is all down to class size.  It’s about identifying and meeting individual and personal needs.   These are things impossible to achieve in schools any larger than this.

I am proud of the response and the performance we get from our pupils. The results speak for themselves.  But you have to remember what many here have been through before they ever reached us.  They’ve known the misery and frustration of feeling themselves to be failures.

Our job is to help them overcome it all. To win their confidence. To enable them to find themselves, to express themselves verbally, to respect the parameters of behaviour that will help them take a place in the adult world that awaits.

What we require and what we get here is real commitment. The pupils put aside problems and make a genuine effort. They give of their best. What more could we ask?”

MARTIN LEE, Deputy Head at Shapwick, Joined the school in 2001 

Few of our students have been to the Dead Sea, but most have heard that swimmers float very easily in this extremely salty body of water.  Although the idea that salt increases buoyancy is intuitive for some people, students in 9S were recently given the task of proving it. 

Edington and Shapwick School is committed to ensuring that students’ work for external qualification is assessed fairly and consistently in accordance with the standards and procedures specified by the relevant Awarding Bodies. Assessments are conducted by appropriate staff who have the required knowledge, understanding and skills in the area being assessed.  Staff will attend Awarding Body training as required. Consistency of internal assessment is secured through the departmental mark schemes in accordance with Awarding Body criteria and through departmental internal moderation and standardisation procedures.

Candidates’ assessment evidence (this might include photographic, audio or video evidence) is retained under secure conditions to allow for the possibility of enquiries about results or appeals

In November, Year 10 and Year 11 students are given written advice about the production of coursework as published by JCQ.  Coursework deadlines are published and students are given adequate and appropriate time in which to complete their coursework tasks.  Parents are informed if coursework deadlines are not met.  Progress Checks in Year11 include a comment regarding coursework.

As part of the assessment process, GCSE candidates are given an indication of their approximate coursework grade on the understanding that this grade is provisional only and could be adjusted by the awarding bodies.  The final mark awarded for coursework is outside the control of the school.

APPEALS

If a candidate feels that the process of internal assessment may not have happened in relation to his/her work, he/she may lodge an appeal.  Appeals may only be made against the process that led to the assessment and not against the mark or the grade.

A copy of this procedure will be available on request and on the school website.
    Grounds for appeal relate only to the procedures used in arriving at internal assessment decisions and do not apply to the judgement themselves.
    The appeal must be made in writing to the Joint Headmaster (Academic) by the end of April in the year of the GCSE examination season.
Grounds for appeal must be clearly stated.
    The Joint Headmaster will then conduct an enquiry.  In the event of a conflict of interests, the he will nominate a senior member of staff to conduct the enquiry.
    The enquiry will involve examining the evidence for the procedures used in the assessment, deciding upon their appropriateness and investigating whether the procedures as required by the Awarding Bodies have been properly followed.
    The findings of the enquiry will be reported formally back to the candidate within a week of the appeal being lodged.
    The outcome of the appeal will be reported to the Governors.
    Records of the enquiry and evidence of the outcome will be retained by Mr Walker and made available to the Awarding body if required.

EVIDENCE TO BE PROVIDED BY HEADS OF DEPARTMENT DURING AN APPEALS ENQUIRY

    Once an application for an appeal is received, the Joint Headmaster in charge of Assessment will inform the relevant Head  of Department, Line Manager and teacher.
    Heads of Department will have 4 days in which to provide the following information:
1.    Departmental minutes, where appropriate, to indicate that the school procedure for internally assessed coursework was discussed and given out to new and existing members of the department.
2.    The markscheme or marking criteria for the coursework as provided by the Awarding Body.
3.    The departmental  markscheme or marking criteria given to the teachers for marking the coursework if this differs from that of the awarding body.
4.    Dates when coursework was set and published deadline dates.
5.    Evidence of communication home regarding missed deadlines if relevant.
6.    Dates when the coursework was marked by the teachers.
7.    Dates and evidence of internal standardisation and moderation processes, including evidence of standardisation of the specific teacher’s marking.
8.    Copy of the coursework marks to be sent to the Awarding Body.