Our Vision

Torbay School serves the whole community of pupils, parents and schools in Torbay. It is equipped to aid the educational recovery of pupils who have previously experienced severe and prolonged problems at school due to their emotional and behavioural difficulties.

We aim to become a centre of excellence in the delivery of behaviour support to schools. Our range of services will eventually range from:

• Outreach behaviour support to mainstream schools
• Delivery of consultancy and training to secondary schools
• Full-time placements of pupils with an SEN statement at the school
• Supported re-integration into mainstream schools of pupils attending Torbay School

We firmly believe in Educational Inclusion and seek to aid the effective education of pupils with EBD in mainstream schools. Only in exceptional circumstances should pupils be admitted to our special school. The commitment to inclusion is equally valid for staff at Torbay School. We regard ourselves as part of the wider educational community and seek to forge strong formal and informal partnerships with mainstream institutions.

Many of our pupils will receive support from other agencies. We believe in strong multi-disciplinary Partnerships with all the relevant agencies but especially with Health- and Social Services. The partnerships should be of a practical nature, working together for the benefit of our pupils. We respect the different roles professionals play in the support of our pupils and ask them to respect our educational task.

Our pupils will often have experienced problems beyond the world of education. Some of their problematic behaviour will have been formed outside their formal schooling. At times, education may seem of little relevance to their difficulties. It is our task to re-iterate the Priority of Education often in the face of seemingly overwhelming social and behavioral difficulties. We believe that a high-quality, relevant education delivered by Torbay School will be the best contribution we can make to our pupils’ recovery and re-adjustment.

All our teaching, planning and assessment will have an element of Behaviour Management ‘woven’ into it. We believe in operating an explicit and consistent system throughout the school, which motivates and supports pupils to adopt constructive behaviour patterns. The system is primarily based on rewards for positive behaviour but also confronts negative behaviour with appropriate sanctions.

All members of the staff team at Torbay School have management tasks of a differing nature. Everybody working at the school is therefore accountable and will benefit from the collaboration in the team. We intend to foster a transparent learning culture where staff are open to learn from each other regardless of their posts and status in the team. Staff Monitoring and Support are tasks not confined to the senior management of the school but should permeate all our endeavours.

Above all, we aim to become a recognised centre of excellence where high quality education, training and personal development are at the heart of all our activities for the benefit of the whole school community.