Professional Development for Quality Teaching

A special school shows how it has developed an enterprise education scheme to give students opportunities for self-assessment and independent learning, tying into the Assessment for Learning (AfL) model.

Headteacher Maxine Pittaway and her team have developed practical enterprise education schemes that work alongside the mainstream curriculum, and encourage self-assessment, peer mentoring and independent learning.

The students and teachers at St Christopher's, Wrexham, are successfully running sustainable social enterprises from within the school premises, including a hairdressing salon cafe and a car valeting service.

This helps students to gain confidence and practical social skills and feed their experiences back into the classroom and their every day learning.

Maxine and her team have found that these opportunities for independent learning fit well into the AfL model that they've embedded throughout the school, one of the largest special schools in Wales.