Welcome to Riverside Beckenham – a wonderful place to be.

The New Year has started brilliantly, and it has been excellent to see the pupils so excited to be back at school. As always, the pupils are our focus, and make Beckenham feel exactly how it should; a happy, fun and exciting place to be. I know we have so many adventures and learning opportunities to come.

Our six classes; Saturn, Venus, Mars, Pluto, Jupiter and Neptune, will all have a highly motivating, irresistible learning curriculum throughout the school year. This will be not only in their classroom, but also throughout the school making use of the variety of spaces we have available, for example, our Sensory Room and Soft Play space. From the moment pupils come into the school building, to the moment when they leave, we want each day to be filled with excitement. We want to make learning opportunities as meaningful and personalised as possible, and we believe this is crucial in supporting them to Be All That They Can Be. Teachers, Teaching Assistants and Midday Meals Supervisors will use each pupil's PLP and Happiness Passport, alongside their knowledge of techniques and wellbeing supports, as a guide to support each pupil achieve what is most important to them and their families.

 Alongside class-based learning, our pupils also experience Expressive Arts sessions, swimming, animal therapy and cooking. We also recognise how important it is for pupils to access their community safely.  All classes will have opportunities to access the local community. This may be to practice a variety of skills, for example, to buy food to prepare for cooking, to visit the library or to visit the local café. We want our pupils to feel happy and comfortable in their local community and our skills for life focus supports this. We know that some families find it difficult to access the community, and want our community visits to support you and your children to have good relationships with the community and the people within it.  

We have a focus on communication at Riverside Beckenham. We know that all of our pupils communicate in different ways and we want to support them to do so throughout their Riverside journey. We work closely with our Speech and Language Therapists to have a responsive and communicative environment in each classroom. This may include communication books, visual supports, topic boards or other high or low tech aids.

We understand the importance for our pupils to have their sensory needs met, and know this is vital in supporting their engagement and wellbeing. These may include sensory diets, sensory circuits or using a variety of equipment in order for them to emotionally regulate and be at their optimum level for learning.  

Finally, we are aware that no one knows our pupils better than you, their families. We feel privileged to work in partnership with you all to support every pupil who walks through our school doors to have the most meaningful and fun day that they can, with the very best outcomes. We are here to support every pupil and each family, and feel very lucky to be able to do so.

Katie Collett-Strutt
Assistant Headteacher