Starlight 2026 - 2027

Redcastle SHIP (Specialist Hub of Inclusive Practice)

Starlight

Our Ship, called Starlight, opened September 2024.

SHIP's are a developing network of provisions for children and young people with SEND located in mainstream school across Norfolk.  The development of SHIPs is part of Norfolk County Council's Local First Inclusion Programme.  This six year improvement programme aims to enable children and young people with SEND to access a consistently high-quality education locally, having their needs met through access to the right support for their needs.

SHIPs form part of, and will operate alongside the existing and developing Specialist Resource Bases (SRBs) family of provisions

All SRBs and SHIPs provide additional staffing and resources, tailored environments and expertise to enable children to thrive in a mainstream school environment, whilst accessing the bespoke support they need.

Who is a SHIP for?

SHIPs have been introduced to the SRB family to provide children who have co-occurring special educational needs with an enhanced offer of support a personalised child-centred approach to their learning and development.  All children should be supported to flourish in the mainstream school environment and parents and carers should feel confident that their child's needs will be met.

Pupil profile

Learners who access provision through the SHIP will typically fit the following profile:

• Are in the age range appropriate to the school.
• Have identified learning needs.
• May display traits akin to a neurodivergent profile of needs.
• Will have secondary needs, such as speech, language and communication; specific learning difficulty; physical; medical; sensory; social, emotional, and mental health.
• Have the underlying potential to access aspects of a mainstream school offer once needs have been identified and strategies have been implemented.
• Have co-occurring needs and require support to access mainstream provision.
• Access to the mainstream school offer will be individual to the child and will be flexible to enable needs to be well supported, allowing for successful inclusion.
• Where identification of needs descriptors in educational setting (INDES) are in place they are likely to be in the higher domains across the majority of indicators.
• Live within the maximum home to school transport time of the SHIP.

What will provision look like

The Redcastle Family School SHIP will include:

• specialist teaching and support staff
• personalised learning pathways
• structured routines and nurturing approaches
• calm and enabling learning environments
• sensory and regulation support
• opportunities for mainstream inclusion
• opportunities for reverse mainstream inclusion (through our bubble model)
• interventions to support individual learning and development needs
• strong partnership working with families and professionals
• close working partnerships with link Educational Psychologists, Specialist Partners and Occupational Therapists.

Children may spend different amounts of time within the SHIP and mainstream classrooms depending on their individual needs and stage of development.

Admissions and referrals

Placement within the SHIP are part of Norfolk County Council Specialist Resource Base 

Referrals are considered through a county admissions and triage process involving schools, professionals and specialist staff.  If you would like to discuss whether the SHIP may be appropriate for your child, please contact your child's school SENDCo in the first instance.