Willaston Primary School in Douglas has been awarded an IQM - Inclusion Quality Mark Award.
It's also been granted Centre of Excellence status, something which typically takes a number of years to achieve.
The assessor from IQM noted a 'strong commitment to inclusivity and community' and a 'caring ethos'.
Abbie Irving, a teacher at Willaston School, co-ordinated the self-audit and managed the assessment process.
She explained to Lewis Foster what it took to get this kind of recognition.
So it's been about a six month process and we started in about January when we enrolled and it you know it took a lot of staff preparation, we worked as a team and we built up evidence. I've got our like portfolio is pretty much to show how we are inclusive as a school from things like our engagement with parents, our curriculum, our leadership and management and our ethos as a school as well. So we built that over several months as well and then in June we had an assessor fly over from England and she came and visited the school for a day, she met some of the children, she walked around the classroom, she spoke to some parents just so she could get a feel for the school and how we're in inclusive school as well. What was that day like with all that preparation that you'd done up to that point was it a bit nerve-wracking? Yes it was, it was, it was a nerve-wracking day but it ended up a really positive day, she called Sarah and she's a really enthusiastic person towards inclusion and to be fair it couldn't have gone any better, she absolutely loved our school, she thought it was a really heartwarming day and she you know our ethos of care and our values of fair respect safe was really put through as well and it was just really nice for her to witness the school in action which lots of people don't get to witness as well which was really nice too. So it's not just about box-taking, this is a whole school project, a process I suppose and yeah looking at the broader picture of how the school functions. Yeah yeah definitely and just getting a real um a real feel for the school as well and talking to teachers and talking to staff members as well and it was, it was a positive day, it was a day of celebration and celebrating our school too which was nice. And what exactly does it mean to be recognised as a centre of excellence? It's amazing, we were absolutely shocked so we only um we only applied to become a basic IQM award and she said in our report that she was so impressed with our level of inclusion and our forward thinking nature as a school that she said that um other schools around the northwest could learn from our school which was really so nice to hear and so usually in the past it takes three years to become a centre of excellence but we've actually we've jumped ahead which is really nice so um that means that um we can we will be part of a cluster with schools in the northwest, we'll be able to share our practice, we'll be able to meet up with other schools, learn from them, maybe have them visit our school as well and even in um in October I've been invited to a conference in Birmingham about inclusion so we can learn from others and you know obviously share our practice too which is really exciting. You have had some special recognition because you've been behind this haven't you? Yeah pretty much what's that been like from your role that perspective? Amazing because I've only been in um my leadership role in the past year so this is one of my first big projects really in the school and it was so nice to have the praise as well and the positive recognition too because you know as teachers you know we work so hard and you know we really care about our job and you know I really care about my role as a teacher and making a difference and you know I you know I I just really wrote the evidence down but obviously it was a team effort and everyone in the school should be celebrated and it's you know really I just wanted to do it justice for the school which was nice so. And do the pupils understand what this is all about now are they how have they reacted to this news? Uh yeah so um they don't always not all children will probably know exactly what we mean by inclusion but really they're just we're just celebrating our school as a school and you know we're really happy about you know the positive recognition that we're getting getting because us our Williston children our Williston community are so special to us as a school as well and you know we feel like they deserve to be acknowledged you know it's a team effort from the children too and it's really really positive. So talk us through some of these key highlights from the assessors report um caring ethos support systems curriculum and enrichments how how is that broken down how do you demonstrate that? So um with the self evaluation report um it was a big report where we had to look at eight elements about the school which link in to a lot of them and so for example like our caring ethos as a school our values are fair respect and safe and you know every single teacher in the school every single support staff member our head teachers our parents our community our dinner staff our cleaners they've got a real sense of care and when you walk in Williston school it's the most caring school and I just think that shines through and it really shone through in our assessment which is really lovely to see as well. What would you like to say in light of all this to the pupils and staff and the in the parents as well who have helped to put all this make this happen? Just a big thank you and thank you for all the support and you know as a school we've I think we really deserve this recognition and it's so nice that Will the Williston community are being recognized as well so yeah it's a really positive thing to happen to our school so thank you to everyone. And what happens next is it same again next year do you have to reapply? Yes so we um we are part of the center of excellence now so that means every year and we will continue so we've written some targets so we've learned from the process as well we've given ourselves targets to continue to be more inclusive and then um the assessor will come well it will join cluster meetings every term so we'll be able to visit other schools sent over from the Isle of Man as well and then um every year an assessor will come over for a day just to see how we're getting on and we'll continue that communication with our cluster group as well which will be really good really beneficial for our school. 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