‘A proud day’ - South Shields’ Epinay School welcomes Hong Kong delegation

Epinay School, on Nevinson Avenue, in South Shields hosted 45 delegates from Hong Kong on Tuesday afternoon (January 14) as part of a learning visit.

The visit was designed to allow the delegates to gain a better understanding of how schools can deliver effective career guidance for young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

It was arranged through the North East Combined Authority’s (NECA) North East Ambition Programme, which has seen NECA work with the organisers over the last few years - with this visit marking the first one to focus on SEND.

The delegates heard from staff at the school about how it sets outs its careers-focused curriculum as well as the work it does with employers in the local area to give its pupils additional life skills.

There was also an opportunity for the delegates to tour the school to see how the staff use the different facilities to help its pupils learn in a variety of ways.

Chris Rue, headteacher at Epinay, has stated that the visit marked a “proud day” for the school and heaped praise on the team for making it happen.

He said: “Our assistant head, Kate Lamb, has been working with the North East Combined Authority for a number of years now and there was an opportunity to show 45 delegates from around the school.

“We talked about our curriculum offering but focused more on our careers education and how we try and prepare our young people for the next steps.

“It was a really proud day for the school and I’m not going to pretend that I’ve played a major part in this as it was all done by Kate, the team, and our Connexions advisors, Hayley and Ashleigh.

“To be recognised is really important, our full ethos is about preparing young people to be happy, confident and independent for adulthood so to share how we do that from our Reception children all the way through to Sixth Form is really nice.

“I want to give a big thanks to everyone who put us where we are today, as well as to everyone from Hong Kong who visited.

“One of the things that we’ve talked about is keeping in touch and hopefully have Teams calls between special schools in Hong Kong and ourselves so we can establish a new relationship with new friends.”

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Councillor Jane Carter, the Deputy Leader of South Tyneside Council, attended the visit on behalf of Cllr Tracey Dixon, Leader of South Tyneside Council, who is the NECA portfolio holder for Education, Inclusion and Skills.

Cllr Carter expressed her delight in how Epinay works to help support young people through its careers-focused education.

She commented: “We’re delighted to welcome delegates from Hong Kong who have travelled to the region to learn how, through our North East Ambition programme, we support careers guidance for young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

“It also gives us the chance to highlight some examples of best practice within the region including those here at Epinay Business and Enterprise School which has an excellent careers programme for their young people.”

Hong Kong uses an adapted set of the UK’s Careers Guidance Benchmarks as a framework for careers education and guidance.

This is based on the framework that was initially piloted in the North East between 2015 and 2017 and since been part of the Department of Education’s statutory guidance for schools ever since.

You can find out more about what Epinay School offers by visiting: https://epinay.org/.