When I spoke to Sally Washington about Compass Community School Mountfields Park, she was clear from the start about why the school matters: “Inclusion, Integrity and Care—meeting the needs of children who until now have felt ‘misunderstood’.”
Sally is both Headteacher and Designated Safeguarding Lead at the Loughborough based, specialist SEMH school—a role she has held since April 2022. She joined before there were learners on roll, before displays filled the walls—at a time when, as she put it, the school was “a bit of an empty shell…but with bags of potential!” What drew her there? “The values, the vision and the ethos of Compass really aligned with my own values and core beliefs—every child matters.”
Sally’s route to Mountfields Park was shaped by years of work with children with complex presentation and needs linked to trauma, lived experience, and SEND/SEMH barriers—children who struggled to thrive in a variety of different educational settings. Becoming a headteacher felt like a natural next step “where I could really embed and utilise all of my experience, skills and knowledge to create a unique provision that had a therapeutic approach to learning.”
That therapeutic approach sits at the heart of Mountfields Park today. When I asked Sally what guides day-to-day decisions, she didn’t hesitate. “Every decision that we make at Mountfields Park has the child at the centre of it,” she said. “Practice is child focused and shaped by a simple truth: children don’t learn from people they don’t trust!” The staff at the school understand the direct correlation between pastoral care and academic success, “We form meaningful professional relationships with the children so that they really do feel cared for, valued and supported—this increases their sense of belonging, self-esteem, attendance/engagement and ultimately improves their outcomes.”
On the ground, that philosophy shows up in calm, predictable routines, and in adults who invest time in getting to know learners properly. Sally described how the school’s behaviour system is built around helping children feel “safe, seen and supported”—the three S’s that underpin Mountfields’ culture. “I think the heart of the school is the passion and the expertise of the staff—supporting the individual child, and helping to remove barriers that impact on families.”
The learners who arrive at Mountfields Park often bring complex histories with them. The school is a specialist SEMH provision. All the school’s learners have complex Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs. Many also have secondary needs linked to neurodiversity including, but not limited to, ASD and/or ADHD. It is not untypical for learners to have been out of education for long periods—two years in some cases—before they arrive. “Previous experiences of school for some of our learners have, unfortunately, been pretty negative. In some cases, learners come here because it’s not worked anywhere else,” she says.
Trust, then, is built deliberately. Every learner has a pastoral key worker, which Sally believes is one of the school’s defining features. “We offer one-to-one mentoring for every child in the school.” All staff are trained as mentors, regardless of role or seniority, because “hierarchy is irrelevant to whether or not you’ll be a key worker for the children.” Mentoring is not informal or ad hoc. “It is a carefully planned, intentional and solution focused intervention. Designed to identify barriers and map out practical support tailored to the individual.” For some learners, this sits alongside weekly on-site therapy as part of their personalised therapeutic curriculum.
Learning at Mountfields Park reflects an equal balance of care and ambition. Timetables are “ambitious yet bespoke, because engagement follows when learning meets need.” The curriculum includes core subjects such as English, maths, science, The King’s Trusts Achieve, and PSHE, alongside a parallel core curriculum which features humanities, art and music, RE and PE. Vocational pathways include BTEC qualifications, such as Health and Social Care, Travel and Tourism and Sport. It’s a curriculum Sally is proud of—stretching without overwhelming, and always linked to future steps.
Those next steps vary, but the direction is consistent. “We can ultimately give them the skills, knowledge and care to take their next step, whether that’s college, apprenticeships or other pathways.” Progress is built over time, through steady routines and relationships that hold. The impact extends beyond the learner. “A parent is typically only as happy as their least happy child, so as children begin to feel safe in school again, families feel that shift too—often for the first time in years.”
To learn more about Mountfields Park, please follow this link: CCS Mountfields Park
