Our cornerstones
Oasis Restore is based on three cornerstones of relationships, discovery, and community that aim to bring together all staff, and their specialisms, in the service of our common goal of transforming children’s lives.
Relationships
Our aim – with every young person and member of staff – is to provide the opportunity to develop meaningful, trusting relationships: a sense of ‘epistemic trust’.
Epistemic trust is the concept that the process of discovery - and a person’s willingness to trust that new knowledge is worth integrating into their lives - cannot take place without an environment where children and adults believe they are safe, that those working with them are trustworthy, and that they will be cared for and understood. Oasis Restore will provide a culture that fosters the development of epistemic trust, through offering activities, training, therapies, and physical spaces that build positive life experiences and offer connection and care. In doing so, we encourage children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development and create conditions for maturing character, identity, and purpose, as well as developing students’ competencies, skills, and knowledge.
Discovery
We want our children and staff to enjoy discovery and the experience of learning. This could be a child learning to enjoy academic achievement, identifying a meaningful life goal, or understanding more about who they are, and hope to become.
Each of our students will receive an ambitious and competency-based curriculum that builds on their existing interests and strengths, meets the breadth of their neurodiversity and learning needs, and is integrated with health and care. We seek to build every child’s aspiration and hope for future in their education, employment, or training opportunities.
We will apply and integrate practical knowledge across the whole school curriculum, so that children learn as they ‘do’ through an enrichment and life skills programme with a social and cultural entitlement that supports every student to build a future.
Community
Community is an intrinsic component of well-being and growth. Understanding the African proverb, ‘it takes a village to raise a child’, means that we intentionally create a diverse and supportive community wherever we work with children. Oasis Restore is committed to building a school where children and staff are valued. We understand that the actions and behaviours of children placed at Restore have caused serious harm to others in the wider community. Our role is to support children to acknowledge and face this reality whilst enabling them to engage with that trauma, and wherever possible, to seek reconciliation.
From the very first day of a student’s time at Oasis Restore, we will work with them to prepare for their transition. We know that long-term progress for our children will need consistent community and multi-agency support when they move on from the secure school – be that in community, or into the adult secure estate.
We will provide our young people and their families, wherever possible, with an ongoing programme of personalised support delivered through effective working partnerships with statutory agencies and our restorative service network that Oasis Charitable Trust is developing alongside the school.