The Board of Governers continue to actively support the management and staff of the school. Their priority this year has been to start an ambitious fund raising campaign to fund developments in IT, the development of a Library and an outdoor play area.

Fees have been restructured to reflect more accurately the needs of individual pupils. The school has started a marketing policy by contacting authorities who have not used the school by phone initially, followed by a school brochure. 45 Authorities have been contacted, none of whom knew of the existence of the school and have shown interest in what we offer. In the past year referrals have come from 5 new Authorities. The marketing policy will be maintained.

The focus of staff development has been on increasing awareness of non-confrontational strategies to address conflict management. Further conflict management training for staff is planned. In the next year a crucial area of development will be to formalise our counselling provision, particularly in partnership with the local NHS trust. An extension to this will be to expand the formal links with parents and to offer them support and guidance. For pupils in Yr 10 and 11 it is intended that a programme will be introduced to assist pupils to positively reintegrate into their home environment. Our Child Protection Procedures have been reviewed in partnership with North Yorkshire LEA and SSD and are available on request.

A School's Council has been introduced. It is intended that as this body grows in confidence and responsibility that the pupils will be able to contribute more to upholding, forming and behavioural policies.

In education, a programme of cognitive and didactic tests have been introduced. Pupils identified as having holes in Maths and English in particular are provided with individual tuition along with those pupils who have low confidence in these subject areas.

A system of rotational budgeting has been introduced to focus development in curriculum areas. Last year Science, Art and the introduction of Photography and CDT have been beneficiaries. Next year it will be Science, Maths, IT and Music.

New academic reports have been introduced on a termly basis where pupils discuss with their teachersspecific targets to aim for, in order to encourage progress. This year the IEP's will be upgraded. A system which allows for Key Workers, tutors and pupils to negotiate targets will be introduced, with the assistance and support of North Yorkshire LEA. Staff will be given training to assist the implementation of this programme.

To improve communication within school weekly staff meetings are held involving teachers and care staff.

Staff appraisal has been successfully introduced this year. Its aim has been to increase staff's own awareness of their performance, particularly in relation to the attributes and skills needed to apply non-confrontational strategies. The appraisal policy will be reviewed and developed for its second year of the operation. An appropriate appraisal sceme will be implemented for the ancillary staff, along with a recruitment policy for all staff. Further support for staff has been provided by the introduction of termly supervision meetings for care officers with the Head of Care and for teachers termly meetings with the Deputy Head to monitor the delivery of the curriculum.