Kedleston Group’s Wings School Notts has been recognised nationally for its innovative approach to inclusion through physical activity. By redesigning PE, school sport and extracurricular activities, the school has created an environment where every student feels supported, engaged and able to thrive. In October last year, Wings School Notts won the 2025 NASS Award for Breaking Barriers to Inclusion. In this feature article, Adam Bailey, Assistant Head of Education and PE teacher, shares how the school achieved this transformation and the impact it’s having on students’ confidence, participation and sense of belonging.
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Kedleston Group’s Wings School Notts, based near Newark, supports children with special educational needs including autism and social, emotional and mental health challenges. Our mission has always been to create an environment where every young person feels seen, supported and able to thrive. Over the past year, that commitment has been recognised nationally.
Wings Notts is a Youth Sport Trust Lead Inclusion School and we aimed to adopt a unique approach to physical education, school sports and physical activity to provide young people with an improved and evidenced developmental experience. For us, physical activity has become one of the most powerful tools for re‑engagement, belonging and personal growth.
At the recent National Association of Special Schools (NASS) Awards, Wings School Notts proudly received the Breaking Barriers to Inclusion Award for our innovative and inclusive approach to physical activity. This recognition also follows our success earlier in the year at the Youth Sport Trust Conference 2025 Awards, where we won the Outstanding Inclusive Practice Award for the same initiative. It has been a remarkable period for our school community.
A Whole‑School Shift Toward Inclusion
As a Youth Sport Trust Lead Inclusion School for Nottinghamshire, we wanted to rethink what physical education, school sport and physical activity could look like for young people with complex needs. Our aim was simple but ambitious: to create a developmental experience that cultivates ambition, optimism and holistic growth for every learner, not just those who already identify as “sporty”.
To achieve this, we redesigned our entire approach.
We created a bespoke hybrid PE curriculum, drawing from the National Curricula of England and Wales, with a focus on physical literacy and transferable life skills such as resilience, determination and understanding health and wellbeing.
We implemented the Youth Sport Trust’s My Personal Best and Inclusive Youth Leadership programmes, which were co‑led by students and senior leaders. We also held daily health and wellbeing sessions, offered activity‑based enrichments and the use of physical activity as a tool for regulation and de‑escalation.
There was also a full uniform change away from blazers to a relaxed sports‑style kit, which removed barriers to movement and participation.
And we created a clear distinction between PE, school sport and physical activity, ensuring each has its own purpose and pathway. PE, school sport and physical activity are interconnected within Wings School Notts but are also seen as three different entities, each with their own outcomes.
- PE is seen as planned and assessed, where formative and summative measures are used to showcase everyone’s progress in their own PE journey.
- School sport is for anyone interested and motivated in a competition pathway including those who want to achieve personal bests or to compete with others individually or in a team, within school or externally representing their school.
- The physical activities school offer includes many extracurricular clubs to ensure everyone is active and everyone’s interests are met with the focus being on fun, inclusion, friendships, having a go, trying new things and being active.
These changes were not cosmetic, they were cultural. They helped remove the unhelpful narratives of “best” and “worst”, replacing them with a focus on personal journeys, confidence and connection.
The transformation has been profound. More young people are now engaging in physical activity at a level that suits their interests and motivations and we have seen a stronger sense of belonging across the school community as well as an increased participation in physical activities and sports, both in and outside of school.
Watch a short video about Wings School Notts and their innovative approach to inclusion through physical activity: https://youtu.be/LyPrKTgpHhU?si=nJzwJrU-fa1nvmPo
To read about our other 2025 NASS Award finalists and winners, please visit: https://nasschools.org.uk/announcing-our-2025-nass-award-winners/