Curriculum

From this September, students have been grouped according to student need. This allows teachers to focus more on the needs of their students and ensure that they are provided with an education that is challenging yet appropriate. We follow the four strands of preparation for adulthood in our curriculum offer and day to day teaching; PHSE /RSE is offered in our friends and relationships lessons; skills for work and life are taught through our life and living and world of work lessons; and community inclusion is taught through our community lessons. Our core curriculum demonstrates our passion for improving each student’s skills for work and life and as well as studying the core curriculum they are also given options to choose from every Thursday.

 

We provide students with work experience and experience of work opportunities both internally, in our bistro and vocational room, and externally by forging links with external providers. The careers curriculum is regularly assessed using the compass tool and we consult with our enterprise advisor and coordinator, as well as other external providers, to ensure that our careers offer is constantly evolving.  

 

Leaders link the curriculum intent to relevant local and regional employment and training by:

•  Working closely with Connexions service to provide identified  students with 3 training sessions per year on transition, employment skills and local labour market information. 

• Teaching employment skills to every student through our world of work lessons each week.  ( What happens in Thrive )

• Joining with Talentino to support with our experience of work offer. 

• Providing training to all staff on the national careers landscape, ran by Talentino. 

• Evaluating our careers offer against the Gatsby Benchmarks using the compass tool. 

• Working with and seeking advice and guidance from GMCA’s enterprise advisors and coordinators. 

• Sourcing external work experience and training opportunities with external providers including Remploy and Bolton at Home. 

• Forging links with external agencies including the DWP, Remploy and Bolton at Home to continue to provide our students with employment opportunities and ensure that they have up to date information about the local, regional and national about market. 

• Providing internal work experience and skills for life through our bistro. 

• Providing internal work experience and skills for life through our vocational pathway. 

• Preparing students for adulthood through the teaching of life skills in our school flat. 

• Following the key strands of preparation for adulthood (employment, independent living, good health, friendships, relationships, and community inclusion) to inform our curriculum planning and offer. 

• Providing impartial careers advice and guidance with a Connexions advisor, for those that it is appropriate. 

• Developing standalone functional English and maths in the curriculum. 

• Providing students with a range of accreditation suited to their ability and aspirations. 

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Students study an ambitious curriculum which is tailored to meet individual needs:

•  Students are streamlined into ability groups to ensure that they receive a more tailored offer. 

• The curriculum is planned around the core preparation for adulthood strands: employment, health, community inclusion and independent living.

• Functional skills are studied to develop essential numeracy and literacy skills.

• Students have pathway options including the Duke of Edinburgh, catering, art, sensory, transition and ICT allowing them to study what they are interested in. 

• Students study a range of accreditations based on their interests and ability.  

• Teachers, senior leaders, families and social care teams meet to discuss individual EHCPs in annual reviews. 

• Individual Learning Plans are created and evaluated by teachers for each student every term, and families have the opportunity to question and feedback on progress made and the targets set. 

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Assessment 

Assessment is done using formative and summative assessment. The curriculum is planned to include AQA Unit Awards and moderated internally. For this academic year, we have planned in ICT for all students and will be using the ASDAN focus ICT scheme. As well as this, students on the Sport and Catering options follow the ASDAN short course units and students on the Transition option cover AQA units for work skills and moving on.

We have just finalised the process of updated the maths and English coverage to include entry level functional skills exams for those that it is appropriate. 

 

Teachers create targets for students which are added to their individual learning plans (ILP’s). The targets are informed by targets on the students’ EHCPs and the curriculum content. Assessment of progress is measured using the MAPP skills-based lateral progress scale and there are four key areas that teachers assess on for each target. The areas are independence of the skill, fluency, maintenance and generalisation.  

 

The students are baselined at the beginning of each term and performance is assessed at the end of the term. If the student has made sufficient progress in the target set for them then a new target will be generated, baselined and assessed the following term. 

 

We are introducing evidence for learning, which is an online system allowing us to record student learning, create baselines and assess their individual targets. This will allow us to evidence the progress each student has made in each area and generate individual as well as whole school assessment reports. 

  

Environment 

Students wear their own clothes and this allows them to have a separate identity to the rest of the school as well as a feeling of being on their next step in preparing for adulthood. We have a school bistro which students work in to gain experience of work and life skills and a flat to gain essential life skills. We promote independence as much as possible and the environment and resources are designed so that students can practice more independent skills. As well as this, we ensure that we are keeping track of students’ individual learning goals and EHCP targets by displaying these in every classroom.