St Piers School Quality of Education

Intent: what are we trying to achieve with our curriculum?
Implementation: how is our curriculum delivered?
Impact: what difference is our curriculum having on learners?

INTENT: Throughout our curriculum we are...

• enabling students to reach their full potential
• supporting their independence, wellbeing & health, family and home life, inclusive community and learning and emotional resilience skills and knowledge so they are well prepared to be successful and valued members of their community
• providing learning in real life contexts
• developing communication, cognition, physical and sensory development, and independence
• developing students to be motivated and confident learners who explore and find solutions
• encouraging students to try out alternative ideas and make connections in learning
• engaging students in play-based and fun learning opportunities and participate in experiential, first-hand, and active learning
• supporting students to sustain good standards of physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing so that they can be as fit as possible to participate in society
• helping students feel supported in their own emotional wellbeing
• teaching the basic skills of literacy and numeracy and beyond into functional skills
• encouraging curiosity to investigate scientific and technological discoveries
• encouraging participation in group/team exercises to develop their ability to work together
• ensuring creativity is evident throughout students’ learning and that students are encouraged to be creative and explore through the arts
• encouraging an awareness of the wider world and how society and the environments we live in have changed over time
• developing students’ understanding of Britain’s cultural heritage and values of our modern society
• developing students through positive citizenship enabling them to contribute to society, respective of their needs
• establishing students’ understanding and appreciation of the wider contributions made by the breadth of ethnic groups in our multicultural society
• supporting student voice and opinions through regular student involvement
• teaching students ICT skills, so they can use these to support their learning and understanding whilst also being safe online
• teaching students about the many aspects of how to remain safe and who to communicate to if they ever feel unsafe
• promoting a sense of their own awareness of their spirituality and the many faiths and how to determine right from wrong
• working alongside our parents, local authorities, residential houses, therapy and safeguarding teams to ensure a cohesive, transdisciplinary approach for each young person who attends St Piers School
• enabling students to play a part in their local and wider communities, by encouraging them to have a sense of high self-esteem and helping them to know how to live and work cooperatively with others
• promoting equity and equal opportunities
• preparing students with the life skills required for the future
• preparing students, through aspirational targets, for their futures beyond St Piers
• encouraging students’ understanding of and promotion of physical, social, health, citizenship and moral education alongside relationship, sexual health education

IMPLEMENTATION: How is our curriculum delivered?

• St Piers School has a three-tiered curriculum which delivers Informal, Semi-Formal and Formal learning approaches
• Each tier is called a Learner Journey
• Learner Journeys run across all phases from 5-19; Primary, Secondary and 16-19
• Phase Coordinators have curriculum responsibilities for overseeing specific subjects
• Each Phase has a long-term plan which is then underpinned by more detailed planning
• We provide a series of themes for our primary and secondary students’ lessons to link into each term
• Groups are differentiated for through a wide range of resources and approaches
• Each student’s ability is accommodated for through personalised learning opportunities that are meaningful and relevant
• Assessment mirrors this personalisation to ensure their needs, aspirations and priority small steps are key drivers in planning their learning

More about Learner Journeys…

Each Learner Journey is designed to support best learning approaches and outcomes relative to category of needs and degrees of learning difficulty [levels of cognition].

• Learning for Life

  Non-subject-specific curricula models focussing on communication, independence, functional skills and social skills.  Students with complex physical, medical and sensory needs follow this pathway.  High levels of support and small groups are key to achievement.

• Skills for Life

  A semi-formal curriculum model focussing on learning essential skills for life whilst following a broad and varied programme of learning.  Students with significant intellectual or cognitive impairments and communication and perception difficulties follow this pathway.  High levels of support and small groups are key to achievement.

• Specialist Skills

  A subject-specific curriculum model in which students follow a timetable that focuses on personalisation and the aspirations of the students as they progress through School/College.  The pathway is mainly followed by students who have difficulties around literacy and numeracy and need to develop social skills.

Each Learner Journey incorporates all six Curriculum Areas, is enabled by specific ‘enablers’, focuses on specific skills development relative to the needs of the learners and facilitates learning towards a suite of outcomes which are appropriate for each learning cohort on that particular Learner Journey.

IMPACT: The difference our curriculum has on learners…

Across our three Learner Journeys, the key differences we see with students are as follows…

In the Learning for Life journey, students:

• develop their initial reactions
• demonstrate interest and curiosity
• develop their attention, knowledge and skills
• show more control
• show emotions
• use new skills in new ways
• predict, expect and/or associate
• interpret cues and/or prompts
• understand cause and effect
• develop their memory and sequencing
• show determination
• make intentional changes
• develop, reinforce and apply skills
• bring about a desired outcome
• create an impact on their environment
• develop relative levels of independence

In the Skills for Life journey, students:

• develop social interaction skills, how to respond to others and how to work with others
• develop understanding of emotions and how to regulate their behaviours
• become more confident, take risks, become more self-motivated and engaged in learning
• better understand routine, and develop self-help and independence skills
• develop social communication skills such as conversation, greetings, and social conventions
• develop expressive communication skills, understanding choices, use of language, storytelling, narratives and other communicative functions
• develop receptive communication skills such as following instructions and requests
• listen and respond appropriately
• develop their functional literacy skills of reading and writing
• develop their thinking skills such as memory and routine
• can make connections, solve problems and be creative
• understand patterns, sequences and properties
• develop their functional numeracy skills of using numbers and mathematical thinking

In the Specialist Skills journey, students:

• use literacy, numeracy and communications skills effectively
• use technology for learning
• think creatively, can work independently and as part of a group
• can reason and evaluate
• can link and apply learning in different contexts
• have self-respect and are self-aware, developing and communicate their own beliefs
• relate to others whilst knowing themselves
• are as independent as they can be, assess risk and make informed decisions
• achieve success in a range of different areas
• respect others and appreciate differences
• make informed choices and decisions
• participate responsibly in social and cultural life
• demonstrate resilience and self-reliance
• work in partnership and in teams
• communicate in different ways and in different settings
• apply thinking in new contexts

Across all Learner Journeys we use an assessment platform called Earwig Academic to evidence and track students’ progress.  This platform allows us to use bespoke assessment frameworks for both formative and summative attainment monitoring.  We can therefore link students’ learning to key criteria that is relevant and meaningful to them and carry out interventions to raise attainment where required.  Where relevant, students follow accredited courses [qualifications] related to the contextualised learning of English, Maths, ICT and Creativity.