Larwood School is fully aware of its duties to comply to the Equality Act 2010 and the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2014. All of our pupils have special needs due to their specific social, emotional and mental health related needs, and all have Education and Health Care Plans. Our curriculum plans are designed specifically for such pupils. Therefore, as part of our approach to curriculum design, implementation and review, we:

• Make adjustments for personalised needs based on plans and ongoing reviews of pupil needs
• Ensure that all areas of the curriculum can be adjusted for access no matter what needs are presented
• Rely heavily on a differentiated and personalised approach
• Make adjustments to coverage in agreement with parents, staff, pupils (where possible) to maximise life chances, engagement and enjoyment/self-esteem
• Provide time and support for additional arrangements designated via an EHCP
• Place great emphasis on key skills via time allocated to literacy, numeracy, science and associated physical health related activities.
• Ensure that our pupils gain access to appropriate support and guidance in a variety of areas that provide next stage growth. This may include PSHE, Careers and financial education, sex education
• Review frequently and challenge both our breadth and content to ensure that as cohorts, needs and time change, we adapt accordingly to continue to meet needs.

CURRICULUM INTENT – HOW WE DESIGNED OUR CURRICULUM

Our curriculum is an ever-changing combination of events and activities that are designed to meet the needs of all of our learners, as well as prepare them for the next phase of their education. However, our curriculum is much more than this. We have designed our curriculum to take into the account the following:

• For the vast majority of our pupils, their previous experiences of school, learning and the curriculum have all been quite negative. They have disengaged.
• Our pupils all have an Educational Health Care Plan with social, emotional and mental health as their main presenting area of special needs
• We have a high proportion of pupils with diagnosis of ADHD, ASC and other challenges
• Our pupils (generally speaking) have great issues with subjects being taught in a traditional manner
• Our families have a wide range of needs and circumstances, but many have, or are experiencing deprivation, and a range of other challenging issues. Some of these are on a ‘day to day’ basis
• 40% of our pupils had been at least two schools before Larwood.
• Although all pupils have SEMH as their designated need, ASD ranged between 50% and 80% in different year groups, and those pupils with 2 or more identified needs within their statement ranged from 50% - 83%.
• In year referrals meant that, the size and dynamics of every year group changed during the year. This varied from the lowest amount of change for Year 6 with 13%, Year 5 - 40%, Year 4-11%, Year 3 - 85% and Years 1 and 2 - 50% of pupils were new during the year.
• 26/66 pupils were new to the school at the start of the academic year, which equates to 40% of the school population.
• Our pupils are in desperate need of constant and appropriate relationships that guide, reward, motivate and inspire, alongside the setting of consistent boundaries.

We have designed our curriculum based on the factors above and our current curriculum has the overarching intent to do the following:

• To provide exciting, motivational and engaging experiences for pupils that enable rapid and sustained engagement. To get back to learning!
• To use the Chris Quigley model of Essentials that provides deep learning experiences, as well as breadth of subject matter, but adapt this and if need be to create bespoke learning when appropriate.
• To ensure realistic learning situations whenever possible. For example, ‘Hands on Mondays’ and Thursday afternoon ‘skills curriculum’, which are early preparation for future life situations, as well as making our curriculum as practical as possible where we can.
• Ensure that we are equipping our pupils with key area development such as literacy, numeracy, Science etc. However, this may be from the perspective of filling gaps, and providing catch up due to our pupil’s previous educational history, as well meeting their age related needs and development milestones where appropriate.
• To support and challenge our pupils by intervening where appropriate in a timely and supportive manner that creates progression and growth.
• To enable confidence, self-esteem, positive interaction with peers and adults and engender a love of learning for life.

VISION, AMBITION AND EXPECTATIONS

Larwood School and its staff remain committed to providing the very best education for its pupils. Our school strap line of ‘achieve, believe, expect and enjoy’ permeates the schools work and this be evidenced in many ways:

• When you walk through the front entrance door, you are met with pictures of pupils that demonstrated how they have ‘achieved, believed, expected and enjoyed’.
• Assemblies make reference to the school strap line at regular intervals and in a variety of ways
• Dialogue between pupils and staff is used to reinforce and challenge pupils to meet this expectation in way that is personalised to them.
• Reports use the language of improvement and challenge

We consider our school to be the leaders of our type of provision within our county and beyond. For the past three years, we have set the challenging target of achieving around 80% progress for our school cohort in the areas of reading, writing and mathematics. Research conducted by the Headteacher three years ago indicated that although our school had been rated by Ofsted as ‘good’, our academic progression rates with our pupils were on a par with other similar schools rated ‘outstanding’.

The drive applies in our creation of, review and continuous adaptation of a curriculum for our pupils.

CURRICULUM AIMS

• To provide exciting, motivational and engaging experiences for pupils. To get back to learning!
• To use the Chris Quigley model of Essentials that provides deep learning experiences
• To ensure realistic learning situations whenever possible. For example, ‘hands on Mondays’ and Thursday afternoon ‘skills curriculums’.
• Ensure that we are equipping our pupils with key area development such as literacy, numeracy, Science etc. However, this may be from the perspective of filling gaps, and providing catch up due to our pupil’s previous educational history.
• To support our pupils by intervening where appropriate in a timely and supportive manner that creates progression and growth

PLEASE SEE:

• CURRIUCULUM OVERVIEW MAP
• CHRIS QUIGLEY ESSENTIALS CURRIUCLUM
• DEPTH OF LEARNING ASSESSMENT INFORMATION
• SELF EVALUATION DOCUMENTS RELATED TO TEACHING, LEARNING AND LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT ON AN ANNUAL BASIS.