Aims
Our curriculum aims to:
We aim to provide opportunities to develop the whole child so that learners will be able to transfer their skills and knowledge into various real life contexts that will prepare and equip them for life in Modern Britain in the 21st Century.
We have high expectations of all learners and enable them to be ambitious risk takers.
We use precise planning to ensure that key skills and knowledge are at the forefront of the curriculum.
We ensure that our curriculum, and therefore the learning, is balanced through ensuring equity and developing cross-curricular links to ignite children’s passions.
We develop a strong sense of moral purpose in addition to respect, understanding and inclusion of people who have different characteristics to themselves, whether that be age, disability, gender, race or sexuality.
Our curriculum aims to address the contextual issues that impact on pupils through bespoke pathways based on three strands; Learn, Grow and Thrive.
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Learn, develops pupils’ core needs through supporting their strengths and interests via the curriculum and their EHCP targets.
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Grow develops pupils’ ‘life experience’ needs; firstly by exposing them to worldly opportunities so that they can see the possibilities open to them. Secondly, the purpose of ‘grow’ is to increase pupils’ aspirations through enrichment activities and career pathways.
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Thrive develops pupils’ well-being needs, through physical and mental health interventions.
Ultimately, our curriculum intends to nurture pupils to be able to live independently and to be active, contributing members of their community.
Underpinning Learn, Grow, Thrive runs a whole school therapeutic approach based on developing relationships between staff, pupils and their families.
Our school is in areas of high socio-economic stress in London. Pupils can join us at any point throughout the academic year, often well below the national average, many have had periods out of school and the majority of them have limited life experiences. At Eko Pathways our vision for the curriculum is that it will inspire our pupils to make positive choices, have high expectations of themselves, and always strive to do their best. We have designed, organised and planned our curriculum to ensure every child receives an appropriate mix of academic and personal development. We understand that children will not be successful learners unless they are emotionally secure and that all children need to feel safe and secure as a prerequisite for learning and we therefore devote time to developing trusting relationships with our children and stabilising behaviour.
We carefully monitor children’s progress within their personal development and our planned and thoughtful approach to spiritual, moral, social and cultural learning helps to ensure that every child is well cared for and supported. The balanced approach to our curriculum is not at the expense of high expectations in core and foundation subjects. We have the highest expectations of students.
Many children who come to our schools have missed out on their learning and there is no time to waste, so high standards and enabling children to fill the gaps so that they can reach national expectations and above is vitally important to us. All students are set targets which are regularly reviewed in Pathways and Milestones meetings every term at least. Parents and partner schools are kept informed about the children’s progress both informally and formally.
Our focus is that pupils succeed at the next stage of their education whether that be in mainstream or specialist settings, so that they go on to achieve fulfilled and happy lives and careers. We provide a full and rich curriculum at a level appropriate to attainment, in a secure, stimulating and caring environment for our children, to enable them to achieve, develop, learn and grow. To enable pupils to be successful we follow the national curriculum and other national strategies. The normal curriculum of the school is also supplemented by activities that help the children with the things they find particularly difficult like managing their anger, playing games with other children, or coping better sitting in the classroom.
We have designed our curriculum to provide opportunities to develop the whole child so that learners will be able to transfer their skills and knowledge into various real life contexts that will prepare and equip them for life in Modern Britain in the 21st Century. We ensure that our curriculum, and therefore the learning, is balanced through ensuring equity and developing cross-curricular links whilst incorporating concepts that are continually revisited to further deepen the understanding of both knowledge and skills.
We believe that in our curriculum, it is vital for our children to have a deep understanding of the world around them; the area that they are growing up in and their role within it. In our school, it is important that every child is recognised as a unique individual therefore we celebrate and welcome differences within our school community.
The curriculum offer is developed and adapted so that it is coherently sequenced from pupils’ starting points, and revisited, due to many pupils’ difficulty storing knowledge in their long term memory. It aims to ensure they have aspirations for the future and the skills to meet them. This initially stems from the SEND Code of Practice to meet the needs of pupils via their EHCP targets. Our curriculum centres around the four key areas: cognition and learning, communication and interaction, physical and sensory, and SEMH. It ensures the pupils are well prepared to achieve their next steps for education, employment and training.
Personal Social and Health Education
PSHE is part of all learning because staff plan for PSHE opportunities in all subjects and across all times of the day. It is a priority of the thoughts and actions for all staff because they understand and invest in the impact PSHE has for the whole child in our schools. PSHE runs through everything we do because it impacts all that we do. Within PSHE, account is made of the socio-economics, diversity and mobility of the area. We recognise that the pupils need both a sense of valuing themselves and their community, and that they should be supported to develop aspirations for their future. We have designed our PSHE curriculum to provide a breadth of experience which relates to the real life factors faced by our children, allowing them to explore these in a safe, supportive environment. Our PSHE curriculum gives children the skills and knowledge to be introspective about themselves as people, thinking about their feelings, morals and ethics and how these fit in with the wider society and affect the interactions children have. We are passionate that all children realise that it is a big and wonderful world out there that they can play an active and positive part in. To do this we ensure our children are exposed to a variety of experiences that will have an impact on them as they grow. Examples of these are trips to parliament or aspirational people coming to talk about their jobs and contributions to the community. We plan opportunities for the children to know about keeping safe and make links within our PSHE plans to a variety of documents and advice, including NSPCC and KCSiE which support developing a holistic and current approach to delivering PSHE lessons.
Social Moral Spiritual and Cultural Development of Pupils
Pupils’ wellbeing is at the heart of Eko Pathways ethos. Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is planned for and pupils show themselves to be deep thinkers. It is constantly interwoven throughout their learning and experiences at both schools. They are able to empathise with the feelings and actions of others, seeing points of views and beliefs other than their own. It is also deeply embedded as part of the hidden curriculum within the school and children are provided with a strong moral compass through the golden rules, creating an environment which is nurturing, respectful and trusting.
Inclusion is central to our work and benefits all pupils within the school. We have tailored our curriculum to meet pupils’ academic and Social Emotional and Mental Health needs. Consequently, they have access to a broad, developmentally appropriate curriculum. Teaching, support and external professionals work together to provide learning opportunities which are highly personalised and differentiated to meet pupils’ needs. Pupils are assessed and the information is used as the basis of Pathways and Milestones personalised plans. These plans address how pupils’ needs, as stated on their Education, Health and Care Plans, are met through their timetable, educational and personal targets, delivery of interventions and guidance on how to support the pupil. Learning experiences are meaningful and have a clear purpose for our pupils, encouraging motivation and engagement, with a long term view on post-16 education, careers and vocations that are based on individual strengths.
Teachers set high expectations for all pupils. They use appropriate assessment to set ambitious targets and plan challenging work for all groups, including:
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More able pupils
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Pupils with low prior attainment
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Pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds
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Pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
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Pupils with English as an additional language (EAL)
Teachers plan lessons so that pupils with SEND and/or disabilities can study subjects, wherever possible, and ensure that there are no barriers to every pupil achieving.
Further information can be found in our statement of equality information and objectives, and in our SEND policy and information report.