Our New Bardwell Curriculum 2024 is a child-centered curriculum framework which maps out the most important knowledge and skills that pupils will learn, in order to be successful adults in the modern world.
Intent:
Our mission at Bardwell is “To empower our students to go further in learning and life, by recognising their strengths and providing a respectful environment, that builds confidence, raises aspirations and equips them to succeed.”
At Bardwell we are driven by our values which are at the core of every decision we make. The Bardwell curriculum Framework aims to draw out each pupil’s unique skills and strengths, so they can realise their potential and reach their aspirations. We work collaboratively with pupils, families and professionals, employing flexibility, to ensure that curriculum pathways are appropriate for each individual’s personal growth.
Our mission is achieved through 3 overarching principles:
To ensure our pupils can communicate effectively.
- – Communication is woven through all learning.
- – Being able to interpret information is key to living an independent adult life.
- – Communication is at the center of a fulfilled life, because social relationships and sharing experiences and feelings, are an essential part of mental health and well-being.
To give our pupils the attributes to develop and maintain strong trusting relationships.
- – Trust, Kindness and Equality are rooted in every decision we make at Bardwell school.
- – Through trusting relationships students build confidence and resilience; enabling them to be curious, explore, experiment and learn.
To support our pupils to become as independent as possible and go on to lead fulfilled lives.
- – Through learning self-regulation strategies, pupil’s can confidently fulfil their ambitions and be proud of the part they play in their community.
- – Clearly sequenced next steps and considered facilitation mean students build on prior learning and gain independence.
The Bardwell curriculum subjects are underpinned by clearly defined progression of skills documents, so that learning is sequential over time. Teachers baseline and set appropriately challenging targets in pupil’s termly Learning Outcome Plans. With skilled facilitation and support, pupil’s progress their skills and knowledge, transfering their learning beyond the classroom to generalise learnt skills within the wider community, enabling them to reach their aspirations in adult life.
Whilst all pupil’s have access the breadth of the Bardwell curriculum, each pupil’s learning path is bespoke, with different start and end points, and different rates of progress. We celebrate the fact that we are all unique. All pupils have ‘individual choosing time’ at the end of every day when they lead their own learning. During this time, pupil’s build on skills linked to their passions and interests. Evidence tells us that to become expert in our field, we must dedicate time and practice to refine skills and grow our knowledge. Daily individual time provides this opportunity, shining a spotlight on each pupil’s potential future career, recreational activities and life ambitions. At Bardwell our pupils, families and staff all take pride in being part of the Bardwell School community where everyone’s contributions are recognised and valued.
Implementation
Our commitment to continually improve as a school, allows us to provide the best teaching and support for every student appropriately, to enable them to continue to achieve their potential.
Non-Label-led:
- Bardwell prides itself on being ‘non-label-led’. We achieve this by ensuring that the child is at the center of our curriculum, and approaches to teaching and learning are adopted according to their learning needs and preferences.
- Class teachers liaise with professionals to incorporate specialist advice and programmes across the school day. Teachers use daily planning to ensure the structure of the day and staffing ratios are appropriate to meet children’s needs.
Appendix 1: Daily Planning Template
Learning Outcome Plan:
- Every student has a ‘Learning Outcome Plan’. These plans are created in line with EHCP Outcomes and sequential next steps in each area of the curriculum.
- We know that students learn best when learning is well-pitched and underpinned by high expectations. With this document and our expertise as a guide, combined with the input of families, colleagues, and other professionals, we can consistently plan meaningful next steps for our student’s development, ensuring they continually work towards challenging, yet achievable learning outcomes.
Appendix 2: Learning Outcome Plan template
Lesson delivery:
- Teacher’s continuous professional development, allows them to think creatively about how to maximise engagement and participation for each individual. Teachers plan innovative ways to engage learners through multi-sensory approaches to learning.
- Lesson structure and pace is adapted according to the needs of the students. Teachers use their judgement to follow a child’s lead and build on their strengths in times of high engagement and motivation. This can mean adapting planned learning activities and taking a different path to get to their intended outcomes.
- Staff build strong relationships within students; by knowing each student well, staff are able to build in a wide range of activities which ignite their interest and promote curiosity.
- Learning can happen anywhere and at any time. Staff are encouraged to take learning to the child if the child is not able to engage in the way that had originally been planned for. Great lessons are those where all students are highly engaged and accessing learning in a way that suits them.
Sequential Learning:
- Through our clearly defined thematic approach, students build on their prior learning, widening their knowledge as they move through the rolling programme for each key stage.
- Every curriculum area has a clear progression of skills to ensure that teachers are planning outcomes in a systematic way.
Appendix 3: Rolling Programme
Purposeful Learning:
- All learning takes effort, and for some students this is far greater due to the barriers to their learning. With this in mind, teachers ensure that the planned activities are meaningful for each student.
- Our topic themes culminate in an end of term showcase – this allows every student to take pride in their learning from the term and to celebrate the progress they have made. Our Lodge Students plan and co-ordinate these events.
- All students learn about enterprise during our yearly Enterprise Fayre. When students move to our post 16 provision ‘The Lodge’, enterprise becomes an integral part of the curriculum. Students learn the value of earning money and buying the things they want and need.
Teaching Approaches:
- Total Communication Approach: Learning environments are language rich. New knowledge is imparted through a range of communication outputs, including verbal, visual, sign, objects of reference, photographs and modelling the use of AAC. As students move up through the school, they often develop a preferred method of communiction, and staff may then focus more in this area of communication.
Explicit Instruction: our students benefit from having very clear instructions and expectations. Staff consider this in their communication approach in order to provide clarity to students and minimise misconceptions. - Backwards chaining: This approach is often used when teaching self-care outcomes. Teachers break the learning outcome down into small steps and start by teaching the final step first, working backwards until the child develops independence.
- Attention Bucket: Following the principles of ‘Attention Autism’, staff use this approach to support students to build their ability to attend to learning tasks.
- Metacognition: Staff frequently break tasks up into smaller chunks, providing step-by-step instructions or presenting a series of questions which enable the learner to focus on one step at a time, and therefore not overload working memory.
- Overlearning: Our teachers recognise the benefit of repetition, in order to embed and consolidate learning. Where many of our students have difficulties with short term memory, it is important that learning moves from short-term to long-term memory. That said, we also recognise the need for students to be able to transfer and generalise their learning, so that they do not simply rote learn tasks in specific situations.
– In addition, for some students, repetition can be demotivating. Teachers therefore use their judgement on the extent to which they repeat learning activities. Formative assessment of learning is used at the end of each lesson to aid decision making on planning next steps.
• Scaffolding: Staff facilitate students to achieve, gradually reducing the level of support (verbal, gestural, physical) as they build their independence with accomplishing a task.
Phonics reading scheme in operation ‘Little Wandle‘.
Reading Curriculum here
PSHE Rolling Programme here
Rolling Programme here
For more information about our curriculum planning, and assesment systems contact us.