Curriculum

Parkside House Curriculum Overview Statement

The overall aim of the curriculum is to enable all the young people at Parkside House School to become Successful Learners, Confident Individuals and Responsible Citizens.

The curriculum consists of all of the activities designed or encouraged within the school’s organisational framework to promote the intellectual, personal, social, physical, therapeutic and cultural development of pupils. It includes the formal programme of lessons and the informal programme of enrichment activities. The curriculum is also designed to robustly ensure that pupils gain experiences in the following areas of learning linguistic, mathematical, scientific, technological, human and social, physical, aesthetic and creative as well as providing opportunities for therapeutic and spiritual, moral, social and cultural development (SMSC) and cultural capital. We believe the word ‘curriculum’ should be interpreted in its widest meaning. It is every planned learning experience the pupils have as a member of the school, both learnt formally within a lesson and informally outside the classroom throughout the whole School day. It is all the planned activities that we organise to promote learning, personal growth and development. Teachers, Instructors and support assistants, structure these experiences to ensure that they have the most positive effect on the attainment, progress and personal development of all pupils.

The Curriculum will:

Annually, build upon pupils’ prior knowledge and help them to store knowledge in their long term memory so they make progress by knowing more and remembering more;
Ensure that the right components are embedded in long-term memory to ensure pupils are able to perform more complex tasks.
Provide pupils with opportunities to ‘overlearn’ key concepts through repeated recall to secure learning.
Contribute to achievement of overall subject goals.
Ensure that all pupils can achieve the best possible outcomes.

Commitment to National Curriculum

Parkside House School is committed to covering the National Curriculum wherever possible and its programmes of study. This commitment must, however, be consistent with any Education, Health and Care Plan for any young person which may well prioritise subjects or key areas of learning.

Pupil Entitlement

As a Special Educational Needs School providing for the needs of boys and girls with a range of complex needs, we are committed to the principle that all pupils, regardless of ability, race, cultural background or gender, have a right to the highest quality of education we can provide. This means that we seek to ensure breadth and balance for all; ambition; appropriate levels of expectation and genuine challenge and relevance and continuity and progression in learning.

Addressing Special Educational Needs

As part of the admissions process and after a place has been confirmed a range of data and information is sought after in order to inform education staff prior to the young person arriving. This information will include as much as possible: education, social and medical history, attendance, safeguarding issues and involvement of other agencies. The Education, Health and Care Plan will provide further information relating to provision and current attainment as a minimum in core subjects. On admission to the school, each young person will complete a full baseline assessment, this may include both therapeutic and academic assessments and observations. Data from this assessment will be distributed to education staff and will reflect current cognitive ability. Where the Education, Health and Care Plan indicates, or where the generic baseline assessment indicates, there will be further targeted screening, where necessary with specialist support. The baseline data is used to set realistic and personalised targets for progress across the curriculum and in relation to the key learning needs of the individual. The targets form a key part of individual plans including education plans, positive support plans and individual risk assessments.

Curriculum Intent

Our ambitious curriculum has four goals and is designed to help our children to;

Maintain positive and healthy relationships so they can socialise with others well. We know that this will help raise self-esteem and lead to a more positive outlook on life, thus helping to ensure the best future outcomes.

Become emotionally resilient. Prior to joining us our children have found it difficult to understand and regulate their emotions, often leading to behaviour that has challenged. This has led to them being unsuccessful in previous educational placements. It is our ambition to support and educate our children so they are able to regulate their emotions and behave in a way that allows them to be successful in the future. When children leave Parkside House school we want them to understand their emotions and how best to manage them positively.

Become tolerant and respectful individuals who will not undermine fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law and individual liberty.

Achieve the best possible outcomes. We know that this is different for every child that attends our school. It is our ambition to ensure ALL learners develop detailed knowledge and skills across the academic, technical and vocational curriculum and therefore achieve the very best results. Careful baseline assessment of each child allows us to create differentiated provision with high expectations for every learner – the leadership team are unwavering in trying to help children secure their very best.