CURRICULUM STATEMENT

Huckleberry Therapeutic School is a special day school in Wantage, Borough of Oxfordshire We provide quality pupil led, thematic and innovative education for pupils aged 5 to 11. Pupils who attend our school present a wide range of needs including SEMH, Autism, ADHD. The curriculum at our school consists of all the learning experiences needed in order to maximise learning potential and to ensure that pupils work towards achieving the outcomes as defined in their Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans and accomplishing our school goals of ensuring our pupils are ready for their next steps in education.

Rationale

Our curriculum offers lead with therapeutic intervention and blends with core curriculum subjects.  Our primary curriculum has been designed to meet the specific needs of the cohort of pupils that attend Huckleberry Therapeutic School. There is a clear intent that is specific to our school population and it has been written to ensure it encompasses the four core aims listed below:

Aims

We aim to ensure that when our pupils leave, they;

• Have the skills, knowledge and confidence to thrive in their next educational placement.
• Understand how to live healthy, independent lives.
• Are resilient, confident and happy learners, having made progress from their starting point.
• Have a purpose and can voice their educational direction.

Curriculum Intent

Our curriculum intent outlines why the curriculum has been constructed in this way.  It incorporates our curriculum rationale and our key aims, and it has been developed in response to THREE key questions.

• What do we want a HTS pupil to ‘look like’ when they complete their primary journey?
• What do our pupils need to succeed?
• Is our curriculum sufficiently flexible and individualised to ensure that each child has a rich and equitable end goal, that enables them to reach their full potential?

To meet the future needs of our pupils, the curriculum has been developed around THREE strands.

Wellbeing; communications and interactions; cognition and learning.

Furthermore, for our pupils to be successful and achieve our aims, we must ensure that learning is underpinned by the teaching of the key skills of the core curriculum.

Wellbeing

Wellbeing combines both physical and mental wellbeing.  All pupils need regular focussed support to develop their awareness and understanding of how to lead healthy lives.   All our pupils need access to specific therapeutic interventions as part of the provision that is the offered to them.

The wellbeing of each young person within the school has been placed at risk and therefore this element is key to them making progress and moving forwards.

To do this we will;

• Support our pupils to be active and contributing members of the community both at school and beyond
• Guide our pupils to become individuals who can live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives
• Provide the best therapeutic provision to support and protect the mental wellbeing of our pupils
• Offer high quality professional support for pupils who demonstrate a range of mental health concerns.
• Offer high quality professional support for pupils who demonstrate a range of behavioural concerns
• Support our pupils to develop a good understanding of their emotional wellbeing and regulation
• Ensure our curriculum reflects the importance of the balance between academic and the wellbeing of our pupils.
• Support pupils to recognise the physiological symptoms of their emotions within themselves as well as an awareness to perceive emotions, control reactions and express their feelings.

Communications and Interactions

The pupils who attend HTS are vulnerable with communications and interaction challenges.  Our curriculum will equip each young person with the skills and knowledge that will allow them to successfully communicate their feelings, thoughts and actions both in and out of the school community.

 To do this we will;

• Language  opportunities through visits from speech and language therapists and modelled language from adults led activities.
• Provide language opportunities through schemas (connections) from practical activities and real life and contextualised experiences
• Support pupils to develop self-awareness and social, life and independence skills.
• Provide safe and trusting environments for pupils to develop relationships with peers and adults.
• Empower our pupils to find and use their voice to communicate and be heard
• Support our pupils to be able to successfully communicate and interact with others using both verbal and nonverbal communications. 
• Provide social stories to reduce social and communication anxiety
• Provide outdoor learning through forest schools which enables problem solving, team building and further linguistic benefits

Cognition and learning.

With a transient and small school population, our pupils need regular experiences of life learning opportunities. Our curriculum coverage enables us to provide a stimulating and meaningful context for our pupils to develop fundamental skills, knowledge and understanding. We aim to equip our pupils with the confidence and the ability to learn for oneself to cope within our ever- changing technological world. 

To do this we will;

• Ensure that we are meeting the needs of all our learners, enhancing their social and academic development.
• Ensure that our curriculum in ‘contextualised and ‘hands on’ linking real life to learning.
• Support our learners to make connections across the curriculum whilst maintaining the integrity of the key element of each subject
• Ensure our pupils recognise, celebrate and encourage diversity
• Ensure our school values of ‘ Be kind, Be happy, Be heard, Believe’ are shared by all
• Raise awareness of global issues and their impact on the future so that our pupils can contribute to society
• Develop each young persons self-awareness by increasing their knowledge of their strengths so they can see themselves positively, identify their areas of interest and understand how they relate to others
• Promote a culture of 'Its ok to make mistakes and lets try this again...' in a SEN space, where many of our children suffer form performance anxiety

Implementation

The curriculum needs to be clearly set out to show how the intent will be implemented.  Wellbeing; communications and interactions; cognition and learning along with the national curriculum core areas of learning through all aspects of the therapeutic offer and curriculum to ensure that our pupils are prepared for life after HTS. We use evidence-based practice to identify the unique needs, difficulties and learning skills of each pupil, then provide personalised learning experiences and plans.

Our team work together to ensure the learning is relevant and purposeful, ongoing and progressive and that all children are fully engaged and curious in their learning. All teachers differentiate appropriately considering the child’s EHCP needs, past educational experiences and plan according to the child’s starting and emotional point. Staff implement curriculum ensuring that no child is left behind.

How is ‘wellbeing; communications and interactions; and cognition and learning‘ delivered across the key stages

KS1

• Supporting pupils to develop an understanding of their strengths
• Growing knowledge of different industry and career paths irrespective of gender, visits, speakers, imaginative play, home corner
• Developing our forest school space and enhancing our outdoor learning opportunities
• Developing an understanding of world issues and different cultures through PSHE, other school links, trips and visits
• Healthy eating, food/cooking, enrichment activities, mindfulness, relationship and sex education
• Therapeutic offers such as art therapy
• Animal care and management in the school
• Therapeutic approach to positive behaviour management
• Support children to think about their own learning (metacognition)

KS2

• Developing good decision making through a range of scenarios where pupils are expected to make decisions and then explain them
• With support, pupils take ownership of their EHCP plans, actions and targets
• Explicitly show them the knowledge and skills they have gained
• Support children to think about their own learning (metacognition)
• Help pupils to know their strengths and weaknesses and not be frightened to make decisions
• Growing understanding of world issues and different cultures through PSHE, pupil forums, trips and visits
• Healthy eating, food/cooking, enrichment activities, mindfulness, relationship and sex education, 
• Group Therapeutic offers such as art therapy
• Understand themselves and taking responsibilities in making the right choices
• Understand the notion of interdependence in an increasing complex society

Impact

This is how we measure the success of our curriculum intent and implementation, and it is based around a variety of criteria including;

• Pupil voice
• Academic progress
• Qualitative Data (confidence)
• Attendance
• Engagement
• Progress data
• What Families say about us
• Appropriate and sustained pathways for pupils to integrate into mainstream school