A personalised curriculum leading to the best possible outcomes for pupils.’
We have developed our curriculum to meet the evolving needs of our pupils. We are committed to continual professional growth and research. Staff benefit from both in-house and external expertise. This provides a toolkit of educational approaches, which we use to meet the needs of our pupils.
Our curriculum intent is to support our pupils to be kind, safe, honest, brave, to grow together and be prepared for life beyond school. Our curriculum is personalised as we recognise that pupils’ learning and development needs drive their educational offer.
The curriculum is divided into key learning areas:
- Problem Solving and Thinking Skills
- Creativity
- Personal and Social Development
- Physical Development
- Exploring the wider world
The curriculum has truly individualised learning at its heart.
There will often be overlap between the skills and activities that are learnt in our key learning areas. For example, a drama lesson might be focused on problem solving and thinking skills, or physical development activities used to develop sequencing skills in maths. Teachers are clear about the outcomes that they want for individual pupils and use the learning areas to deliver these rather than focusing on delivering a discreet curriculum subject.
Communication overarches everything at Netherhall Mead Academy. We are a ‘total communication school’. Effective communication strategies and teaching allow our pupils to express their needs and wants, supports them in being independent and making real informed choices and allows them to interact with the world around us.
Pupils have access to a wide range of strategies and personalised communication programmes. These include ‘Sign along’, symbol supported text, photographs, objects of reference, switches, communication books and passports. For further information on our ‘total communication’ approach, please click here.
We have a Communication Lead who supports in the implementation and quality assurance of communication across the school.
The area content for Problem Solving and Thinking Skills covers English, Maths and Computing. Much of the area content will cover what would have been within the English, Maths and Computing curriculum. Pupils at all levels will have priorities around developing their problem solving and thinking. For asteroid pupils this may be around early communication and understanding of what is happening around and to them. For our meteor pupils, their priorities will be much more focused around discreet reading, writing, maths and communication skills. As pupils progress through the school this learning will be focused on independence and skills for future life beyond school.
Creativity can often ‘unlock’ potential for communication, self-expression and personal development. Creativity is observed in lots of forms across school from role play and imaginative play as part of continuous provision to more structured opportunities in art, drama, music, DT and dance. Creativity and creative thinking overlaps with other areas such as cooking, creative writing and story telling. There is great potential for creative learning in classrooms as well as many additional curriculum opportunities that our pupils access through school performances, music club, singing and performing in theatres, dancing at Curve and many more. We maintain a strong partnership with Attenborough Arts and other local arts organisations and practitioners to develop creativity opportunities and provision at Netherhall Mead.
When thinking about the skills we need to teach our students at Netherhall Mead, we start by thinking about what we want them to have achieved by the time they leave our school to help them survive in the big wide world! The skills to be as independent as possible, to be able to socialise appropriately with other people and to keep themselves safe are 3 of the most important things that we want them to leave Netherhall Mead with. Which is why PSD is such a key part of every child’s learning.
PSD is taught throughout every day of the school week in all the daily routines that take place i.e. coming in from the bus, getting their own work out, break times, using the toilet, cooking. We teach discrete aspects of PSD such as Relationships and Sex Education, Drugs Awareness, through clearly planned lessons and activities. Students also have opportunities to develop important PSD skills though out of school activities such as trips to the shop, work experience and visits to Flat 108.
Physical Development encompasses a broad range of activities and stages for our pupils. For our asteroid pupils there will be elements of physiotherapy and hydrotherapy as part of their curriculum. This is coordinated by a team within school. Physical development includes both fine and gross motor skills so for some children their physical development target may be around independent eating or holding a pencil correctly. For our comet and meteor pupils, physical development will also include traditional physical education elements with the development of skills, participation in games, outdoor and adventurous activities and taking part in external sporting events. All pupils have access to hydrotherapy or swimming sessions. Physical Development happens across the school in the promotion of healthy and active lifestyles.
Exploring the Wider World encompasses aspects of Science, Geography, History, MFL and RE which are not taught as stand-alone subjects. Often within our themes, several aspects of ‘Exploring the Wider World’ are covered and incidental learning which occurs at break times, out and about, assemblies and other learning outside the classroom also encapsulates learning through exploration.
One of the key aspects of this area of learning is our developing outdoor learning space which provides amazing opportunities for being outdoors and learning away from the classroom. We have an orchard, five forest areas, two tree stump trails for balancing on, log piles, bird feeders, bug hotels and seating areas which all enrich our students understanding of the world. In addition, it promotes a desire to care for wildlife and protect habitats and hopefully will instil a desire to look after their own world. Aspects of creativity, physical development and problem solving can also be taught in this fantastic space.
We work closely with Leicester City Council Eco Team and have achieved Silver Eco Award. We are aiming for Green Flag this year. We hope to develop an allotment area so we can grow our own grub and develop a mindfulness trail and quiet areas for meditation on the field to help our students with stress and anxiety. Hopefully the area will continue to develop and provide more and more opportunities for our students to Explore the Wider World as the years go on.
In KS4 there are a range of opportunities offered based on individual leaning styles and abilities, such as: –
- Work related learning through mini-enterprise
- Accessing the community safely
- Independence and life skills including shopping, cooking and use of money
- Sex and relationships education
In KS4 we do not offer accreditations at Netherhall Mead Academy. Pupils focus on preparing for adulthood through life skills and independence. As pupils move into Key Stage 5, where appropriate, accreditation may be offered through ASDAN, focussing on independence skills. More information can be found at https://www.asdan.org.uk/.
Where appropriate pupils in Key Stage 5 also complete meaningful work experience placements and are supported to make links to college and community resources. All pupils are supported in planning their post-school lives.
Summary
The Netherhall Mead curriculum is designed to truly meet the needs of individual pupils. It allows them to make the best possible progress and reach their full potential. The curriculum is driven by our vision and values.
Netherhall Mead is a vibrant, thriving and fun learning environment where children truly achieve.
If you would like any further information on our curriculum offer, please contact one of our Assistant Headteachers.
A Place to Shine