Columbia Grange School

Green Pathway

Informal Curriculum

Intent

Our specific intent for pupils accessing this curriculum is, for all pupils to

• be allowed (and indeed, be positively encouraged) to be comfortable with activities and states of being that are important to them, as part of the process of being given opportunities to discover other activities and states of being that may become important to them; 
• be free to like who and what they wish and be encouraged to learn how to express such preferences positively;
• be free to reject experiences and people not liked and encouraged to learn how to express such preferences positively;
• be positively encouraged to take total control of their own behaviour so that self-regulation (rather than being regulated by others) becomes a major part of their learning;
• be given constant opportunities to communicate positively and to have both voice and agency within the confines of a safe and secure environment. 
• be secure within the concept that if problems arise, it is the curriculum that has to change, not the learner.

Our aim is to put the learners in control by giving them an environment that they can understand and that they are allowed to keep changing in order to encourage development.

Implementation

As Pupils accessing the Informal Curriculum are working consistently and over time within the P Level range 4-5, which means they are working below Year 1 expectations, we follow the Equals, Informal Curriculum and CG Footsteps 4-5 Curriculum. 

 For these populations, who are all working consistently and over time below or very near the start of their national curriculum, curricula need to be different rather than differentiated, because the way such pupils learn is different, and often very, very different from neuro-typical, conventional developing learners for whom the national curriculum was designed

 All the parts of the curriculum are intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole. Everything we teach works through everything else and it is not possible to think of the core strands as being separate from each other. For example, there is not a time when we are teaching just Communication because we are always thinking about all the strands working together in our teaching and our planning, to ensure the best outcomes for pupils.  

Every moment of every day is a learning opportunity and there is no time when learning is not taking place. This does not and indeed must not mean that we fill every moment with activity, but we are always aware of how and what our learners are learning at all times. 

The nature of learning in this specialist environment necessitates a lot of repetition and will be seen perhaps in only very small steps of learning but each student is challenged to achieve their very best while giving the optimum level of care and consideration to their every need

Informal learners require a specific, personalised style of teaching, one that values and celebrates each child as an individual. Informal learners will have complex learning difficulties which translate into ‘spikey’ learning profiles. Some children will excel in some areas and struggle in others. 

The informal pathway will provide a high level of adult support in a structured environment with plenty of sensory integration and regulation time. There will be a balance of child initiated time and adult-led early intervention sessions. 

The Curriculum encompasses 5 key areas 

• English (Reading, Writing) 
• Maths/My thinking and Problem Solving, 
• Science/The World about me, 
• PHSE/Physical Well being
• Sensory

The 6th key area is Communication which links them all together. Communication will be an important part to the child’s day and they will experience and explore ways in which to communicate effectively.

These core strands, and the corresponding documents are shown below

Each curriculum lead has devised a bespoke yearly coverage outline

The curriculum delivery is carefully planned to ensure that pupils individual needs are meet

There are specific areas & interventions within school, which support the implementation of the curriculum, the majority of pupils accessing the Pre Formal Curriculum will access the Specialised offer

N.B.

For those pupils at this developmental level, whilst we accept the desirability of providing a broad and balanced curriculum, it must be wholly appropriate to the needs of each learner. Ongoing assessment may point to a need for concentration and intensity in one or two particular areas for some learners for a part, and sometimes a considerable part of their time in education. A learner might, for example, like people and enjoy spending time with them, but have not yet learned how to take the initiative in engaging with another person.  When left to her own devices, the learner might have a tendency towards stimulatory, repetitive self-injurious behaviour such as biting her own hand, and staff might therefore consider it essential for the learner's well-being to teach her to positively and clearly indicate that she wants to spend some time with another person(s). In this instance, we argue, it is absolutely essential that we narrow the curriculum offered to this particular learner in order to give her the maximum amount of time for learning, recognising that someone with PMLD may need hundreds and perhaps even thousands of opportunities to learn what for others might be a simple skill. Peter Imery (EQUALS)

Impact

For our students to develop and progress it is important that their actions need to be their own, and staff are there to enable this. We need to ensure that all students do not develop learnt helplessness. This moment of discovery needs to be enabled and allowed. While striving to achieve this we need to allow our students to make mistakes in order to develop problem-solving and persistence. 

Each pupil’s progress is discussed as part of the teacher’s appraisal performance management. Pupil progress meetings take place with the Assessment Lead each term and include triangulation of available data and assessments, work scrutiny and observation of pupil. 

School uses a range of indicators to capture the full picture of pupil progress. The range of measures and assessments used are different across the key stages in school. These measures include: three times a year PLP-based meetings with parents, behaviour data analysis, attendance data analysis, therapy targets and logs - including the use of the Leuven Scale and evidence of learning data through Columbia Grange Assessment.

 In order to validate our assessments, teachers take part in cross school moderation and work scrutiny. Samples of work are also moderated across schools as part of our Special School Network.

Our assessment system monitors pupil progress and ensures the curriculum continues to be relevant to the individual need.