CURRICULUM information

We strive to ensure that our curriculum meets the holistic needs of all our students, facilitates their success and enjoyment and inspires them to become confident life-long learners who are able to fully participate in, and contribute to, society. We believe that our curriculum design should provide broad, balanced and meaningful learning experiences.

Ambition

Our School Values are central to our ethos and learning culture and are embedded within our curriculum. We want all of our students to develop positivity and belief in themselves in order to make a positive contribution to society and create successful futures.

We are committed to empowering our learners to develop confidence and autonomy, to take ownership of their own learning and control over their lives. We support our learners to be honest and reflective and encourage them to enjoy the freedom to take risks and to learn from their mistakes.  We are passionate and ambitious about learning and progress and strive to promote a culture of aspiration, effort and resilience. 

We recognise that student wellbeing and good mental health are essential components of a learning environment. Our curriculum supports students to develop an awareness of emotions and an understanding of healthy habits for learning and wellbeing. We want all of our students to have the knowledge and tools they need to be able to self-regulate and build healthy relationships.

Curriculum Aims

To achieve our vision, our curriculum aims to:

• Provide opportunities for all students to make excellent progress through learning and achieve challenging targets.

• Develop the student’s literacy, numeracy, communication and independence skills and their ability to apply them in relevant situations.

• Ensure all students are enabled to access the cultural capital of their mainstream peers and to develop inquisitive minds, a spirit of curiosity and a passion for learning

• Engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement and to encourage self-expression and imagination.

• Effectively scaffold the students’ personal development, physical and emotional health and wellbeing.

• Actively promote the students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

• Actively promote the fundamental British Values

• Provide students with exciting and engaging opportunities across a range of stimulating contexts including learning outside the classroom

• Offer an inclusive programme of extra-curricular activities to enhance and enrich the curriculum.

• Offer a wide range of accredited courses to ensure best possible outcomes for students

• Prepare all students for the successful transition to further education, employment and adult life, enabling students to live as independently as possible.

Assessment at Cleeve Meadow

Our Core purpose

To prepare students for their life journey enabling them to reach their potential to be confident, independent, thoughtful and ambitious young adults.

Assessment intent: Child centred progress 

Assessment at CMS reflects our high expectations to prepare our students for their life journey with ambitious, child centred progress at the core. 

Every student at our school will have different starting points and will make progress at a different pace academically and socially in comparison to their peers in a mainstream setting. 

As a result we have developed the ‘Meadow Pathway’ which measures progress at all levels capturing small step progress up to recognised external qualifications. Our ‘Meadow Pathway’ has an ambitious end point in mind and works towards that potential for every child. 

In creating the pathway, we worked alongside an outstanding SEN provision, the ‘Specialist Learning Partnership’ and SEN consultants to carefully consider and develop subject specific progress stepping stones that will demonstrate achievable and realistic academic progress for each child. 

We recognise that progress is both academic and holistic and as such progress towards EHCP targets is carefully tracked to provide a personalised picture of the progress a child is making in the following areas:

• Supergoals (personal ambition goals)

• Education/ Training and employment

• Independent Living skills/ Housing

• Promoting good health and wellbeing

• Independent interaction/ community and Transport

Both academic and EHCP progress measures are important and recognised as providing a sound foundation for preparing students for their life journey, enabling them to reach their potential to be confident, independent, thoughtful and ambitious young adults.

Assessment implementation: Meadow Pathway

The ‘Meadow Pathway’ is constructed of 26 stepping stones which provide an incremental growth path of skills, knowledge and understanding.

Subject curriculums have been created to prioritise not only progression towards L2 qualifications, but also skills for life and independence. This is reflected in the Pathway level descriptors. 

Within the first term at Cleeve Meadow school, baseline assessment is undertaken through a range of child centred methods to gain an understanding of entry level ability. Students enter the Pathway at different starting points and they begin their progression journey. 

• To capture the wide range of achievement across key stages, progress is measured via:

• Annual review of EHCP targets

• Teacher assessment

• Formative assessments such as low stake quizzes

• Written and spoken assessments

• Tracking through STAR reading and Maths testing processes

• Qualification assessment criteria

• Formal public examinations where appropriate

• Online assessment tools such as TSS touch typing program and Freckle (RL)

Assessment impact:

Over time the pace of progress will vary for some students and across subjects and personal development areas. 

Whilst we recognise that child centred progress in our setting is not always linear or evenly paced, our ambition is for each child to make two letters of progress in each subject each year. 

Subjects and personal development progress areas are linked to the individual profile of the student leading to:  

• Personalised flight paths towards formal accreditations and qualifications

• Personalised EHCP targets which are reviewed annually and updated where required

• Individualised interventions to support progress

Twilight Training Questions:

• What methods of assessment have been most useful for assessing student progress? 

• How does this vary for you between classes/years?

• How might it vary for varying student needs within groups/classes? 

• How does this vary between subjects? Discuss with a peer.