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Our Learners
Our Learners
Learners at Mabel Prichard School have profound and multiple, severe and complex needs. Many have disabilities in addition to their cognitive impairments, including physical and mental health needs. All our learners with a diagnosis of Autism, also have a severe learning difficulty and many of these may have an additional diagnosis of ADHD, and or, a sensory impairment. As students get older, some may develop additional mental health needs which, in the light of the research that 70% of children with Autism develop a mental health need during adolescence (The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 2020) means we also prioritise support for good mental health development in our curriculum.
Engagement in learning is encouraged through staff knowledge and recognition of the individual needs of our learners. Play is an important part of the approach to curriculum delivery as well as being recognised by staff as an important part of learner development. Progress in joint attention is taught through shared play activities, tracked through play trackers, and through the curriculum’s inclusive frameworks. The early stages of play and interaction are fostered through intensive interaction, which is offered both spontaneously and as a timetabled part of the day to those students at that stage of their development.
Some of our learners have complex medical and physical needs and their learning follows areas of our curriculum that supports very small steps in communication, physical development, sensory development and social and emotional development. Some may experience a learning activity hundreds of times before making any progress and this may be as small as showing a response to an object, activity or sensory encounter. Staff working with these learners are trained to understand the need for time, space and repetition.
Part of the curriculum includes the delivery of therapeutic programmes for physio, occupational therapy and speech and language. Following extensive individual assessment, LD CAMHs also provide strategies to support learners’ mental health. Class teams are trained by the therapists to deliver the programmes, and progress in these is tracked as part of the school’s Personal Learning Goals (PLGs), which are informed by the learner’s EHCP outcomes.
Our Learners and the National Curriculum
Our Learners and the National Curriculum
The number of learners with EHC plans rose from 2.8% of learners in 2015 to 4.3% in 2022/23 (DFE special needs statistics 2023).
We currently have some learners who are working at the early reaches of the national curriculum, although these learners are in a minority. It is therefore realistic to state that the vast majority of our learners will work below national curriculum levels for their entire school career, which is why we have developed our inclusive frameworks that ensure learners have access to a full range of opportunities, and all their successes and progress is recognised and built on. The National Curriculum was designed for neuro-typical children and does not take into account the very different starting points, rates and ways of learning our learners have; it assumes:
learners meet the developmental milestones of a neuro-typical 5 year old child prior to beginning school;
learners continue to make linear progress throughout their school career, within a curriculum that is subject specific and relies on learners building upon prior knowledge and understanding abstract concepts.
We know this is not the case for the vast majority of our learners, so we aspire to support them to learn in ways that are meaningful and relevant to them, and to provide them with a curriculum that prepares them for the most meaningful and fulfilled adulthood possible. This looks very different for all our learners and each pathway through the curriculum is individual.
Learner Catchment Areas
Learner Catchment Areas
41% of learners on roll at Mabel Prichard are from the immediate area (OX4), and a further 34% are from Oxford. However, due to the shortage of specialist places, some learners travel over 25 miles to the school.
The OX4 area, where the school is located, has one ward in the top 10% most deprived areas in the country, and surrounding wards in the top 20% most deprived areas (Indices of MultipleDeprivation, 2019 English indices of deprivation 2019: mapping resources.) There are 24 different languages spoken among families in the school (Summer Census 2024). Families report difficulty in accessing wider community opportunities for their sons and daughters due to lack of appropriate clubs and groups, transport complications and accessibility of venues, and it is therefore vital we facilitate community participation through our curriculum. The curriculum also seeks to celebrate the diversity of our cohorts through religious and cultural encounters to build cultural capital both in and out of school.
From our knowledge of the local area, we recognise a number of families remain in the area. Therefore a larger proportion of our curriculum is based on building knowledge of, and relationships in, the local area. We believe this is the best way of supporting them to prepare for a meaningful and fulfilled adulthood and to support them to be successful members of their community. Equally, we build cultural capital by expanding learning into broader communities and a range of learning experiences, so they can build confidence when encountering new communities.
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