English

The English curriculum at Brownhill Special School is designed to provide flexibility and personalisation which is required to respond to the individual needs of each of our learners. The curriculum focuses on opportunities to develop literacy skills which will help our learners to thrive in real life situations, while simultaneously exposing them to texts that feed the imagination by creating fascination and awe. We aim to expand vocabulary whilst cultivating critical thinking skills that enable students to express their ideas with clarity and purpose using diverse texts. This will encourage our learners to remain open minded and accepting of human beings as it is our utmost priority to equip students with necessary skills to succeed in a constantly evolving society.

Our curriculum is a vehicle for this wider intent, and we offer different learning pathways. We have used key information about student’s needs which have been identified in the EHCPs (Education, Health, and Childcare Plan) to develop a curriculum with two different pathways that complement each other; the Core Curriculum and the Support Curriculum. Both pathways run alongside multisensory learning in ASDAN and life skills to encourage engagement and re-regulation for students who are not yet ready to learn through didactic teaching.  Students can interchange between the pathways depending on their needs within each topic after a period of monitoring; allowing them to thrive, show resilience and feel successful.

• Pathway 1: Students will access cross curricular links with ASDAN alongside the Supported Skills curriculum.

• Pathway 2: Students will move between the Supported Skills Curriculum and the Core Skills Curriculum which will build on complexity in each year.

See Appendix 1 for Personalised Learning

Our curriculum aims to ensure that all learners;

• Develop their self-efficacy within the English subject

• Feel challenged

• Feel engaged within a topic

• Feel involved and heard within decisions around their learning

• Read easily, fluently and with good understanding

• Develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information

• Acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language

• Appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage through didactic learning and multisensory activities

• Write clearly, accurately, and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes, and audiences

• Use discussion to learn; they should be able to elaborate and clearly explain their understanding and ideas

• Speak coherently and clearly in both formal and informal situations

• Feel confident with their competence in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others, and participating in debate.

• Understand their own access arrangements, which they can use to express their thoughts and opinions clearly

• Use strategies to develop knowledge from their short term to long term memory

• Develop a portfolio of work to be proud of in both written and evidence form

• Develop stamina in writing using an appropriate method with or without access arrangements

• Feel supported by research-based strategies from professionals

• Feel prepared for their post 16 provision journey of choice

• Receive intervention for any misconceptions and gaps through quality first teaching and intervention

• Do not feel limited by their diagnosis when accessing the curriculum

• Feel supported in strategies used to help the 7 executive functions

Through our English curriculum, we aim to empower our students by ensuring that we promote a high standard of language and literacy. We aim to do this through a broad, differentiated yet ambitious, flexible curriculum used to develop their knowledge and cultural capital so that they can succeed in school, as lifelong learners and as members of the community.