Curriculum

Curriculum

Curriculum Intent & Implementation

Curriculum Intent
  • Every individual, students and staff alike are valued, nurtured, and supported to flourish.
Students in the Bradgate Inclusion Centre (BInC) are given a bespoke support package to allow them to flourish academically, as well as spiritually, morally, socially and culturally. All students are valued; quality first teaching ‘every day, every lesson’ is at the heart of our ethos. Students are nurtured to become confident, resilient, independent and responsive. Students are also nurtured to access mainstream provision; are equally valued for the contributions they make in the BInC, if this is where they choose to stay.
In the BInC, we have a clear and consistent approach to celebrating success. Students are awarded nudge vouchers when they go ‘above and beyond’. Ensuring that students are in school ‘every day, every lesson’ is a vital part of our work and we are extra vigilant of those students who are not in school as per the Attendance Protocol. Parents and carers are regularly informed of their child’s progress to give them an insight into how their child is performing.
There are sessions during the week when mainstream teaching staff teach in the BInC. This ensures that students feel a part of the wider school community and feel valued by all staff.
Students who have an EHCP have Personal Targets to support them in making progress towards the recommendations in their EHCP. External providers are also part of our student’s journey through secondary education.
  • A shared commitment to push each other to be better and make a positive difference.
We seek to inspire in students a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people which will remain with them for the rest of their lives; to promote an interest and understanding of diverse places, people and resources. Our curriculum aims to engage, challenge and inspire students to make a positive difference to themselves and in their local communities.
All staff have high expectations of all learners and staff are skilled in recognising gaps in learning, moving learning on and ensuring that learning is embedded across the curriculum. Staff have developed an ethos where students are calm, reflective and take pride in what they produce in all lessons. Our curriculum also offers breadth and depth in the content that is taught and is designed to develop knowledge and skills that are progressive, as well as transferrable, throughout their time in the BInC and also to their further education and beyond.
Our primary goal is to develop social communication and interaction skills; students are given opportunities ‘every day, every lesson’ to learn and apply these skills. ASDAN provides students with the opportunity to develop skills for learning, work and life. It also offers the opportunity for students to discover, develop and make use of their abilities to affirm their identities, contribute to society, and challenge educational and social inequalities.
  • A recognition that nothing is achieved without relentless hard work and resilience.
In the BInC, we instill an ethos of hard work in all our students, which they are rewarded for. We aim to ensure that students feel that their learning is purposeful, and transferrable throughout their time in the BInC and beyond.
As we cater for students with a social communication and interaction need, we ensure that every day is highly structured. A visual timetable is on display in the classroom and is shared with students at the beginning of each day. This ensures that students know what to expect in their journey of learning for the day.
Teaching staff are highly skilled in recognising where there are gaps in learning and will provide challenge to all learners; provide opportunities for retrieval practise and will ensure that there are clear next steps in their planning, to be able to move all learners on.
Curriculum Implementation
Our curriculum will give students the opportunity to:
  • See clear links between different aspects of their learning.
  • Understand the purpose and value of their learning and see its relevance to their past, present and future.
  • Experience the challenge and enjoyment of learning.
  • Develop and demonstrate their creativity.
  • Develop new skills through a variety of interesting contexts.
  • Develop a rich and deep subject knowledge.
  • Learn within a coherent and progressive framework.
  • Explore the breadth and depth of the national curriculum.
  • Have strong and meaningful links to the mainstream curriculum.
Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural
Our curriculum will give students the opportunity to:
  • Spiritual: Explore beliefs, experience and faiths, feelings and values; enjoy learning about oneself, others and the surrounding world; use imagination and creativity to reflect on experiences.
  • Moral: Recognise right and wrong and respect the law; understand consequences; investigate moral and ethical issues and offer reasoned views.
  • Social: Use a range of social skills to participate in the local community and beyond; appreciate diverse viewpoints; resolve conflict.
  • Cultural: Appreciate cultural influences; participate in culture opportunities; understand, accept, respect and celebrate diversity.
Democracy, Rule of Law, Individual Liberty and Tolerance and Respect
Our curriculum will give students the opportunity to:
  • Democracy: Be part of a system where everyone plays an equal part.
  • Rule of Law: Learn that all people and institutions are subject to and accountable for their actions and behaviour.
  • Individual Liberty: Be free to express views or ideas.
  • Tolerance and Respect: To respect and tolerate the opinions or behaviours of others.
Topic / English / WCR
The BInC has adopted a curriculum which is cross-curricular and is broad and balanced. We use the online resource Curriculum Maestro to support our curriculum planning and delivery. This approach facilitates a deep and embedded learning approach in which students are immersed in four to six projects, which they cover throughout the year. Due to the nature of our student demographic in the BInC, we have started with a KS2 programme and have branched out making links to national curriculum objectives in KS3 and KS4.
Each project has four phases:
Engage 
Develop 
Innovate  
Express 
Within these, students start with a ‘Hook’ to engage them into the project; this may be a visit, or a visitor coming into school. They then move onto specific subject content linked to National Curriculum requirements for their year group. The learning is drawn together during the ‘Innovate’ phase. The projects then end with a celebration where the students showcase their learning.
Our curriculum consists of ten ‘Big Ideas’ listed below:
  • Humankind: Understanding what it means to be human and how human behaviour has shaped the world.
  • Nature: Understanding the complexities of the plant and animal species that inhabit the world.
  • Processes: Understanding the many dynamic and physical processes that shape the world.
  • Place and Space: Understanding the visual, cultural, social, and environmental aspects of places around the world.
  • Creativity: Understanding the creative process and how everyday and exceptional creativity can shape the world.
  • Comparison: Understanding how and why things are the same or different.
  • Investigation: Understanding the importance of investigation and how this has led to significant change in the world.
  • Materials: Understanding the properties of all matter, living and non-living.
  • Significance: Understanding why significant people, places, events and inventions matter and how they have shaped the world.
  • Change: Understanding why and how things have changed over time.
In KS4, our current cohort are taught the GCSE English Language syllabus. Students on this course will sit their English Language exam, in Year 11.
At the beginning of KS4, students learn from a wide range of texts, e.g. Blood Brothers and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Links are made to the GCSE English Language syllabus.
WCR (Whole Class Reading) consists of five components:
  • Vocabulary (phonological awareness, decoding and sight recognition);
  • Retrieval;
  • Inference;
  • Questioning;
  • Summarising.
 
How does WCR work?
Background knowledge of a given context can support children’s reading and writing. When appropriate, connections are made between reading texts and core knowledge being learned in wider curriculum subjects.
  • The teacher will model fluency, intonation and comprehension.
  • The teacher uses skilful questioning and discussion to support students to develop an understanding of new vocabulary.
  • Students’ complete activities to develop their understanding of the text.
Maths
We provide a curriculum that is rich in skills and knowledge, which ignites curiosity and prepares students for their next steps in life. Our mathematics curriculum will give students the opportunity to:
  • Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
  • Reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language.
  • Can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and preserving in seeking solutions.
  • Communicate, justify, argue and prove using mathematical vocabulary.

ASDAN
ASDAN offers our students with the knowledge and skills they need to motivate, engage, evaluate and empower them as they prepare for the next phase in their lives. Students experience practical learning to develop their personal, social and work-related skills; to discover their passion and purpose as they move forward into further education, work or training.

We teach a range of ASDAN programs, including: Animal Care, Geography and Independent Living.