Curriculum: Intent, Implementation & Impact

Curriculum Intent

Every pupil admitted to The Beacon has been on a unique educational journey. We are committed to being a positive and stabilising setting that bridges to continued education, whether that be another mainstream school or a specialist setting. Pupils are with us for varying amounts of time: some individuals will have a very short time with us (18 days) while others can remain in excess of 1 year dependent on the availability of provision. Our curriculum therefore needs to be flexible, personalised and designed to enable pupils to progress to the next stage on their educational journey. Our aim is to provide a curriculum that enables each child to shine: to nurture their individual talents and raise aspirations.

The curriculum is designed to:

• Re -engage all pupils as learners
• Enhance the self – perception of pupils as learners
• Inspire and motivate pupils, fostering a curiosity to learn
• Enable all pupils to make progress from their individual starting points and to have success in learning underpinned by a focus on developing pupils’ social development, emotional wellbeing and mental health
• Focus on developing pupil’s social, emotional and mental health
• Have a strong curriculum focus on the facilitating subjects of English and Mathematics
• Allow pupils to explore subjects beyond the core curriculum in a thematic approach
• Support all pupils to lead healthy and safe lifestyles
• Support all pupils to develop the skills, behaviours and attitudes that will enable them to reintegrate to and be successful in the next phase of their education

In- depth understanding of attachment theory, child development and neuroscience underpins and informs all aspects of The Beacon. Using this evidenced based research and theory ensures the greatest outcomes for our learners (for both academic and personal development).

The principles that underpin our pedagogy and all curriculum learning are:

• The relationships are key
• Children’s learning is understood developmentally
• The Unit provides a symbolic secure base creating the sense of safety to enable pupils to explore and learn
• The importance of containment through attunement and validation for the development of well being
• All behaviour is communication
• The importance of transition in children’s lives

The PSHE curriculum and embedded SMSC will ensure that The Beacon fulfills all our statutory obligations under equality legislation.

Implementation

In any one classroom at The Beacon we will have pupils from state-maintained schools and academies, who have experienced very different curriculums before joining us, and who may return or move on to another setting with a different curriculum. We have mixed age classes of children, many of whom are not working at age related expectations. It is therefore crucially important that our curriculum is flexible enough to enable us to meet a wide range of needs. A robust induction process ensures prior information is shared involving previous school and parents/carers. Each pupil who enters The Beacon will be assessed on entry. Pupils complete baseline assessments in Maths and English, allowing staff to develop a personalised curriculum that fills any gaps they have in prior learning, and allows them to move at their own pace, whatever their starting point. Using the National Curriculum as a starting point we operate a two year rolling programme of themes indicating which topic is to be taught each term. Foundation subjects and, where appropriate, core subjects are taught under these themes.

The Beacon Core Curriculum Entitlement

• English, including a phonics programme using RWI
• Mathematics
• Science
• PSHE
• Religious Education

Impact

The primary measure of the impact of our curriculum will be student achievement and attainment. Our assessment policy contains the detail of how we assess pupils. We will further evaluate the impact of our curriculum in the following ways: