Curriculum

Aspen 2 Curriculum

As part of Turner Schools we have a curriculum-driven school improvement approach, believing that what we teach – and how we teach it – is central to ensuring that our pupils overcome our context of coastal isolation and any other barriers they may face, ranging from disadvantage to illiteracy.We also believe our purpose is to discover and nurture the talent of our pupils and develop them to be  confident, ambitious and successful by experiencing a broad and enriched curriculum. We also want to develop them as active citizens making a contribution to their community and are therefore preparing them for adulthood and life beyond DCCA Aspen 2.

All pupils in Aspen 2 have an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) and have been diagnosed as having Profound, Severe or Complex needs including physical and learning disabilities. This policy has been written to incorporate their needs along with the legal guidelines and principles. The delivery of the curriculum is supported through small size classes, a high staff to pupil ratio, specialist staff expertise and differentiated or individual programmes. There is a range of class/curriculum group organisation which supports the learning needs of all pupils. Curriculum development at Aspen 2 is a continuous process in order to reflect current educational thinking and respond to the needs of our changing needs of our pupil intake. 

INTENT

The intention of Aspen 2 is to construct and follow a curriculum that is ambitious and designed to give all learners, regardless of their needs, levels or social disadvantage, the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in life (including for future learning and employment). Our curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced to assist in the development of these skills and is designed to meet all pupils’ needs (hence the implementation of a three-fold Pathway model). Key intentions of the curriculum are:

Following these three concepts it is our intention that the functional skills developed through the curriculum will enable our pupils to contribute to their community and be as independent as possible in their future life.

IMPLEMENTATION

In order to reach our curriculum intentions, the following is implemented.

Curriculum Design and Structure

In brief, Aspen 2 is structured according to the need type and then key stage of the pupils. This structure influences the curriculum. The Aspen 2 curriculum has been designed as a three-fold Pathway model in order to provide pupils with the most appropriate approach and content. Whilst many pupils will work within one curriculum pathway for several years, as skills and knowledge progress, some may move into the other pathways. It may also be appropriate for some pupils to move to a less conventional curriculum model, to support skill consistency and maintenance. 

The starting point for each curriculum is the individual pupil with a programme designed to meet his/her needs taken from the full available curriculum (using their EHCP and provision plan as a guide), delivered in a way that will engage each pupil.