How we plan learning
We start with what matters to each student and their family. Understanding their life, interests, relationships and aspirations gives our planning its direction. We then draw on our carefully sequenced curriculum and EHCP outcomes to choose meaningful learning priorities. Throughout this process, we ask: “Why is this important for, or to, this student?”
Connecting learning with each student’s life
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The learner at the centre
We begin with the student and the life they are living. Their interests, relationships, experiences and aspirations help us understand what matters to them. Every curriculum area contributes knowledge and skills that can support their participation and future life.
Connecting life and learning
Our Life Led Planning Tool helps us connect the learner’s story with the curriculum. It brings learning from different areas together, so individual goals contribute to a shared picture of what the student is learning and why it matters.
Working towards a personal destination
We plan towards an ambitious destination that is personal to each student. As they develop, we review how their curriculum and goals support this direction. What we learn about the student informs planning, and their progress helps us refine the next steps.
Planning for now and the future
By starting with the person, we can plan learning that is meaningful now and builds foundations for the future. This keeps everyday teaching connected to the student’s longer-term aspirations.
Our curriculum documents
We start with what matters to each student and their family. Understanding their life, interests, relationships and aspirations gives our planning its direction. We then draw on our carefully sequenced curriculum and EHCP outcomes to choose meaningful learning priorities. Throughout this process, we ask: “Why is this important for, or to, this student?”
Developed for our students
Beacon Hill’s curriculum has been developed around the knowledge and skills our students need to participate in their own lives, now and in the future. It builds on our understanding of their learning and development, with contributions from speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and nursing colleagues. Communication, independence, physical development, emotional regulation and engagement with the world run throughout it.
Clear learning journeys
Each curriculum area sets out what we want students to learn and how learning can develop over time. Long-term goals are supported by milestones and smaller steps, making the foundations of learning clear and helping staff identify meaningful next steps. These sequences guide teaching while allowing for each student’s starting point, access needs and pace of learning.
Connecting the curriculum with everyday life
The documents include links to real life, showing how knowledge and skills can support communication, choices, relationships, personal care, community participation and preparation for adulthood. They help staff plan purposeful teaching through play, lessons, everyday routines and authentic experiences. Safeguarding, agency, dignity and wellbeing are integral to this learning.
Personalised for each learner
Our curriculum provides the wider learning framework. We bring it together with each student’s life story, aspirations, EHCP outcomes and ongoing assessment to choose priorities that are meaningful and ambitious for that individual. Personalised goals connect everyday teaching with this broader learning journey.
Our curriculum documents
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Our shared curriculum
Our curriculum documents provide carefully sequenced knowledge and skills across the areas relevant to each student’s pathway. This shared framework helps us choose learning priorities that support both the student’s individual aspirations and a broad curriculum.
Building learning over time
The curriculum contains carefully sequenced learning, with skills building towards longer-term outcomes. Class teams personalise plans so learning builds from each student’s starting point, stays connected across curriculum areas and supports future learning, transitions and adult life.
Starting with the learner
Aspirations, needs and strengths guide planning. The Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) process, family input, professional knowledge and ongoing assessment help establish the overall direction.
EHCP outcomes
Outcomes identified through the EHCP process describe important longer-term priorities, such as communication, independence or regulation. These are broken into smaller steps to support progress.
Curriculum goals
School-set curriculum goals draw on the shared framework relevant to the learner’s pathway. They provide breadth and balance and reflect what the student needs to learn next within a structured sequence. We bring these priorities together in Personalised Learning Goals (PLGs).
How the goals connect
EHCP outcomes identify individual priorities. Wider curriculum goals provide the breadth of learning needed to support the learner’s aspirations. Curriculum goals are selected from structured learning sequences and personalised to the learner.