Core Vision and School aims
To ensure that we are able to meet each student’s needs as specifically as possible Beacon Hill School’s curriculum is arranged into four pathways. These are the Explorer ; the Traveller; the Adventurer; and the Discoverer Pathway. Students transition into the best pathway for them following the Early Years Foundation Stage. Each curriculum pathway is designed to best meet the needs of the students in terms of the curriculum areas, the learning environment and the teaching and learning approaches. Pathways are not static and students can move into different pathways as their learner characteristics develop and change.
Curriculum Overview
To ensure that we are able to meet each child and young person’s holistic needs as specifically as possible Beacon Hill’s curriculum is arranged into four pathways. Each of these Pathways has its own distinct overarching features such as; the nature of the learning environment and the teaching and learning approaches. This begins to meet the collective needs of the children and young people within that pathway which is then personalised to a higher degree to meet the specific needs of individual pupils through identification of Personalised Learning Goals. Breadth and depth is given to the skills and knowledge through a range of learning contexts and by cross contextualising learning from the very beginning.
Just as the learning priorities for each child and young person are highly personalised, so are the learning contexts, resources and techniques employed. This ensures that the best approaches, resources, and learning contexts are used to maximise engagement, enjoyment and ultimately have the greatest impact on learning.
Key Principles of Curriculum implementation at Beacon Hill
Just as the learning priorities for each child and young person are highly personalised, so are the learning contexts, resources and techniques employed. This ensures that the best approaches, resources, and learning contexts are used to maximise engagement, enjoyment and ultimately have the greatest impact on learning.
Regulate, relate, reason
Dr Bruce Perry, a pioneering neuroscientist in the field of trauma, has shown that in order to reach the learning brain, we need to structure interaction with a simple sequence: Regulate, Relate, Reason. Many of our students need support to regulate and as such the learning environments within each pathway are designed to promote, support, and enable regulation. Across all pathways, we use a Total communication approach in order to develop a positive relationship and meaningful connection between staff and students. Once students are well-regulated and able to ‘relate’ to staff and other students, they are ready to learn. The approaches used will differ according to the pathway and indeed individual students.
Engagement, enjoyment and challenge
Children and young people should find their learning engaging, motivating, and enjoyable. The learning priorities identified for each child and young person at each stage of their learning journey encourage high aspirations and ambition. At every stage, children and young people experience an appropriate level of challenge, to enable each individual to achieve his or her potential. Students learn new ideas by reference to ideas they already know so careful consideration is given to the prerequisite learning required. They should be active in their learning and have opportunities to develop and demonstrate their creative thinking.
Engage the senses
Multi-sensory teaching approaches involve the use of various senses, such as sight, sound, touch, and movement, to engage students in learning. By doing so, these strategies help students build stronger connections to the material, making it more accessible and easier to remember. Multi-Sensory Teaching approaches improve retention: engaging multiple senses in the learning process helps students retain information better, as it creates more neural pathways to store and retrieve the knowledge. Multi-sensory approaches enhance engagement by making learning more interactive and enjoyable, leading to increased motivation and participation from students.
The power of the ‘everyday’
There are so many opportunities to support students to make progress towards their goals and aspirations in everyday interactions and experiences. We recognise the importance of maximising opportunities and understand that every interaction and experience provides a ‘teachable moment’. Planning for these moments as well as responding to each moment that presents itself ensures meaningful opportunities for repetition and contextualised learning.
Playful learning is powerful learning
In fact, according to research by Dr. Karyn Purvis, scientists have discovered that it takes approximately 400 repetitions to create a new synapse in the brain, unless it is done in play, in which case it only takes 10 to 20 repetitions
Play and playful learning is a key approach in developing agency. Playful learning develops children and young people’s motivation and self-regulation, both of which support their sense of agency in their learning.
We recognise that play itself follows a developmental sequence in terms of cognitive play as well as the social stages of play. Within each pathway playful learning provides the underlying pedagogy, although how it’s applied will vary according to the pathway and play stage.
Whatever the stage of play, playful learning is
- Meaningful to the individual..
- Joyful…
- Iterative…
- Socially Interactive…
- Actively Engaging.
Progression and coherence
Children and young people experience continuous progression in their learning from the very start of their journey and throughout their time at school. Each stage should build upon earlier skills, knowledge, and achievements. Learning must be structured and sequenced in a logical way that enables students to build on what they can do/know in order to reach the longer-term outcomes. This is captured through the learning priorities identified for individual children and young people within their Personalised Learning Goals.
Personalisation, relevance and personal development
The learning priorities planned for children and young people should respond to their individual needs, strengths, and aspirations. It is vital to always ask ‘Why is this important for/to this student?’ always considering preparation for life both now and in the future from the earliest of years.
Breadth and depth- cross contextualised learning
All children and young people have the opportunities for a broad range of experiences, through varied learning contexts such as: community based learning, forest school, community visits, use of specialist rooms, music therapy, thematic learning contexts, visitors to school etc. Learning is planned and organised so that students learn and develop through a variety of rich and meaningful contexts within school and within the community. In this way, learning is cross-contextualised from the very beginning.
Working in partnership
We work in close partnership with families, NHS therapy teams and social care in order to provide the best provision possible for all of our students. Close working with families ensures that we better understand the students lives outside of the school environment so we can tailor learning priorities to make the greatest impact on THEIR life both now and in the future. Working with families helps us ensure that learning priorities are understood and supported when the students are at home.
By fostering strong partnerships with social care services, we can ensure that our students receive the comprehensive care and support they need to thrive both within our school community and beyond. Collaboration between Beacon Hill and social care services is not just a partnership; it is a shared commitment to the well-being and development of our students, both now and in the future.
We work closely with our NHS colleagues to ensure that the health needs of the students are understood and met, this includes input into curriculum planning and delivery. Our NHS partners offer advice and support to ensure that the children are able to participate in all activities within the school day.