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Curriculum Intent

Bluebell Park Curriculum at-a-glance

‘Learn about the World, celebrate achievement and care for others’

Curriculum Intent

The curriculum is what is taught. It is the specific plan of what learners need to know and what we want them to be able to do.

Our curriculum at Bluebell Park is a skills and knowledge based curriculum underpinned by our central aim ‘Learn about the world, care for others and celebrate achievement’.  The curriculum at is ambitious and equips students with the skills, knowledge and understanding to become as independent as possible.

We know their individual needs, abilities, interests and aspirations and we try our best to make the curriculum match these. We create interesting topics such as ‘Farm to Fork, ‘The Countryside’ and ‘Local Places’ to teach adapted National Curriculum subjects where appropriate, and other things that aren’t subjects but still vitally important such as self-awareness, attention, independence and communication. We work really hard to make the curriculum relevant, purposeful, motivating and stimulating so we can engage and involve pupils with what we are teaching them.

Our curriculum aims to help pupils make outstanding progress in all areas of their learning so that they can move onto Post-19 provision and a life beyond school. Our aim is that pupils leave Bluebell Park with the communication, confidence, self-help and life skills that support overall independence. Meaningful accreditation and qualifications are achieved to enable our pupils to continue their learning journeys into adult life. We want every pupil to reach the potential they have even if their potential is limited by profound learning difficulties. We strive for them to make as much progress as possible and to have as many valuable learning experiences as possible. Important to all our pupils learning is that they are safe, happy, stimulated, healthy and confident learners. We want to celebrate all achievements no matter how small.

All pupils attending the school have degrees of learning difficulty. In addition, a pupil may have a physical disability, have a level of autism and/or a severe medical condition. In some cases, they may have a profound and multiple learning difficulty. Most pupils attending Bluebell Park have complex and profound physical and learning difficulties and/or autism to some degree. The complexity is on the increase particularly in terms of pupils requiring medical support.

The number of pupils with a learning disability who require access with support, to a mainstream school type curriculum is small and decreasing. The needs of these pupils often demand multidisciplinary, multi-agency services including nursing, physiotherapist, occupational therapist or speech and language therapist (NHS), Educational Psychologist, Sensory Impairment Service, Early Help, Positive Behaviour Support Service and Portage (Local Authority). Bluebell Park is committed to a co-ordinated response of delivery with all of these services working collaboratively with parents, teachers and carers. We have introduced 3 curriculum approaches to respond to defined needs.

All of our learners will follow either the pre-formal, semi-formal or formal curriculum according to their level of development.

The curriculum is differentiated at three levels: 

Pre-formal – Pupils engaged in non-subject specific learning with a sensory focus. 

Semi-formal – Pupils engaged in non-subject specific learning with a skills-based focus.

Formal – Pupils engaged in subject specific, knowledge-based formal learning. 

This meets the needs of our different cohorts of pupils ensuring that they access the learning experiences that are relevant and appropriate to them.

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