Sandfield Park

Sandfield Park

Curriculum Statements

Sandfield Park Curriculum Statement for Sandfield,
​Hospital Education and Alder Centre for Education

​Sandfield is a school for pupils with a wide variety of additional needs. It caters for pupils from Year 7 to Year 14, with wide range of ability levels.

Hospital Education and Alder Centre for Education are services which provide an education for pupils from mainly mainstream schools who are too ill to attend their school, either as in-patients or out-patients. Health needs play a key role in planning the curriculum.

All the different elements of our school make up Sandfield Park School.

Curriculum Intent
The curriculum vision/aim for Sandfield Park School:
To engage pupils in their education by overcoming barriers to learning
To ensure pupils feel safe and supported in their learning
To provide a range of subjects so that pupils can have a breadth of learning.
To support pupils in developing key academic skills and communication skills
To enable pupils to move on successfully to Post-16 education, post 19 education, into work or to successfully transition back to their mainstream school.

We aim to do this by:
Providing a curriculum that meets the needs of our pupils
Having flexible systems in school where pupils are taught by class teachers or by subject specialist teachers depending on their needs.
Working with health professionals in order to create a personalised plan for students.
Ensuring mutual respect between students and staff.
Listening carefully to the voice of the child.
Having high expectations in a non-threatening way (high challenge, low threat)
Small class sizes in a small setting which provides an environment conducive to learning

What do we expect students to get from this curriculum?
A breadth of education in order to keep as many post school options open as possible.
A love for learning.
Increased self-confidence and sense of achievement and well-being.
Improvement in social communication skills.
Personal barriers to learning to be broken down.

How have we planned this?
Each element of the school will have its own unique curriculum as outlined in the curriculum statements.
The general guide will be to have the needs of the pupils at the centre of the curriculum, using EHCP targets and the National Curriculum where appropriate. We will then use appropriate accreditations as a guide to make sure that we cover the syllabi expected to help students take examinations.

We take into account the gaps in a student’s education by ensuring there are opportunities to recall prior learning.
We identify students who require some intervention with basic maths and English skills and provide some one-to-one support.
The curriculum is sequenced to ensure objectives have a clear progression through the Key Stage.

Implementation 
How does learning develop?
Pupils are taught according to their needs and thus the curriculum is responsive to this. EHCPS and the national curriculum provide a guide and we work closely with host or feeder schools and the curriculum that they use and ensure a smooth transition in to Sandfield Park.
Pupils in KS4 and KS 5 (Sandfield) are able to study for a wide range of accreditations depending on their needs.
Cross-curricular opportunities provide access to other subjects. In addition, pupils are given the opportunity to engage in a variety of extra-curricular projects to fully enrich the curriculum.

What principles have guided our decision making in developing this curriculum? What is distinctive about our curriculum? 
Each pupil’s specific medical needs and their mental well-being.
Our school is unique and so our curriculum has to be different and bespoke to meet the needs of pupils across its wide spectrum. Each area of the school has a distinct curriculum planning process to ensure that these needs are met. There are high expectations of all pupils and they are challenged to attain appropriate levels.

For example for the pupils in Sandfield, with additional needs, the process is as follows:

Planning Tools/Prompts/Consideration for Long Term Plans
EHCP Maps/Expectations/Targets
National Curriculum/Expectations
Sequence of Learning
Rolling Program of Topics
Previous Long Term Plans
Previous Pupil Attainment and Development of Skills/Knowledge
Previous Medium Term Plans
Special Focus Areas
Links between subjects
Accreditations / Assessments
Topics of Interest
Employability opportunities
Calendar/Dates/Festivals/Tournaments

Planning Tools/Prompts/Consideration for Medium Term Plans
Recent pupil attainment/ achievement
Progression / Revision
EHCP Targets
Functional Skills Targets
Special Focus Areas
Educational Visits / Visitors
Spacing out Learning (applying learning theories)
Have objectives in different contexts (applying learning theories)

In what ways does your curriculum help to develop:
Culture Capital – This is a criteria on our planning process so that we ensure that our pupils learn about the best in a cultural area. This can apply to any subject across the curriculum.
Physically and mentally balanced lifestyles – We support our pupils across the school to develop a balanced approach to life, either specifically through PSHE and healthy lifestyles or informally through a range of curricular and extra-curricular opportunities. Sometimes pupils across the whole school work together on projects such as the Now Festival or SLICE to promote balanced lifestyles.
Careers and enterprise – are covered in particular elements of the curriculum. Sandfield and ACE pupils have specific programmes, both sets of students now have work placement opportunities. One of our focus areas is to ensure pupils have work related learning skills.

Impact
What forms do assessments take? What is the purpose of assessment?
Baseline assessments / tests take place on admission.
The Marking Policy ensures teacher assessment is taking place every lesson. The small class sizes enable teachers to informally assess how well students are learning throughout lessons.
Quizzes support memory recall.
Assessments are varied across the school and depend on the needs of pupils, these may be linked to internal assessment systems or national ones (GCSE). Whatever form of assessment takes place it is used for a pupil to achieve a certain level of ability and for a teacher to support that pupil’s next stage of learning and is a key part of the curriculum planning process.
Pupils can work towards accreditations where possible.

How do we know if we have a successful curriculum?
Work scrutiny – Students are producing work which shows they are on track for their targets.
Learning walks and lesson observations provide instant feedback
Attendance and student engagement. Students who are motivated to learn and to reach their potential.
Evidence of progression through our varied assessment systems.
Evidence of learning being embedded via student recall, both long and short term.
On-going monitoring and reviews of curriculum plans.
Successful transition of students to whatever is the next stage of their development.
Increased levels of confidence in students giving them high aspirations.
Positive Pupil voice and parent voice.
Accurate Self and peer evaluations.

For more specific curriculum statements please see the whole school overviews for Sandfield, ACE and The Hospital School using the buttons provided below. These are then broken down further into specific departments and / or subjects to provide further detail to our curriculum.

Sandfield Curriculum Statements

Hospital Education Curriculum Statements

Alder Centre for Education Curriculum Statements