By helping pupils to build firm foundations for their future, we bridge the gap between education and real life by having fun, being challenged and being inspired. Our curriculum supports every child to be the best they can be.
At the heart of our curriculum are the three core values to care, nurture and inspire. This is because we understand the impact of early trauma and how insecure attachments in childhood can have a significant impact upon a students development: cognitively, socially and emotionally.
Golding’s Therapeutic Needs Hierarchy (2015) and the The Trauma Recovery Model (TRM) is fundamental to our curriculum model, taking its foundational belief of ‘redeemability’ as our cornerstone – every child has a fresh start at our school and every day from then on.
Students who have suffered complex trauma and have had disrupted experiences of education need an individualised approach that takes into consideration their underlying needs, presentation, and behaviour. We use the principles of Trauma Informed Practice – The 3 C’s to assist with this.
We adjust learning and ensure systematic interventions take place where needed, and that specialist approaches are applied in line with where students are in their journey towards being able to move on and achieve their goals. Because of this, our curriculum is a spiral, organised to take into consideration which tier of the TRM students are currently working at.
Implementation
As theories of child development, attachment and neuroscience indicate and the Hierarchy of needs/TRM outlines, we understand that to be ready to learn, in any capacity, students first need to feel secure in school.
At all times our expert staff show students that they really care, making this explicit – nurturing relationships, building trust and safety. This, therefore, is at the centre of the spiral, always underpinning our curriculum, whatever tier of the TRM a student is operating at.
What a student’s bespoke package of learning may include (e.g. subjects studied and how) and looks like, is shown through our curriculum spirals curve. This is curve is a continuum – as learning does not start or stop at any point.
Students working at the lower level of the TRM who have not yet met Cognitive Threshold 1, will focus on personalised relational learning linked to their EHCP and Individual Provision Plan (IPP) targets.
Students meeting Cognitive Threshold 1 may transition to incorporate core learning taught in context.
Students gaining insight and awareness, reaching Cognitive Threshold 2 may transition into broader and more balanced curriculum offer.
Students will not always be able to move through the tiers of the TRM in a sequenced and linear fashion. Dependent upon external factors within a students life, they may move back and forth between tiers and thus could also do so on the curriculum curves continuum as we strive to adapt learning and teaching to meet the students current needs. This is especially the case if a student re-enters crisis after a period of stability (e.g. suffers a bereavement, placement breakdown etc).
Bespoke Planning and Support
We want our students to experience and learn as much as possible during their time with us. To do so we enable students to form subject schema within their long-term memories that are relevant to their personal interests and aspirations.
Due to this, our curriculum is based on, but not limited to, the core skills and programmes of study outlined in the National Curriculum, building over time as a student moves through the tiers of the TRM and thus along the curriculum curves continuum. This enables students the opportunity to access a broad, balanced, connected and dynamic offer, at all levels; and in time, become successful learners.
At all times a student’s bespoke provision will be outlined in depth within their ‘My Plan’. This folder is made up of five key documents:
Curriculum Organisation
Personalised, relational learning.
The start of our curriculum spiral continuum begins with personalised, relational learning. Students focus first on building a readiness to engage with key adults and selected peers. For some students, this can mean working with animals first as a precursor.
Staff build relationship through play and activities linked to students areas of interest, and when ready, teachers carefully plan to create hidden learning opportunities. These are focused around students EHCP/IPP targets based upon the students primary SEMH and learning needs.
Students at this stage of the spiral engage in a heavily adapted curriculum, and their timetables will often have specialist clinical input scheduled, if ready to engage.
All students however, will work towards incorporating:
Students at Fieldstone have often had challenging starts to life where their communication environment and/or support to build early Literacy behaviours and skills may not have been as strong as others, which is why we start with a focus on this.
Many students have had limited exposure to talk, song or reading and in fact play as a baby, toddler and/or pre-schooler. We know that early childhood experiences determine how a child’s brain develops and that for many of our students, due to social disadvantage and/or being exposed to trauma, they have significant barriers to learning and have struggled to ‘catch-up’ with their peers when entering school. This has often been exacerbated with students falling further behind or missing large gaps of knowledge due to their specific needs remaining unmet in a mainstream setting or due to not being in education.
Many students join Fieldstone with poor verbal skills, limited literacy development, struggling to read and often lacking the confidence to engage in such lessons. We have made it our mission to immerse every one of our students in a language and communication rich environment whilst teaching explicit literacy skills that transform their life chances.
We also prioritise teaching Food Preparation and Nutrition as we know from research that a healthy diet helps reduce high levels of cortisol, stimulating the production of the feel-good hormone, Dopamine and increasing calming, mood enhancing serotonin. We also want our students to be able to make informed decisions about what they eat and feed their families in the future, being able to cook a variety of cost-effective meals independently upon leaving us.
Physical exercise is also prioritised as it is one of the most important activities young people can take part in to nurture their bodies and take care of their mental health and wellbeing. Research makes clear that students who develop an active lifestyle when they are younger are more likely to maintain this as they reach adulthood, reducing the risk of ill-health later in life. Developing students’ health and fitness whilst building their social skills and confidence is paramount – we understand it improves our students energy levels and ability to concentrate but also elevates their mood through the release of endorphins and decreasing stress through rising levels of dopamine. We also know that serotonin is increased by exercise, helping our students to sleep well.
Forest school again, is something that is central to our students timetables at all times through their school journey at Fieldstone. This is because being outdoors for extended periods of time has a positive effect on mental, emotional and physiological health. Forest school enables our students to feel more grounded, nurturing a natural connection – which we also know is associated with significantly lower stress levels, blood pressure, anxiety, depression and feelings of anger. When ready, sessions allow students to develop practical skills improving their confidence, self-esteem and how they view themselves as learners.
Core learning in context.
If children are working at Cognitive Threshold 1 and are ready, we will work to engage them in personalised core learning taught in context.
In addition to the subject areas listed above in the first layer of the spiral, children will now also work towards incorporating:
These core subjects are always taught discretely because once students feel secure and have been able to build strong relationships, we understand how important it is for them to make good progress in these areas first and foremost.
We understand that to prepare our students for their futures adequately they will need to be able to access and use the skills and knowledge that make up these fundamental core subjects. We also recognise that by becoming confident speakers, readers, writers, mathematicians and philosophers they will be able to access the full breadth of the curriculum, applying skills and making links.
Broader, balanced offer.
If children are working at Cognitive Threshold 2, this usually indicates that they are ready to start to move towards a broader and more balanced curriculum offer, as their self-awareness and insight into their needs develops.
This is effectively Layer 3, however, these subjects are still very much delivered in an individualised, differentiated and flexible way to ensure accessibility and barriers to learning are overcome.
In addition to the subject areas listed above in Layer 2, children will now also work towards incorporating:
