Community Living Pathway

Intent

The Community Living Pathway at Spring Brook Upper is a bespoke pathway for pupils who are academically working below NCY1 level in most areas of the curriculum.

The pathway offers a broad and balanced curriculum which focuses on academic progress in English, Maths and ICT. The other areas of the curriculum are used as a vehicle to deliver and develop the knowledge, understanding and skills within the EHCP outcomes.

Where pupils demonstrate working above NCY1, the knowledge and understanding of the subject will also be tracked. This allows the pupils to work towards their appropriate destination by developing their knowledge, well-being, independence and communication skills, linked to their EHCP targets. Coupled with our approach to Learning for Life sessions, pupils have designated activities designed to :

• Give pupils a wider experience of social situations
• Allow pupils to develop their understanding of consequences within social situations
• Encourage pupils to plan their actions with awareness of boundaries and consequences
• Encourage pupils to take turns in conversations
• Develop the emotional vocabulary of pupils
• Give pupils confidence in a wider range of situations
• Encourage pupils to be as independent as possible, with self-care and life skills helping them to progress to a level of independence.
• Give pupils opportunity to problem solve in a range of contexts, both familiar and unfamiliar
• Develop pupils’ awareness and experience of their own culture and others
• Build confidence, resilience, social skills and self-esteem

Implementation

The pupils within the Community Living Pathway are static classes which follow a primary model. Each class has a class teacher/deliverer and TA.

They also receive support from the intervention and pastoral team. Some areas of the curriculum are taught by subject specialist such as ICT and PE and some subjects are taught in specialist areas such as food technology.

The class use bespoke teaching methods including Fresh Start and Talk 4 Writing, allowing the pupils to access the curriculum. Other aspects of the curriculum/enrichment subjects such as Geography, History, Science, RE and PSHE are taught in a holistic approach and linked to the local community and developing the independence of the learners to ensure they reach their appropriate destination.

Reading – Classroom approach .

Speaking and listening – Pupils have the opportunity in every lesson to practise functional language skills. Speaking and listening also provides a platform to develop collaborative learning skills as well as gaining insight into emotions. The following strategies are used:

• modelling
• individual/pair and group tasks
• open and closed questioning
• visual prompts/aids
• responding to texts/stimuli
• making decisions

Writing is integrated into the whole curriculum and focuses on the collaboration of ideas as well as individual pieces. The focus is on developing pupils’ ability to express their ideas, creativity, and opinions. 

Maths – Teaching and learning stems from accurate assessment and understanding of each pupil’s needs. Schemes of work are adapted to meet these needs and are constantly under review. Lessons are well paced with opportunity for independent and shared activities using various strategies and styles.

Teaching focuses on developing pupils’ confidence and mental fluency with whole numbers, counting and place value. This involves working with numerals, words and the four operations, including with practical resources e.g. concrete objects and measuring tools.

As pupils become increasingly fluent the focus shifts to developing pupils’ efficiency with written and mental methods and performing calculations accurately with increasingly large whole numbers. Pupils then build on this understanding by extending their understanding of the number system and place value to include larger integers.

ICT – We recognise that technology can allow pupils to engage with learning in creative ways and help enable them to become more independent learners. We also understand the accessibility opportunities technology can provide for our pupils and we are proud that every child in school has an iPad as part of our 1:1 MAT-wide Apple initiative.

We also recognise that different platforms are important for a broad and balanced offer, therefore we have a Windows PC based suite, with various programmes installed that can be found in offices, colleges and other areas where computers are used.

The Curriculum has 3 strands running throughout the year, which include Digital Literacy, Computer Programming and IT/Multimedia.

• Digital Literacy covers aspects of online safety as well as opportunities to explore core software skills using Microsoft’s Word/Apple’s Pages, PowerPoint/Keynote.
• Computer Programming allows learners to further develop knowledge and understanding of how devices are programmed and how computer systems and networks operate.
• IT/Multimedia develops the use of video editing packages, photography and image manipulation software, different forms of animation and website design.

(Information on approach to knowledge/ well-being/ independence skills/ communication skills)
Cognition and Learning

Communication and Interaction

Social, Emotional and Mental Health

Sensory and/or Physical 

Impact

Assessment is via: 

• Fresh Start Tracker
• ECHP
• White Rose
• Dashboard