Curriculum Design and Delivery

RATIONALE

Emerge School provides education and care for children with mild to moderate additional support needs: arising primarily from social, emotional and behavioural issues, but who also need help to develop their communication and interaction.  The curriculum at Emerge aims to provide children with rich experiences which will meet their diverse needs and comply with National Curriculum expectations where appropriate. The curriculum will reflect partnership working to address inequalities in learning by ensuring a flexible and more personalised range of learning experiences and outcomes for all children, developed at local levels to address all needs and circumstances – underpinned by a robust assessment process which anticipates challenge and high expectations of all pupils 

Pupils will be supported and challenged to become;

• More independent
• More successful 
• More confident in tackling new and challenging tasks and dealing with new experiences

EXPERIENCES & OUTCOMES

To achieve the incremental progress outcomes, children and young people attending Emerge are offered a range of experiences which provide them with personalised, group and whole class opportunities for new learning, consolidation and challenge. At the core is their wellbeing, literacy and numeracy and the collective commitment of all staff across the organisation to foster that learning. Young people have a clear voice in determining their learning journeys.

There is an emphasis on active learning, across a range of locations and differential approaches. While the teacher is the lead professional in terms of planning, all staff involved agree what the learning routes are for children and young people, recognising that not all will follow the routes in the same way or in the same place.

In the context of Emerge, our team of dedicated teaching support assistants also play a critical role in agreeing and delivering the curriculum.

The experiences offered at Emerge are tailored to the needs of the children and young people and reflect the principles of challenge and enjoyment, breadth and depth, progression, personalisation and choice, coherence and relevance.

Relevance is a key hallmark of the learning experiences offered at Emerge.  Dis-engagement from learning – both formal and informal – is often a core issue for the young people who are placed with us by their residential authority. The initial objective of all staff is to explore with the child and young person the potential avenues to re-engage them both in the acquisition of knowledge and skills and in the development of their personal wellbeing. Our main principles allow us to support the following:

• Allowing learning to be organised more flexibly
• Children learning in mixed age groups
• Schools to be more than just the providers of learning experiences and to broker a range of experiences in other contexts, working as an active provider
• An emphasis on the importance of well-planned interdisciplinary learning as well as subject based learning
• Schools to take steps towards the personalisation of learning through the personal support that they offer to learners in transition to positive destinations 

COLLABORATIVE WORKING

The whole team work together to share their skills and experience to meet the additional support needs of the young people who attend Emerge and ensure that they receive their entitled access to National Curriculum objectives and content. All members of the Education Team contribute to the development and delivery of the curriculum as appropriate to their role and remit and have a shared responsibility for quality assurance and self-evaluation in support of the ongoing agenda for improvement. All members of the team have access to professional learning as appropriate to their roles to optimise their contribution to the delivery of high quality education at Emerge School.