Curriculum Development Statement

Falcons Learning, like us all, is on a journey. As we grow and develop into an Independent Special School and a Specialist Post 16 Provider we can define our curriculum direction. These principles define and describe the ongoing strategic development towards becoming and remaining an Outstanding school at the front of the special needs curve.

It's not just basket weaving!

Intent

We undertake to construct and deploy a curriculum that is ambitious and designed to give all learners, particularly the most disadvantaged, and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) or high needs, the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.

Falcons Learning’s curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge and skills for future learning and employment. The academic curriculum is designed to enable learners to make progress across all areas maximising the opportunities for skills and knowledge development.

Falcons Learning has high technical and vocational ambitions for all learners. The curriculum will be tailored to meet the learners’ needs with a deliberate development of skills across the curriculum. All learners will have the opportunity and chance of stretch and challenge extension activities or interventions to individual needs.

Falcons Learning’s study programs are designed in close accordance with Independent School Standards ensuring progress is made across the spectrum of the curriculum. The skills held in high esteem in the workplace remain the key stones underpinning the values of Falcons Learning’s ethos.

Implementation

Falcons Learning’s teachers are subject specialists and have teaching qualifications to ensure learners can make good progress.

Falcons Learning teaches in a clear and learner centric manner. Promotion of discussion is encouraged to allow the learner to be a stakeholder within their own education. Learners’ progress is checked and recorded appropriately and is open to scrutiny. Teachers will engage learners in clear, direct, dialogical feedback. In doing so, they respond and adapt their teaching as necessary. The fundamentals of good teaching practice remain at the core of Falcons’ vision.

The design of Falcons’ curriculum allows students to develop skills and remember knowledge to build upon solid foundations. Courses are designed to build progress and value achievement. Content is cerebrally delivered to ensure that throughout their Falcons journey learners can integrate new knowledge into larger concepts. Construction of learning is built upon solid foundations appropriate to each learner’s individual needs.

Teachers and leaders use assessment well, for example to help learners embed and use knowledge fluently or to check understanding and inform the planning of teaching. Leaders understand the limitations of assessment and do not use it in a way that creates unnecessary burdens for staff or learners. Falcons Learning uses assessment data to celebrate success and to Identify appropriate help and interventions to maximise learner progress.

Falcons Learning creates an environment that is conducive to a focus on learning. The resources and materials that teachers select reflect the provider’s ambitious intentions for the course of study and clearly supports the fully embedded and coherently planned curriculum across the school. This curriculum is sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge, cultural capital, and skills for future learning and employment. These skills are modelled by staff and reflected in the ethos of the school.

A rigorous approach to the teaching of reading develops learners’ confidence and enjoyment in reading. At the early stages of learning to read, reading materials are closely matched to learners’ phonics knowledge. Where required phonics intervention is in place this is delivered by phonics trained staff.

Impact

Learners develop detailed knowledge and skills across the curriculum and, as a result, achieve well. Where relevant, this is reflected in results from national tests and examinations that meet government expectations, or in the qualifications obtained.

Learners are ready for the next stage of education, employment or training. Where relevant, they gain qualifications that allow them to go on to destinations that meet their interests, aspirations and the intention of their course of study. They read widely and often, with fluency and comprehension.

Learners with SEND are equipped to overcome barriers and have the interpersonal skills to maintain employment or move into further education.

Steve Wash

BA(Hons)., PGCE, MA (Ed).

Principal

Trauma Informed Education

Sometimes young people have difficulties in their past. This can be the result of trauma such as a bereavement or other stressful event or events that has impacted them. Trauma has a deep and long lasting effect on the brain and can physiologically change the brains development. For some this can result in a 20% reduction in the volume of important brain structures and a propensity to become hyper vigilant and feel under threat.

If a young person feels like this they struggle to learn new information as the structures within the brain that are involved in language and learning are effectively switched off. The person is more likely to have outbursts or exhibit violent behaviour. This can lead to exclusions in main stream schools.

The approach that Falcons Learning take is designed to minimise this. For many young people with a traumatic past the act of new learning can represent a challenge that may trigger a dissociative reaction and behaviors that challenge. By using practical applications wherever possible within the learning environment the learners are able to use their fine motor skills which can 'kickstart' the learning process by switching the processing centre within the brain.

Falcons Learning work hard to involve the learners in the coproduction of their experience at Falcons Learning. This allows the learner to feel that we are doing their education together and we are not doing it to them.

We do not have a huge raft of rules and set consequences like many of the learners have experienced in the past. The key word is respect. Our focus is meeting the child's individual needs. We value respect, effort, and kindness to our peers. We foster a team spirit with the staff and learners being part of the same team to achieve learner success.

For more information please give us a call.