Foxfield School Curriculum

Our school Vision is

To create happy, healthy, safe, independent young adults who 
are social communicators

Underpinned by
L.E.A.R.N
Life skills, enjoyment, achievement, respect, new experiences

Our curriculum at Foxfield School is designed to meet the individual needs of our pupils at their point of learning. Our curriculum is skill and context based and encourages active engagement in learning. The curriculum focuses on the development of key skills of communication, cognition, independence, physical development and self-care, all transferrable skills that equip children and young people for life beyond the school.

Our curriculum strives to be personalised to each learner in direct response to a pupil’s individual strengths, interests and taking account of their barriers to learning, and build on individual strengths and interests. A rolling plan is in place, which supports a balance of stimulating contexts for learning through different learning experiences, themes and subjects, thus preparing our students to make a positive contribution to life in modern Britain.

At Foxfield School we use Curriculum and Assessment Pathways to ensure all students have an appropriately personalised and challenging curriculum. Our approach is evidence based and informed by research gathered from all stakeholders that surround our learners. Our Pathways are developed to meet the learning needs of students who are working at engagement through to application of skills. They are broken down in to four pathways

• Pre Formal 
• Informal
• Semi-Formal
• Formal

Our Post 16 curriculum encompasses the range of pathways within the school and merges these with personalised pathways to provide real world opportunities to help our leaners transition to life beyond Foxfield School

Many learners present with spiky profiles and fit in different characteristic pools. We take this opportunity to create bespoke, individual learning pathways by weaving pupils in and out of the different pools to suit their individual needs.

Foxfield school pathways
Our curriculum at Foxfield is designed through four pathways, personalised to meet the pupils at their point of learning. The curriculum is skill and context based and encourages active engagement in learning. The curriculum focuses on developing the key skills of communication, cognition, independence, physical development and selfcare, all transferrable skills that equip children and young people for life beyond Foxfield School.Within each class, the teaching teams have a thorough understanding of each child’s learning profile; their interests, strengths and barriers, medical needs, developmental stage and learning level. Each of these areas are used to plan effectively for a range of learning targets for each pupil, which are personalised to that pupil’s stage of learning across the Curriculum. Regular pupil progress meetings, review individualised provision maps for each pupils to ensure they are on the correct curriculum and are accessing all they need in order to reach their full potential.

Pre-formal Curriculum
The pre-formal curriculum is designed for those pre-symbolic to early symbolic learners who are at very early levels of development and access a curriculum that enables them to develop a sense of security in the school environment, which is comprehensible and meaningful to them. It is a personalised holistic curriculum that focusses on the early communication, social and emotional and cognitive skills that are the foundation of learning. The focus is upon enabling learners to establish positive interactive relationships with others, to proactively explore the world around them, gaining environmental control skills. All pupils will also be given maximum opportunities to achieve the highest level of personal mobility and independence. This curriculum recognises the importance of play in a pupil’s development and the need for sensory and multi-approaches matched to the pupil’s personal learning goals arising from their EHCP. 

Informal
The informal curriculum is designed to support our pupils with emerging intentional communication, emerging contextual awareness and who have emerging social awareness. This curriculum is designed to support individual pupil profiles with the SCERTs model a key driver through this curriculum. It is important to recognise that there are many differences in individual profiles of this group of learners, and these may well be spikey learning profiles. Our focus is to provide familiar routines and to scaffold the learning environment to help support early problem solving skills. This curriculum also recognises the importance of play in a pupil’s development and the need for a variety of teaching styles matched to the pupil’s personal learning goals arising from their EHCP. Movement is key within our informal curriculum and we support this through sensory diets/ regulation every morning and extra physical activities throughout the school day. 

Semi-formal
The semi-formal curriculum recognises that many of our young people learn differently and is a personalised learning approach based on: becoming literate communicators and early readers, becoming mathematical and scientific thinkers; the acquisition of early learning skills; and personal emotional and social development and mental well-being which encompasses the development of thinking skills, play (emotional, cognition and social dimensions), creative learning and movement. Pupils following our semi-formal curriculum, learn best when learning is related to their own experience and they are given opportunities to explore their own interests. Some may learn through play; others will learn more effectively through functional activities, and yet others will respond well to a theme-based approach. The curriculum content extends engagement for learning. Personalised learning must include targets from EHCP.

Formal 
The formal curriculum is designed to offer pupils the opportunity to access to a range of subject areas but also ensure we meet all their social, emotional, sensory and physical needs. Functional skills, ICT, Life skills and independence skills form a large part of the curriculum for our Formal pupils in preparation for life beyond Foxfield School. Teachers ensure that learning is linked to practical activities and is consolidated and applied in practical sessions. Pupils working though the formal curriculum may pursue accreditation pathways (e.g. JASS and functional skills awards). In Key Stage 4 pupils will also have access to ‘options’ helping to support their choices and transition into post 16. 

Post 16
The post 16 curriculum is designed to provide pupils with the skills they will need to fully access adult life. It is taught through the four pathways with preparation for adulthood playing a key role in all aspects of the post 16 curriculum. Functional skills and the local community plays a key role in helping pupils to use acquired problem solving and life skills. Our post 16 learners have 'options' similar to a college setting and can select what they would like to study from catering, hair and beauty, sport and leisure, media, music etc, helping to give the pupils autonomy over their own learning and prepare pupils for life post Foxfield School. Work experience and work-related learning plays a key role on the curriculum with local business supporting and accrediting pupil achievements.

Please click the left or right arrows below to view each Curriculum Pathway overview...