Curriculum

Ongoing assessment through weekly targets, mini plenaries carefully planned questioning and reasoning opportunities will be effectively used to ensure the correct scaffolding is built into lessons to ensure that all children achieve.

Pupils will know what they are being asked to learn and were more importantly why.  They will become increasingly confident when discussing and critiquing their learning through regular feedback both written and verbal between the teacher and learner.

Hawkswood assess both academic skills and social emotional, problem-solving and wellbeing skills.  In Key Stage 4 pupils are also assessed based on the GCSE Grade 1 to 9 system.  Outcomes for each child are recorded in pupil profile updates.

Reports are sent home to parents each term and can be discussed at parents meetings.  However, we welcome contact with parents at any point during placement.

Pupils who attend Hawkswood Therapeutic School exhibit a wide range of mental health and educational needs. The nature of these difficulties often result in delayed educational engagement which has hindered academic progress and delayed or underdeveloped social and emotional skills.  This may also have impacted on the well-being and mental health attributes necessary for life and learning.

Hawkswood therefore seeks to provide a nurturing curriculum that addresses the varied needs of our pupils.

Hawkswood’s statement of intent supports the two main aims of the National Curriculum:

1. To provide opportunities for all pupils to learn, achieve and thrive
2. To promote personal, social, cognitive, creating and welling skills, and prepare all pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life.

The curriculum at Hawkswood Therapeutic School is a bespoke curriculum specifically designed for our cohort.  A blended combination of a core curriculum, enrichment experiences, therapeutic care and interventions.  This approach promotes the development of skills and attitudes which will enable pupils to develop school positive and responsible attitudes, strong values, resilience, confidence and independence and a growth mindset

The school curriculum is underpinned by our vision statement: Empower Aspire Achieve.

Long term/ medium term plans are reviewed regularly, we work closely with mainstream schools to ensure synergy with local curriculum offer.

There is an emphasis on learning emotional/ mental health attributes and literacy skills to prepare the pupils for life beyond school.

Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is supported via direct teaching, via the ethos of the school through fostering tolerance, respect and trust, via educational visits, in class tutorial sessions, mentoring as well as participation in charity events and via individual therapeutic input.

Personal, Social, Relationship and Sex Education forms part of our core curriculum and pupils are supported to learn how to keep themselves safe at school, home, out of school and on-line.

The core curriculum for Hawkswood is delivered in small teaching groups where pupils feel safe and can develop the confidence to improve personal, social, cognitive and creative skills as well as health and wellbeing. 

• The Headteacher is responsible for the day to day organisation of the curriculum. The Headteacher and Senior Leadership Team monitor the planning and implementation of the subject curriculum and staff through peer and leadership half-termly book looks, learning walks and termly lesson observations.
• Our staff work closely with mainstream colleagues to share and develop the curriculum.
• Our Management Committee is responsible for monitoring implementation of the school curriculum. The quality of Education committee reviews the effectiveness of the curriculum through termly reports and regular visits.

• The curriculum offers challenge in that it takes a deep learning approach to subjects i.e. learn fewer things but in greater depth. The aim is to ensure that pupils have a secure and deep understanding of a manageable range of subjects, given the context of our cohort.   
• Most of our pupils enter Hawkswood below age related expectations, we have a system that tracks progress and allows us to measure even the smallest amounts of progress. We are then able to celebrate each pupil’s individual milestones and set appropriate targets.
• When a pupil is referred to Hawkswood, they will complete baseline assessments in all the core areas of the curriculum in addition to reading, spelling and a range of therapeutic assessments. This allows staff to have a clear baseline from which to support learning both academic and personal.
• Assessment is based on our federation holistic assessment tracker, which assesses personal, social, cognitive, greative and wellbeing skills.  We also assess English, Maths, Science and reading.  Art, PE and PSHE are assessed using key performance indicators based on age related expectations set out in our curriculum skills document.
• In Yr.10 and 11 the new GCSE grade 1-9 is used for end of unit assessment and school reports, which are sent home to parentseach term.

Our enrichment programme helps pupils at Hawkswood develop essential skills for life and learning.  Many of our pupils identify that their wellbeing and learning is impacted by anxiety which can be triggered by social situations, communication and interaction with others, unstructured situations, being outdoors, uncertainty and situations where decisions are required and conflict.  

We acknowledge that life is potentially full of these experiences, therefore our enrichment sessions provide opportunities for pupils to develop and practise the skills and behaviours required in these situations, in a supportive environment.

Enrichment runs from 1.30-2.30 every Tuesday-Friday.  The school council helped to design the curriculum and felt that enrichment would help them to develop the skills they need now and in the future.  Schools council help to decide which activities run each term and pupils choose which activities they would like to join each half-term.  Activities include:

• Book club
• Debating Club
• Forest Walking
• Group Art
• Collaborative Games
• Film Marking
• Gardening
• Film Studies
• Board Games
• Indoor and Outdoor Sports
• Cooking
• Volunteering

In our first year of running the enrichment programme, pupils reported that these experiences helped them to overcome some of the anxiety they experience.

Our curriculum is supported by our holist assessment programme.  Our school council are currently looking at how we can join our assessment to a praise and reward programme to help us take time to think about when and how we can put new skills into practise.  For example showing resilience in maths, problem-solving in science, flexibility when we are worried about doing something and well-being skills at home.

“Enrichment is really fun, I used to be quiet at school and found making friends really difficult.  I have Autism, making and keeping friends is something I have never found easy to do.  Enrichment gives me the opportunity to spend time with pupils in other year groups where we do activities together and try new things. This has helped me to make friends that I now see out of school and talk to at lunchtime.”  

Hawkswood Therapeutic School is an intervention in itself but the shape and variety of the interventions we offer is what allows us to support pupils back to health and through their academic studies towards success. We offer our pupils a variety of Interventions to enable them to make rapid progress, academically, socially and emotionally. This includes, but is not exclusively limited to;

• Therapeutic intervention via our CAMHS therapist and Therapeutic Lead

• Personalised timetables

• Small class sized (8) 

• 1:1 Sessions for reading, maths and precision teaching; Mentors; School Nurse; Safer Schools Officer; Educational Psychologist, CAMHS Therapist, Art Therapy.

• Timetabled Group Mentoring and individual mentoring

• Regular communication and meetings with students’ families and termly parent/carer events. 

• Weekly assemblies on a variety of topics such as: Growth Mindset, Charitable events, Online Safety, Positive thinking, Police and local community updates and actions, rewards for attendance, homework and Pupil of the Week.

• Home visits carried out by Safer Schools Officer, Student Social Workers, Mentors, Educational Welfare Officers.

• Student Voice/ council

“Accelerated reader is brilliant.  When I came to Hawkswood my English teacher helped me to access the programme and I took an assessment, I was shocked that my Reading age was below my real age.  The programme suggests book levels, which are displayed in our library – we also have lots of new books.  I have really enjoyed library lessons at Hawkswood, it has encouraged me to read and improve.  I am really proud that my reading age is now higher than my actual age!”

“Accelerated reader has transformed how we approach reading in the school.  Dedicated library lessons and 1:1 tutoring mean that we have the time to work with pupils to improve their reading ability and help them to fall in love with reading for pleasure.  The progress made by pupils in all subjects is impacted by their ability to read and understand text, which makes our reading programme one of the most important aspects of our school.  Our library is a vibrant space that pupils enjoy spending time in.”

Pupil safeguarding and the promotion of fundamental British values are core business in our work and relationships at Hawkswood Therapeutic School. We place high significance and importance in ensuring that opportunities are identified in the taught curriculum for pupils to learn about safeguarding. Our broad curriculum gives pupils opportunities to:

• experience life in all its diversity and complexity
• acquire knowledge, understanding and skills that significantly impact on personal development
• develop behaviour and wellbeing to equip every child with the knowledge and skills required for personal safeguarding

Our PSHRSE curriculum covers areas of Safeguarding through each of the strands. We recognise and show sensitivity in that some more sensitive subjects need to taught at an age appropriate level, or at a small group or 1:1 level when a more urgent need arises.

We aim to constantly challenge children to think deeply about safeguarding matters and their own personal physical and mental wellbeing. We value pupils’ questions and give them space for their own thoughts, ideas and concerns. We give them opportunities across the curriculum to explore values, personal rights, responsibilities and equal opportunities that develop moral concepts that impact positively on safeguarding, promote British values and prevent radicalisation and extremism.

We have developed an open and safe learning environment in which pupils express their views, seek help and help others, they make use of our tutor system and school council representative to share concerns with staff. The promotion of equality of opportunity and diversity, for pupils and staff, helps prevent any form of direct or indirect discriminatory behaviour. Our pupils learn to not tolerate any prejudiced behaviour. Our behaviour policy promotes making good choices and exhibiting good learning behaviours. Lesson times are time for sharing ideas, addressing concerns and promoting important values.  Staff and pupils are quick to challenge stereotypes and the use of derogatory language in lessons and around school.

Our school reflects the diversity of pupils’ experiences and provides pupils with a comprehensive understanding of people and communities beyond their immediate experience including the role of women in society and different family groups including same sex couples. 

Throughout the curriculum there are planned opportunities to promote all forms of equality and foster greater understanding of and respect for people off all faiths (and those with no faith), races, genders, ages, disability and sexual orientations, through their words, actions and in their influence. Opportunities are created in a variety of subjects to address areas of safeguarding, for example, themes are highlighted through novels and poetry in English lessons.

We use the Jigsaw curriculum to deliver core aspects of our PSHRSE curriculum.  In order to ensure that all pupils receive essential aspects of the RSE curriculum within their 20-week placement, we deliver 2 RSE ‘drop down’ weeks through the year.