At Haywood Grove the school curriculum reflects the ethos of the school, incorporating the statutory national curriculum alongside other meaningful learning experiences and opportunities that are tailored to the individual learning, social, emotional and sensory needs of each child. We aim to provide a dynamic curriculum that is flexible and evolving and that is responsive to the unique characteristics, relative strengths and changing circumstances of the unconventional children that we work with.
Every child is taught for 25 hours per week. They are offered a broad and balanced range of experiences that provide them with opportunities to learn and discover in many different ways. Planning focuses on engagement, and differentiation and learning pathways are personalised according to individual strength and need. Our personalised approach means that coverage may vary.
Curriculum Content
At Haywood Grove our curriculum incorporates statutory, specialist and bespoke elements.
Statutory elements
Taught discretely
Taught through theme days
Taught through a topic approach (International Primary Curriculum)
Specialist elements
Taught discretely
Bespoke elements (individual or small group work)
Information about our curriculum
Forest Schools
Information about our Forest School Program is available via the link below.
Just Right State Program
The Just Right State Program looks at the use of sensory activities and foods, to help children learn how to self-regulate their emotional states and behaviour.
This programme is unique in its ability to enable the parent and child to begin to make links between sensory and emotional processing and how the use of strategies focused on enriched environment provision, and regulating activities can positively impact on the development of these skills and abilities. Supporting the development of these skills and abilities in children, alongside their parents and carers can have a profound and positive impact on the long-term outcomes for the whole family.
This programme incorporates the use of a set of books called ‘The Scared Gang’. The Scared Gang Series helps children to recognise their own survival patterns through the Scared Gang characters. Each character represents a different pattern and tells children how they can self-regulate through the use of food and sensory-based activities.
Arts Award
The Arts Award program deepens our children’s engagement with the arts, builds creative and leadership skills and enables children to achieve a national qualification. The Arts Award is broken down into five components and at Haywood Grove we are able to deliver the Discover and Explore levels.
The Arts Award is a flexible scheme that can fit around and through other aspects of learning. It supports children to develop as artists and arts leaders and each child will end up with a portfolio that shows off their creativity and gives a recognised qualification.
Socially Speaking
Information about our Socially Speaking Program is available via the link below.
Play Specialism
Play Sessions
Play is an important part of our timetable, with many children coming for a weekly, consistent play session. These provide the chance for creativity and fun with toys and materials that cover a whole range of mediums including role play, arts, sensory activities, games and music.
These sessions provide nurture through 1:1 time where the child is free to explore and interact. Play is essential for children’s development and is their natural method of self-expression. It fosters imagination and creativity, whilst providing opportunities for learning. Play also improves wellbeing and releases chemicals that make children feel safer and happier.
Play therapy
We have two members of staff who are currently training at Masters Level in Play Therapy, building this provision of therapeutic input in the school. Play therapy sessions have similar benefits as explained above, whilst addressing specific therapeutic objectives and allowing the chance for deeper processing of emotions. Play therapy utilises a ‘toolkit’ where children can use any of the following mediums:
Play therapy allows children space to explore personally relevant themes safely, in a way that feels natural. The therapeutic relationship between the therapist and the child is of primary importance, providing consistency, respect, safety and full acceptance of the child. Play therapy includes both non-directive, (where the child leads the way) and directive (where more guided input is given by the therapist) elements and is tailored according to the individual and their needs. It allows children to build resilience and to develop their own resources to overcome difficulties.
Play therapy is underpinned by neuroscience, allowing different parts of the brain to become more integrated. Therapy works on an unconscious level, bringing these areas into conscious awareness as they are explored. This can reduce the impact of triggers and memories that may be influencing a child’s day to day behaviour. Trauma in particular is stored in a way that means these memories often cannot be first accessed by verbal methods due to the speech area of the brain, the Broca’s region, shutting down. Creative therapy allows these to be accessed, organising them to reduce the impact they have on an individual’s life.
Both Anna Groom and Jenny Howells are currently completing their play therapy training, receive clinical supervision for their work and are on approved registers to ensure ethical practices.
Anna is training for a Masters in Play Therapy with BAPT- the British Association of Play Therapists
Jenny is completing her Masters Level play therapy training through APAC (The Academy Of Play And Child Psychotherapy), approved by PTUK (Play Therapy United Kingdom). You can find her on the approved register here: http://www.playtherapyregister.org.uk/practitioner-details.php?id=58978
AQA Unit Award Scheme
The AQA Unit Award Scheme provides a unique recording of achievement. This scheme offers everyone the opportunity to have their achievements formally recognised – no matter what these are, how old the child is, how long it takes or how small the learning steps might be.
This scheme is completely flexible in terms of what, when and how learning is accredited. It can help children with progression to further learning, help motivate, encourage, engage, support and raise self-esteem and help to build children’s independent living skills. The scheme aims to reward achievements that might otherwise go unrecognised.
In order to deliver the scheme Fiona Bennett has been trained as a coordinator. She will ensure that all children can access the scheme and that appropriate evidence is collected and assessed. Each time a unit is achieved a Unit Award Statement is issued. This certifies the child’s work and lists all the outcomes that a child has achieved.
For more information on this scheme you may wish to browse the AQA website by following the link below:
www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/unit-award-scheme
Lego Therapy
LEGO based Therapy supports the development of our children’s social communication skills. Research tells us that this has proved to be effective for children with high functioning autism and Aspergers Syndrome as well as for those with anxiety disorders or depression.
The role of the adults facilitating this activity is not to point out specific social challenges, rather to highlight the presence of a problem and help the children come up with their own solutions.
The LEGO® System of bricks and other elements is a highly structured, predictable and systematic construction toy. It is therefore likely that children with ASD will be motivated by tasks involving this toy, due to the fact that individuals with the condition are particularly attracted to systems. LEGO system based interactive play groups provide a potentially promising approach to improving the social skills in all children, and especially those with ASD.
By providing joint interest and goals, building with Lego can become a medium for social development and can help develop and reinforce these social and play skills by:
Protective Behaviours
Protective Behaviours (PB's) is a safety awareness and resilience building programme which helps children and adults to recognise any situation where they feel worried or unsafe, such as feeling stressed, bullied or threatened; and explores practical ways to keep safe. This is usually offered on an individual basis.
Garden Curriculum
Our Garden Curriculum can be offered discretely or as part of other on-going work. It focuses on the development and up-keep of garden habitats, planting, harvesting and cooking foods.
After School Clubs
Throughout the year we run after school clubs on three nights a week. The activities are chosen by the children and facilitated by teachers and other familiar adults.
Residential visits
Each year we endeavour to run over-night camping experiences within the local community. These are generally offered to our older children (year 5 and 6) who enjoy the challenge of having a night away from home under canvas.
Outdoor Education
We supplement our curriculum with a wide variety of outdoor and adventurous activities that we access at venues within the local area. These include caving, ice-skating, cycling and walking and orienteering. According to individual need we are able to offer accredited climbing courses (NICAS).
Homework
Homework that complements class learning is available via this website.
Family Learning
Forest School Family Days are offered at times that are determined across the school year. These provide opportunities for parents or carers and our children's siblings to learn together in the outdoor environment.
Haywood Grove Curriculum Overview
The long term curriculum plan spans a 4 year period for each year group from Reception through to Year Six.
This four year cycle provides a wide range of interesting and engaging topics to learn about and minimises repetition of content. This provides teachers with a flexibility in their planning for individual need should they have children from more than one year group in their class or if a child remains in a class for more than one year.
The long term plans are provided below.