Curriculum
Brownhill Learning Community Pupil Referral Service Intent
At Brownhill Learning Community we meet the needs of young people who are unable to access a mainstream provision. We pride ourselves on creating a nurturing environment and giving pupils opportunities to develop social, emotional and life skills as well as making academic progress. Developing these vital skills goes hand in hand with ensuring the pupils make academic progress crucial to their future. The curriculum is personalised, creative, innovative and flexible allowing the needs of all pupils to be met. Our purposeful learning environment puts the individual needs of each pupil at the centre of our decision-making. As a school we are committed to lifelong learning; preparing our pupils for a successful transition to mainstream, college or work where they can make a positive contribution to their community and where they can continue to develop for life beyond school.
Our 4 key areas aim to prepare every pupil to meet current and future demands and prepare them for life beyond school.
Starting points are varied but each individual learning pathway ensures that ALL pupils will be prepared to be or become:
- Ready to Learn
- Lifelong Learners
- Responsible Citizens
- Future Ready
Each development area is broken down into skills, qualities and attributes that:
- Inform curriculum planning
- Provide focus and direction
- Ensure quality outcomes
These 4 areas form the ‘golden threads’ that underpin all aspects of school life:
Our pupils will:
- Re-engage positively with learning
- Address historic low prior attendance and attainment
- Gain resilience and other key skills
- Build confidence and trust, both with adults and peers
- Tackle gaps in learning
- Develop strategies to cope with specific learning needs
- Build social skills and empathy
- Develop a sense of belonging
- Focus on self and then others
Our pupils will:
- Study a broad range of subjects
- Value academic and vocational styles of learning
- Take opportunities to learn and participate outside of the classroom
- Take pride in their achievements
- Develop their culture capital and an appreciation of cultures and societies beyond their own experience
- Understand the benefits of attendance and engagement
Our pupils will:
- Respect people from other cultures, races and faiths
- Value equality and diversity
- Care for the school environment and contribute to the local community
- Know what is going on in the wider world and understand their place within it
- Understand the importance of democracy
- Know how to build and maintain relationships with others
- Know how to look after their mental and physical health
Our pupils will be:
- Literate and numerate
- Digitally literate
- Able to express themselves appropriately in a range of contexts- including modifying their language and code switching
- Aspirational about their future plans
- Encouraged to develop the skills and qualities that are required to progress to the next stage of education and employment
- Encouraged to increase self-regulation and develop independence as they move through school
- Able to keep themselves and others safe
- Encouraged to access appropriate Careers Education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG)
In addition, we aim to promote the safety and security of our pupils by taking a trauma informed approach to the curriculum. This means we aim to:
- Provide our pupils with daily access to experienced, understanding and emotionally supportive adults, who know them, believe in them, and can relate to them with compassion, empathy and unconditional positive regard.
- Support pupils experiencing painful life events, by helping them process, work through and make sense of what has happened.
- Ensure that staff always interact with pupils with kindness and compassion.
- Develop our settings in ways that help pupils feel calm and safe.
- Foster a culture in which staff and other adults interact with all pupils in a way that makes them feel valued as individuals throughout their day
- Adjust our expectations of vulnerable children to correspond with their developmental capabilities and experience of traumatic stress.
- Provide targeted, professional support and intervention (both in house and/or external)
All pupils and their families have access to support from our Welfare Team, made up of an experienced Social Worker, counsellors, Family Support Workers, Youth Workers and a Community Development Officer. We also have our own Positive Steps adviser and a Progression Officer to ensure pupils have access to high-quality CEIAG.
KS1 and 2 pupils access the Ruth Miskin phonics package
KS3 and 4 pupils access the Abigail Steele phonics package
Primary Curriculum on a page (under review)
PRS Curriculum on a page (under review)
