The Semi-Formal + Curriculum is designed for pupils with Vision and Sensory Impairment who need access to a life skills-based curriculum. The primary intent of our Semi-Formal + curriculum is to provide a personalised, engaging and purposeful sensory education. We aim to deliver a broad and balanced curriculum based on core and compensatory skills which are informed by previous learning. This is taught through meaningful and contextualised learning experiences and themes. This enables our pupils to expand their cultural capital, skills and knowledge. We aim to ensure that the time learners spend at school is as meaningful and impactful as possible, promoting the holistic development of the entire learner. We are aiming to equip our pupils with the skills, knowledge and passion to participate and contribute to society, empowering them to live active and fulfilled lives. It is essential that pupils have structured opportunities in a range of contexts to build on prior achievements and develop their own cultural capital. In applying previously learned skills and knowledge in different ways, newly-acquired abilities can be generalised and applied in everyday life and used as a strong foundation to develop more complex and abstractive skills and knowledge.
Our Pupils
The pupils following this pathway have Vision and Sensory Impairment and need access to a life skills-based curriculum. The complex nature of the sensory impairment combined with other special educational needs and disabilities present significant barriers to engagement and learning for pupils on the Semi-formal + pathway. As a result, they require a curriculum and teaching approaches that are highly personalised to their unique strengths and needs. The learning for pupils on the Semi-Formal + pathway is presented in a multisensory way, through visual but also auditory and tactile channels. Pupils following the Semi-Formal + pathway are assessed as having severe learning disabilities and, the majority, have a single or dual sensory impairment.
The Semi-Formal + curriculum supports our Pupils to become
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Engaged learners: Pupils who are motivated to participate in learning and are suitably empowered to access what is being taught
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Communicators: Learners who are interacting intentionally with others and/or their immediate environment using whatever mode of communication is relevant to them
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Problem Solvers: Learners who are sufficiently resilient in their attention to experiment and identify a solution to a new learning challenge
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Unique Learners: Learners who have very distinctive, idiosyncratic learning styles that are in direct relation to their individual profiles of learning difficulties, sensory impairments and disabilities
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Immersed Learners: Learners who are demonstrably responsive to the specialist, personalised provision we provide with respect to their individual circumstances
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21st Century Learners: Learners who can use modern technology to help overcome some of their difficulties and enhance their potential for learning
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Acquirers of knowledge: Learners who can use literacy skills to access information from their environment and express and apply their new-found knowledge
The Semi-Formal + curriculum has six curriculum domains:
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My Communication
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My Thinking
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My Body
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Myself
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My Creativity
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Me and My Community
How does assessment support our Pupils
The assessment system used in this pathway is aimed at measuring the impact of the implementation approaches used. This is done by measuring the fluency, maintenance, generalisation and level of prompting against the Personal Learning Goals and EHCP targets. This enables us to examine the context of the learning and assess how effective both the learning and teaching have been. Every pupil on the Semi-Formal + pathway has got a Personal Learning Goals Map (PLG) that is personalised to them and identifies learning priorities for the term. Progress against PLGs is measured using Mapping and Assessing Pupils Progress (MAPP) overtime alongside statutory assessments for English and Maths. This builds a holistic picture of the progress each pupil makes. Evidence of pupil progress is uploaded to Earwig, a safe online platform that captures the pupil’s achievements using multimedia evidence. This is shared with parents, carers and families regularly throughout the school year.
