St Christopher’s School educates a wide range of children and young people, aged 3-19, with diverse needs. The majority of the pupils would be described as having moderate learning difficulties (MLD) or severe learning difficulties (SLD). A smaller number could be described as having profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD) or complex learning difficulties and disabilities (CLDD). A significant proportion of the pupils have a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). After the initial work redesigning the school curriculum in Spring 2017, by a staff working party including SMT, it has since been reviewed in Autumn 2018. New practises have been refined in conjunction with work with Peter Imray and other local special schools. It is the responsibility of all staff to ensure that a meaningful and appropriate curriculum is offered to all pupils.

St Christopher’s is a learning environment that puts the individual needs of each pupil at the centre of our decisions. We promote care, respect and an inclusive environment that celebrates every success. Our aim is to meet the needs of young people in Lincolnshire who have an education, health and care plan who are unable to access a mainstream provision. We are preparing them for a successful transition to independent or supported adult hood so that they can make a positive contribution within their community. We aim for all our pupils to be happy and proud of who they are with relevant life skills that allows them to live as independently as possible.

At St Christopher’s we have three phases of learning (lower, middle and upper school) with four different learning pathways (informal, semi-formal, core formal and formal). This model allows pupils to have a projected learning pathway that suits their needs. If it is appropriate pupils can change pathways and this would be discussed at annual reviews.

For further information about our curriculum intentions and how we implement these intentions please read our curriculum handbook which describes and explains our curriculum coverage including our reading programs.

We regularly review our curriculum offer and measure the success of our curriculum using the progress of students in the key strands within in English, Maths, Science, Communication and Interaction. We use our quality assurance processes to monitor high quality delivery and consistency. Most importantly we measure our success on the level of engagement and enthusiasm our students show us in lessons.

Reading Schemes & Phonics

Throughout the Core formal and formal curriculum we have a reading scheme which has a selection of texts grouped into colour bands from a variety

of reading book providers including Rigby Star, Engage Literacy, Nelson, Collins Big Cat, Collins Big Cat Phonics, DK Education, Pearson, Oxford Reading

Tree, Rapid Readers and Project X. These books are used for our home reading program of study where students are encouraged to read with family or

with the more fluent readers, independently and record in their reading journal. 

Those students who are at an early stage of reading will be taught phonics with the support of our Ruth Miskin intervention.

This year we are working on the way we support our students emotional and mental wellbeing. One key piece of work around this is for us to consider how teach and model positive behaviour to them, and also how we respond to support them safely and with sensitivity at times when they need us to.

As a result of evaluating our practice, we have begun training staff in using the NAPPI (Non-Abusive Psychological and Physical Intervention) approach to positive behaviour support (PBS).

This approach offers us the chance to individualise our curriculum offer even further by building in opportunities for our young people to learn about ‘high quality relaxation’, ‘productivity’, and their ‘caring community’.

We will also work collaboratively with students and their families to create a bespoke PBS plan when one is needed. PBS plans will take account of individuals ‘stress factors’ including identified risks, behaviours they may present through 5 stages of behaviours of concern, and preferred responses to them. For more information on this approach, you can visit the NAPPI UK website at www.nappiuk.com.

We will be looking to hold some parent information sessions during the spring and summer terms to explain this further.

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