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Curriculum Policy

Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to communicate the policy and practice, which supports curriculum development within the specialist FE provision of FACE known as Flourish FE.

It seeks to show how curriculum development sits within the national agenda for further education with specific relevance to the 19+ SEN High Needs sector and Preparation for Adulthood. The document sets out the mission statement for the FACE service and the key principles, which underpin the curriculum. We are providing a bespoke and individualised service based around the continuing education of those with High Needs who cannot be educated elsewhere within the borough. It is responsive to learners and their needs and puts them at the centre of curriculum planning and development.

Scope

The intended audience for the document are current and potential staff and potential and current students including their parents and guardians.

Objectives

The overarching service that is FACE has an inclusive mission statement that aligns with the Councils Vision and Priorities: Flourish is part of this.

Overarching Vision: Learning for Life

Overarching Mission: FACE supports individuals to engage in the widest range of learning opportunities to improve confidence, raise self-esteem, enable personal, creative and social development, support with the challenges of modern life, reduce social isolation and improve employability, skills and health.  FACE encourages individuals to be aware of and achieve their own potential in order to progress successfully in learning, work, health and life.

Objectives for Flourish as part of FACE:       

  1. Strengthen communities in order to support groups or individuals who are in greatest need of learning
  2. Enhance life choices and promote independence by developing specific skills required in the Preparation for Adulthood, and also including where appropriate skills in English, Maths and Digital Skills (Modern Technologies)
  3. Develop individuals through learning in order to improve health, resilience and well-being and social participation.
  4. Support families of the learner by engagement and co-operatively working with the wider team including health and social care to ensure positive future outcomes for each individual.

Curriculum is based on the three principles required by the Ofsted framework.

Intent: The plans Flourish has and what it intends to deliver as the whole programme for learning.

Implementation: How will the programme of learning actually be delivered

Impact: How will the success of the curriculum at Flourish be measured

The 6 areas that will provide the information for the above come from

  • Learner centred planning
  • Inclusion, equality and diversity
  • Empowering the individual and their family to be part of the process
  • Responsiveness
  • Partnership
  • Innovation and development

The three key principles and six identified areas support a learning programme that recognises learners’ different needs and responds to their wide variety of interest and aspirations. The service is driven by the wider national aim of Preparation for Adulthood.

Learner centred

  • The planning and delivery of the curriculum places the learner at the heart. Learning needs to be organised around the needs, interests and abilities of the learner and their specific EHCP outcomes.  Effective learning occurs when where possible learners are in control over their own learning and choices. The service seeks to support the vastly differing learning needs of ALL learners with high needs. We recognise the differing starting points of learners and their different aims and objectives of the learning.  This principle is implemented through several aspects:
  • Developing learning in response to learner needs
    • Delivering learning that recognises different starting points and different approaches to learning for individual learners
    • Seeking learner feedback wherever possible
    • Encouraging learners to make choices and be involved with the progression of their own learning

Inclusion, Equality and Diversity

  • Inclusion, Equality and diversity is a core principle for Flourish. SEN Adult learning by its nature is all of these and extremely demanding.  We always aim to ensure it promotes equality of opportunity through extensive and appropriate support mechanisms as well as practises inclusion and diversity, educating our local communities in the process. 

Equality

  • Providing a service open to all those, regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or ethnic background who have high needs that cannot be supported elsewhere within the borough.
    • Providing a service which supports staff and learners and prevents discrimination or harassment
    • Promoting equal access to relevant, meaningful and individualised education for all potential learners and equal access to recruitment for all potential staff

Diversity

  • To provide a service which recognises the difference between learners and as much as possible to meet and accommodate individual learner needs
    • Actively supporting learners from some of the most under-represented groups of SEN on the current learner profile
    • Aiming to reflect the breadth and diversity of the Knowsley adult population in the profile of learners
    • Aiming to develop provision in areas which traditionally have not been available within borough to support SEN adult learning
    • Specifically identifying learners from within borough and supporting them to remain in their own communities during and beyond education
  • The key to a successful implementation of this inclusion, equality and diversity principle is planning, monitoring and review of learning and EHCPs. We will work with tutors to embed inclusion, equality and diversity within the planning of provision at Flourish, as well as families and health and social care practitioners. This will be supported through training and awareness events for staff as well as seeking to ensure that inclusion, equality and diversity underpins all our activity.
  • Discrimination or harassment of any kind of staff or learners will not be tolerated. Any such cases should be referred to the Section Lead for High Needs Provision in accordance with our equal opportunities policy and code of conduct.

 Managing the curriculum through a responsive approach

  • Curriculum planning takes place around the theme of responsiveness. This is in response to identified and individualised learner need. Any provider, schools and partners are encouraged to invest in seeking learners and potential learners’ views about learning.
  • There is extensive understanding and intelligence within Flourish around the needs and interest of learners in each yearly co-hort. Flourish learns from other similar providers skilled in this specialist provision about what learners might want or need in terms of programmes.
  • A key feature of managing the curriculum is through being responsive to and promoting learner progression throughout the three years of the course at Flourish. This assists us in the future planning for each new cohort of learners and ensures a continually developing curriculum maximising opportunities to meet individual needs effectively. We will work with partners in other council agencies/departments as well as other specialist providers to improve understanding of progression for all learners.
  • There is a need to ensure that the curriculum is fit for purpose and we will implement a process of formal review of usefulness and applicability of curriculum offer for adults as part of the self assessment process.

Partnership

  • The element of this principle is working in partnership with other providers of SEN adult learning and Natspec. We work in communication with other providers of learning to improve the curriculum offer and extend the quality of the learning experience for SEN adults.
  • We recognise that we can best serve our SEN adults if we are also able to direct them to other sources of learning if deemed more appropriate, or if we are unable to effectively meet their needs. This is a key area for us.

Innovation and Development

  • The curriculum needs to move forward to take into account changes in the most up to date research and practice with regards to SEN as well as the SEND agenda both nationally and locally.  
  • These developments seek to test out new approaches to support the principles in this document around responsiveness, being learner centred whilst also promoting diversity.

Date Reviewed:                    September 2021

Date for next review:           July, 2022

Reviewed by:                        Vicky Bolster

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