Curriculum Strategy

The Hopescourt curriculum is designed to include the best of the National Curriculum, sequenced to give pupils the powerful knowledge and skills they need to succeed in adult life, and to increase their opportunities and inclusion within society.

Subject specialists will identify the threshold concepts which pupils need in order to understand in depth and achieve mastery. Our intent is to provide the specialist autism support that pupils need to access an ambitious curriculum in which they can achieve and exceed age-related expectations, including GCSEs, in a broad range of subjects.

The curriculum provided will be broad, balanced, relevant and purposeful.  It will promote resilience in pupils by focusing on their personal, social and physical development. The curriculum will take into consideration the range of pupils at Hopescourt, considering their experience and learning profiles to provide all learners with both challenge and opportunity. The curriculum will be aligned with the national curriculum but underpinned by Autism expertise. The school will use Autism specific interventions, identified to address all the challenges that Autistic pupils face; supporting pupils to access wider learning in line with their individual needs.

Some of the Autistic specific interventions that Hopescourt School will use to support its vision are:

• Intensive interaction
• Attention Autism
• Social stories / thinking
• Psycho-education

The school will use the Autism Education Trust framework to establish starting points and to ensure that learning is personalised to the needs of the individual.

Pupils will be engaged in their learning through the delivery of a flexible and challenging curriculum, which is supported through a wide range of opportunities. The pupils will acquire the skills they need to flourish and be ready to learn by addressing the barriers to the curriculum that exist for the individual learner. Individuals will develop an awareness of their learning difficulties and build and develop ‘tool kits’ that will support them through the different stages of their life.

The ethos of bringing together the best of both sectors to equip individuals for success will be facilitated through a curriculum that is sufficiently flexible to allow learners to access learning at other mainstreams schools within the Bourne Education Trust. The ultimate focus of the curriculum is to ensure that pupils achieve their personal best, become resilient individuals and make successful transitions into adulthood as stipulated in the SEN code of practice.

The key principles of the Hopescourt curriculum are:

• An ambitious and fluid curriculum that adapts to meet the high expectations Hopescourt has of its pupils.
• An environment and ethos that promotes positive mindsets and builds resilience.
• Development of reading to a level of fluency within all key stages to ensure this is not an additional barrier for learners.
• A strong personal development curriculum to help young people to be active and engaged citizens in modern Britain.
• A well planned and integrated PSHE programme that recognises that building and maintaining healthy relationships is a challenge for many Autistic people, so supporting pupils in this aspect of life is an important part of our work. Our Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) programme also supports pupils with their understanding of healthy relationships, and LGBTQ+ issues.
• To raise standards of attainment compared to what pupils would achieve in a mainstream setting by focusing on the Autistic needs of the pupils.
• To plan a broad range of academic and vocational qualifications that will ensure a range of pathways that allow pupils to succeed.
• The use of the RS, Drama and PSHE curriculum to ensure pupils learn to understand, respect, and tolerate different cultures and traditions. They will learn about different protected characteristics. The continual development across all areas of school life will explore ways to develop greater tolerance, respect and harmony with others.
• A commitment to providing bespoke and individualised careers advice and guidance to develop employability skills through college visits, work experience and enterprise projects. This will also include general life skills so that pupils leave Hopescourt school with skills for life and the ability to flourish within their chosen field.