Curriculum

‘A broad, relevant and innovative curriculum, that prepares young people for life beyond Educational Diversity’

Educational Diversity is a Pupil Referral Unit and a Home & Hospital Education Service for Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 4 pupils who have experienced difficulties within mainstream schools. 

Many of the young people who attend Educational Diversity arrive here at a difficult period in their lives. More often than not, they have missed a great deal of their education in mainstream school and have therefore fallen behind their peers. As a consequence, they are often lacking in confidence and believe that they cannot get back on track. We recognise that young people learn best when they are emotionally secure. We therefore aim to give all our pupils the necessary support to improve their confidence and self-esteem and well-being, within a nurturing environment, thus enabling them to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy and value their education. Our ethos is underpinned by the six Principles of Nurture:

  • Children’s learning is understood developmentally
  • The classroom offers a safe base.
  • Nurture is important for the development of self-esteem.
  • Language is understood as a vital means of communication.
  • All behaviour is communication.
  • Transitions are significant in the lives of children

Our starting point is the child and their individual needs. We identify and assess the academic, cognitive and holistic needs of all our pupils when they come to us. We devise Individual Learning Plans which include their identified needs, strategies to support them and their bespoke curriculum offer.

At the same time as providing emotional and learning support, we give our young people access to high quality learning opportunities. Our curriculum is ambitious and challenging, and designed to raise aspirations. 

We want our pupils to be successful learners in school and we want to prepare them so that they can achieve the best that they can. We are committed to our role in equipping our pupils to progress back into mainstream education, into meaningful further education, employment or training and make a positive contribution to society.

The importance of literacy and numeracy is emphasised, along with the acquisition of personal learning, thinking and problem solving skills.

Alongside the formally taught curriculum there are many opportunities for our young people to engage in additional outdoor, sporting, cultural and vocational activities both in school and beyond the normal school day.

Pupils at all Key Stages are taught in small groups, where they study the core curriculum and receive the extra support they require. They build on what they already know and are taught new concepts and skills that enable them to make useful connections. As such pupils are then able to make good progress as staff can ensure that learning is tailored to individual student needs.

We have 6 curriculum offers for our pupils depending on their personal circumstances for accessing the education through our provision:

  Short stay curriculum (LINK) Short stay curriculum (Athena) KS3 P/E  KS3 P/E KS4 Atlas KS4 College
Academic        
Careers, Pathways for all, Engagement Coach        
Reintegration      
Resilience Coach      
Speech & Language    
Therapeutic          
Transition to FE college, apprenticeships, employment     
Understanding behaviours and self-regulation  
Vocational    

Aims

We aim to ensure that all our pupils:

  1. Have a bespoke curriculum to meet their individual needs. 
  2. Achieve good academic attainment on par with mainstream schools with appropriate accreditation and qualifications.
  3. Improve their motivation and self-confidence, attendance and engagement with education in order that they can develop transferable skills and make a successful contribution to society.
  4. Develop their personal and social skills in order to help them overcome any barriers to attainment, know how to eat healthy, maintain an active lifestyle and keep physically and mentally healthy. Understand and manage their behaviours
  5. Be well prepared for their next steps, following their placement at Educational Diversity, such as reintegration into mainstream education, training or employment.
  6. Build on and develop their communication skills. 

Principles

Our curriculum is founded on the principles of nurture and we want to provide all our young people with a route to academic and vocational success, using personalised programmes of study that will enable them to achieve their highest potential in education, training and work.

Our curriculum aims to:

  1. Improve outcomes in English and maths by developing pupils’ core skills, address gaps in their knowledge and build on what has been taught before.
  2. Identify pupils’ developmental needs quickly and then initiate an individualised approach in order to meet those specific needs.
  3. Ensure that our pupils see the value of what they are learning through real life experiences which make it relevant to their lives.
  4. Promote achievement for everyone and ensure all pupils are valued, safe, nurtured, healthy, active and included.
  5. Provide the platform to challenge, engage and motivate our young people in their learning, in a safe environment.
  6. Implement an engaging approach to the learning of reading which develops pupils’ confidence and enjoyment in reading.
  7. Develop a nurturing environment where teachers develop strong relationships with their pupils and are able to have a positive effect on pupils’ self-esteem and are allowed the time and space in the curriculum for character education.
  8. Meet the needs of our pupils with SEND and give them the knowledge and culture capital to succeed in life.
  9. Encourage pupils to reflect on their own learning, strengths and areas to develop and identify the next steps on their learning journey/personal development.
  10. Provide pupils with the skills to cope with the transition to the next stage of learning.

Curriculum

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