Our Curriculum Statement
The purpose of our curriculum
The purpose of our curriculum is to create lifelong learners. At Ysgol Hendrefelin, we believe that learning should be a rewarding and enjoyable experience for everyone, with pupil wellbeing at its core. Through our teaching, we equip our pupils with the skills, knowledge and experience necessary to embrace the world around them; developing lifelong learners.
Curriculum experiences are designed with individual pupil needs at its core, focusing on extending learning beyond the classroom and promoting access to a wide range of community-based learning. Pupils’ residential experiences also promote and develop the life skills needed to become as independent as possible.
A shared understanding of progress
At Ysgol Hendrefelin staff are working closely with pupils, parents, governors and the wider community to develop a shared understanding of progress within the new curriculum. At our school, progress can be seen in three ways.
1. Growing Complexity – promoting challenge for learners
2. Developing independence – promoting individual pupil autonomy
3. Greater Control – promoting the development of skills to manage learning
Curriculum design
Our curriculum is carefully constructed to meet the requirements of the four purposes, with learning opportunities planned to give pupils the opportunities to develop the skills, knowledge and experiences they need through purposeful concepts and real-life contexts which develop pupils who can use their thinking skills to analyse, evaluate and create in different contexts when required. Ysgol Hendrefelin has worked to understand in detail the Four Purposes statements, how they relate to our learners and what they should look like at our school. The Four Purposes are the driver of our curriculum alongside the learners and their needs.
Curriculum for Wales has many component parts which the school pulls together to form its curriculum. A school’s curriculum is,
“everything a learner experiences in pursuit of the four purposes. It is not simply what we teach, but how we teach and, crucially, why we teach it.” (Curriculum for Wales)
The four purposes are:
1. Ambitious, capable learners – ready to learn throughout their lives.
2. Ethical, informed citizens – ready to be citizens of Wales and the World.
3. Enterprising, creative contributors – ready to play a full part in life and work.
4. Healthy, confident individuals – ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society.
We believe that equity is at the heart of the Curriculum for Wales and that all pupils, regardless of their individual learning needs, can realise aspects of the core purposes. Pupils have many opportunities to practise and develop skills within the four purposes and areas of learning and experience. By creating a space which actively promotes listening to the voice of the pupils, the learner's voice is used to co-construct and enhance the curriculum offered. It is an integral part of curriculum design.
We also recognise that the development of cross-curricular skills is essential to all pupils at the school in making progress within their learning. The development of these skills, particularly functional literacy and numeracy, are the focus of individual educational plans and regularly reviewed as part of each pupil's learning journey.
At Ysgol Hendrefelin we recognise the importance of developing the integral skills of creativity and innovation, personal effectiveness, planning and organising, critical thinking and problem-solving, through the provision of real life learning experiences that motivate and engage learners to play an active part of the communities they live in.
Ysgol Hendrefelin embraces Welsh language development as appropriate for our learners. Through developing the ethos of Cynefin, learners are encouraged to build up their knowledge of their locality, sense of belonging and their place in the local, national and global community.
Through the development of positive relationships with peers, staff, parents and the wider community, RSE is taught holistically and at a developmentally appropriate level for all learners. The UNCRC is developed throughout all areas of the school and we are currently in the process of becoming a rights-respecting school. Diversity is valued and embraced through daily activities as well as activities planned to widen the learners' perspectives and experiences of their own and other cultures within a variety of local, national and international contexts. Through a carefully planned and appropriate curriculum, Religion Values and Ethics are taught at an appropriate level to our learners.
Assessing / Assessment
Progression in Ysgol Hendrefelin is unique to each learner. Our pupils progress in different ways and in their own time.
The aims and objectives of assessment in our school are:
- To enable our learners to demonstrate what they know, understand and can do in their work
- To help our learners understand what they need to do next and how they might go about achieving it
- To allow teachers to plan work that accurately reflects the needs of each pupil
- To provide the head teacher and governors with information that allows them to make judgements about the effectiveness of the school.
Pupils will be given regular and effective feedback and time to act on the feedback given so that they have a clear idea of what they need to do to improve. This will be achieved through regular and consistent use of success criteria, formative assessment for learning techniques and the use of longer-term targets (e.g. IEPs). A range of assessments will be used by teachers, both summative and formative, to record and evidence the progress pupils are making and to indicate where they need to go next on their learning journey.
Key Stage 4 learners work towards a range of formal accreditations.
Review and collaboration
We will regularly review our school curriculum to ensure that it meets the needs of our learners. Our staff, pupils, parents and governors will oversee a regular, robust cycle of self-evaluation that will focus on standards of learning and teaching across the school. We will work with other schools across Wales and beyond to ensure that we are developing our skills and knowledge of pedagogy and curriculum design. We will share our good practice and encourage other schools to visit our school, forging partnerships that will benefit our pupils. Our curriculum is a responsive one which places the learners at the heart and is therefore subject to change as the needs of the learners change.