The Curriculum at The Gateway School

Knowledge for beyond the classroom, beyond exams, and beyond the school…

Our curriculum is designed via the needs of our pupils. Everything we do, say, and provide is designed to ensure our pupils leave school as employable, likeable, and sociable people. Our commitment to Powerful Knowledge helps ensure our pupils are not ‘locked out’ from knowledge that other people possess.

Our curriculum is not a mere timetable - It is a five-year experience that guides our students in everything they do. It is written to impact on what we do/teach and how we do it.

Our curriculum embodies the key elements of an inclusive approach to effectively educating young people with SEN. In doing so, we are committed to developing young people who can effectively communicate, reflect, are independent, challenge themselves, respond to setbacks well and recover from them. We do this via;

• Our Six Core themes:
  • Resilience
  • Communication
  • Going beyond borders
  • Reflection
  • Balance
  • Independence.
• Our Threshold Concepts:
  • Every subject area frames their sequential model of learning around Threshold Concepts.
• Powerful Knowledge:
  • Knowledge that helps to understand/interpret the world (without it they remain dependent upon those who have it)
• Behaviour Curriculum:
  • At the heart of our behaviour curriculum are relationships since they hold the key when helping pupils grow, heal, and self-regulate.
• Interventions & Enrichment:
  • Our interventions curriculum is designed to augment academic provision and to provide a coherent, relevant, and effective framework for delivering pastoral outcomes.

Our curriculum is based on an approach which covers the following three areas;

• Knowledge:
  • Giving our pupils knowledge and skills they can remember, use, and apply.
• Six Core themes:
  • A five-year experience, via six core themes that supports both social and academic development.
• Teaching acceptable behaviour (TAB):
  • A relational, restorative, and reflective approach to teaching what is acceptable beyond our walls.

The Academic & Vocational Curriculum

At TGS we offer a wide range of national curriculum subjects because we want our pupils to have the same opportunities academically as those in a mainstream school setting. We cannot offer the same number of subjects, but we are committed to teaching subjects (accredited and non-accredited) which prepare them for adulthood, enable them to access post sixteen education and /or employment, gives them increased social and cultural capital and enables them to access, gain and use powerful knowledge.

The core subjects we offer are Maths, English, Science, and ICT. All of these are GCSE and/or Functional Skills accredited.

The foundation subjects we offer are Art & Design, CDT, PE, Global and Food Technology. All of these are BTEC accredited.

The vocational subjects we offer are Motor Vehicle maintenance, Hair & Beauty, Construction, Sport & Leisure. All of these are accredited.

We deliver PSHEE and RSE across both key stages.

Our Interventions Curriculum

The interventions curriculum at TGS is designed to enhance pupil progress and achievements by augmenting academic subject teaching and learning. We want each of our pupils (all of whom have an EHCP) to progress towards successful outcomes in targeted areas of SEMH. We can enable many of our pupils to use interventions as a springboard to develop the skills to learn in formal settings.

Our Enrichment Curriculum

We offer a wide range of experiences and challenges that enrich our curriculum. This is to ensure that our students are inspired to learn outside of the classroom and develop the skills required for the world beyond their secondary education. We plan to whet their appetite and develop a love of learning something new which may not necessarily end up being judged by an exam or a piece of coursework.

Please note: more information about our curriculum offer can be found by clicking the link below and accessing the whole school policy in the school policies section on this website.