Curriculum
What do we offer all pupils at Crowdys Hill School?
We offer...
Teachers and TAs support are SEN trained staff for all lessons.
All staff trained in Autism Education Trust awareness courses, and higher level courses.
All staff trained in communication strategies.
All staff undertake phonics training.
Visual schedules used daily in lessons.
Daily reading sessions.
Small class sizes (up to 8 in primary; average 10 in secondary; varies in Sixth Form), to minimise noise levels and reduce anxieties in the classroom.
Extra adults in all classes.
Small class sizes with SEN trained TAs to allow focused support as needed in lesson.
Highly differentiated curriculum to support the need for comfort breaks, and sensory breaks.
Highly adapted curriculum to maximise independence and accessibility in all lessons.
Weekly literacy support session focused on phonic and reading skills.
Dyslexia friendly work used in all academic lessons.
Numeracy support through use of specialist equipment in lessons.
Regular daily access to visual cues, prompts, chunking and repetition throughout lessons daily.
Curriculum adapted from national curriculum to allow independent access.
Weekly/daily access to alternative methods of recording, such as IT/whiteboards/ iPads/ iPods.
Extra Support
Extra support, as advised by SENDCo/Assistant SENDCo:
Crowdys Hill School and Sixth Form ensures that all children can access all the curriculum at all times through our knowledge of the child, external professionals and many years of SEN experience.
Love of Reading
Children can use several strategies to check and confirm when reading independently. You made a mistake – can you find it? How did you know…?
Monitoring - Children expect their own reading to make sense. Use the picture to help them. Remember what’s happened already. Look at the beginning/end of the word and see if you can work it out.
Blending sounds together for reading - Children can identify phonemes and blend them together to read phonetically regular words. Can you sound it out? Can you blend those sounds together? Can you segment that word?
Predicting - Children know that written text has to make sense. Does that sound right? Can we say it that way? What do you think it might say to make sense?
Fluency and expression - Children take note of punctuation and use appropriate expression and intonation. Look at the punctuation. Read that bit again and make it sound like talking.
Locating known words Children know and recognise high frequency and familiar words. Can you see a word you know? Can you find that word again? Cross-checking - Children can cross-check one reading strategy against another to avoid or correct errors.
Students are given a wide range of opportunities to be able to read, whether this be in lesson time or as part of a student's unstructured time. Within the school week students will be given time to read to an adult and to a peer. Sixth form students have allocated time on the timetable where the session will solely be a time to read and share books.
Phonics Teaching/Independent reading
At Crowdys Hill School we use a systematic phonics SRP called ‘Twinkl Phonics’. Throughout the school we have phonic sessions, these vary from 5 minutes to 30 minutes depending on age and ability. Phonic strategies are re-in forced across the whole curriculum. Students within secondary are also offered a phonic intervention which is run by the school's phonics specialist English Lead. In these sessions students are given an opportunity to work in smaller groups and have been given time to re-visit sounds/concepts that they may be struggling with.
Through the use of Twinkl we then are able to link our independent reading books with the scheme's books- Rhino Readers. Rhino readers are decodable phonic books that are linked to each student's level. This allows students to consolidate and use sounds that they have been taught but also challenges our students to read words which include new sounds that they may have not yet been taught. Once students have confidently progressed though the school's phonic scheme and are confident independent readers, they are then classed as ‘free readers’ and are able to choose books which are no longer linked to the scheme.
If you have any questions about our Teaching & Learning support, please don't hesitate to contact us.