TLA Policy St Rose’s

Policy Owner: Head of School / Deputy Head of School

Policy Approval Date: Nov 2025

Policy Review Cycle: Annually

Policy Next Review Date: Nov 2026

TEACHING, LEARNING and ASSESSMENT

At St Rose’s we believe in education for all, without barriers. All students follow personalized learning programmes. St Rose’s has an inspiring environment where students can succeed at their individual level. We believe that learning can and should take place at any time throughout the day. We follow a broad and balanced curriculum which is appropriate to the needs of the individual. All learning is appropriately differentiated considering student needs. We are a community where each person is encouraged to develop their potential. Students are proud of their achievement and enjoy their sense of belonging to St Rose’s.

AIM

• To ensure the quality of education by demonstrating the intent, implementation and impact of the curriculum
• To enhance, support and encourage exceptional educational outcomes for our students.
• To ensure all teaching, learning and assessment meets the needs of the learners.
• To provide a rich and varied learning environment, that allows students to develop their skills and abilities, working towards achieving their full potential.
• To provide equality of opportunity for all
• To recognise students need for specialised equipment and strategies and facilitate learning through planned implementation.
• To provide a strong Christian environment where everyone is considered a child of God

At St Rose’s we know that our students need different approaches to their learning. Classes are grouped according to need and age or Key Stage as far as possible and our specialist staff use a variety of methods in order to maximise progress.

CURRICULUM
The curriculum is all the planned activities which are provided in order to promote learning, personal growth and development. It promotes the spiritual, social, moral, cultural, physical, cognitive and emotional development of students at the school and in society, and prepares students for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. It also includes how the students learn from the way they are treated and are expected to behave, through the school’s Christian Ethos.

Aims and Objectives of the Curriculum
We believe that learning takes place at any time throughout the day. Our broad and balanced curriculum meets the needs of each individual student. The curriculum aims to provide each student with the knowledge and skills they need to reach their full potential and enjoy a rich life as a valued member of their community.

We do this by:

• Providing curriculum pathways and matching students to the most appropriate curriculum
• Providing individualised timetables to meet each student’s educational and therapy needs in a holistic, exciting and challenging way.
• Differentiating learning to take into account student needs.
• Emphasising the importance for our students of challenging targets for excellent outcomes.
• Providing a strong Christian environment where everyone is considered a child of God.
• Providing a fun, stimulating and personalised learning environment
• Establishing a mutually supportive partnership in which parents, carers, staff and governors share responsibility for the education of our students
• Promoting an awareness of and respect for a diversity of cultures, values, beliefs and abilities and for British values.
• Providing Work related learning experiences that meet the Gatsby Benchmarks in a way that is meaningful and relevant to our students
• Ensuring EAL learners needs are met using appropriate guidance from DfE
• Working together to create a caring Christian community of learners where everyone feels safe and valued
• Ensuring that all students have appropriate and equal access to the curriculum
• Providing therapeutic interventions, provided by a multi-disciplinary team, that aim to remove or reduce the barriers to learning.
• Ensure that students are physically comfortable and their sensory needs met to enable them to learn. This may include strategies such as postural management programmes and sensory diets
• Providing students with strategies and equipment to communicate e.g. VOCA, symbols, pictures, objects of reference etc.
• Enabling a reflective learning environment where formative and summative assessment is an integral part of the planning cycle

Implementation

On entry to St Rose’s students are assessed and their starting points are established and placed on one of the three curriculum pathways.

Students who come to St Rose’s in Reception class are assessed using the Tapestry Government EYFS SEND Framework Summative assessment scheme which follows Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Progress of reception students is monitored and recorded using The Toolkit and four area assessment statements in Tapestry. Students who have transitioned from St Rose’s nursery into school will come with a Government EYFS SEND Framework Summative assessment profile which will continue to be used through their Reception year in school. On completion they will be assessed on the Pathways 3 subject specific pathway for English, Phonics, Mathematics and Personal and Social Development.

Students in reception class follow a curriculum based on EYFS that follows on from nursery. RE is introduced in Nursery as a part of ‘Understanding the World’. Then in Reception after an assessment by the Teacher of RE progress is recorded on the tracking ladder in MAPP.

After Reception year, students are placed on curriculum Pathway 1, 2 or 3.

Pathway 1 is a sensory curriculum and includes lessons that support Communication and Cognition, R.E., Personal and Social Development (P.S.D) including Relationships and Health Education , Living Skills, P.E. and experience of My World (Geography, History, Science), Music, Art and Design and Work Related Learning.

Pathway 2 is a bespoke curriculum blending pathway 1 and 3 depending on the needs of the students who display a spikey profile and do not fit Pathway 1 fully.

Pathway 3 is a subject specific pathway and includes English, Phonics, Mathematics, R.E., Personal and Social Development (PSD) including Relationships and Health Education) , Living Skills, Science, P.E., and taught through topic: Geography, History and I.T. alongside Music, Art & Design and Design Technology.

St Rose’s uses the Chailey Heritage materials for relationships and sex education (RSE). These are specialist materials for students with complex disabilities.

All students are assessed by the Phonics Lead teacher and placed on the St Rose’s Phonics Programme. Students on Pathway 1 and 2 work on Phonics Level 1, environmental sounds. Students on Pathway 3 are given a starting point and a target and placed at an appropriate level of the Phonics Programme. Monitoring and assessment occurs throughout the year and at the year end.

Sequenced curriculum plans ensure students receive full coverage across a key stage. They are also used to establish the starting points of students in different curriculum areas and assess their current educational ability and what they are working on.

Medium-term plans give clear objectives and suggested teaching activities that we use when teaching each subject, topic or sensory area. We draw upon a range of relevant and appropriate strategies and a number of purchased resources and schemes of learning which teachers adapt to meet the needs of the learners in their class.

Our short-term plans set out the learning objectives for each session. These short-term plans include strategies or equipment needed for the students to communicate. Within these short term plans all forms of assessment are an integral part of the process.

Both formative and summative assessment are used to plan progression throughout the three stages of planning.

At KS1 and KS2 students follow a curriculum designed to give students a foundation in expressive and receptive communication, cognition and problem solving, phonics and numeracy, as well as all the areas of the curriculum relevant to the individual learners.

At KS3 the curriculum includes a Work Related Learning programme for all students, and at KS4 students begin to engage with transition planning which takes into consideration the student’s ability, ambitions and options for KS5.

At Key Stage Four and Five the curriculum provides opportunity for students to achieve a variety of accreditation through the ASDAN My Independence programme, and AQA Unit Awards for RE.. The school’s accreditation framework provides a wide variety of certificates, awards, diplomas and subject specific qualifications.

Special Needs Provision
The school provides an Individual Plan (IP) for each of the students. This sets out the nature of the individual needs of the student and outlines how the school will aim to address the need. It also sets out targets for improvement in Learning, Communication, Physical Development, Personal Development and Health and Well-being so that we can review and monitor the progress of each student at regular intervals throughout the year. Each IP is devised by a multi-disciplinary team and provides individual strategies to remove the barriers to learning for each student.

Roles and Responsibilities
The Head of School has responsibility for the leadership of the curriculum and for monitoring its provision and reports to the Principal. They also have responsibility for developing and updating the curriculum and ensuring, that the curriculum has progression, sequenced learning and appropriate coverage and is consistently monitored.

The English Lead teacher has responsibility for developing and updating the English curriculum, the Phonics programme, and the school Library resources.

The Communication Lead teacher has responsibility for developing and updating the Communication curriculum.

The Head of School is responsible for ensuring the satisfactory content and delivery of the subjects, for monitoring provision and keeping up to date with curriculum developments, providing Inset where necessary. This ensures that progress is tracked and that there is appropriate challenge, support and intervention.

The Post 16 Lead teacher has responsibility for developing and updating the Post 16 curriculum, supporting the Deputy Head of School in updating the Post 16 section of the school SEF, monitoring the quality of teaching delivered at Post 16 and delivering accredited qualifications where possible.

The R.E. Lead teacher has responsibility for developing and updating the R.E. curriculum in line with the guidance of the Diocese of Clifton, for monitoring the quality of R.E. teaching and supporting non Catholic teachers in the delivery of RE.

Teachers who have been given a Subject Lead role, including the Lead Teachers already mentioned, have responsibility for writing a SEF, a subject Development plan and a Subject Leaders Report each year for the subject they have responsibility for. They also have responsibility for leading a multi-disciplinary group of staff who have volunteered to support their subject, in two meetings a year discussing subject development.

The Teachers ensure that the curriculum is well-planned and taught and that the objectives are achieved towards individual student outcomes. The Governors monitor the success through Governors’ visits, the Education, Health and Care Committee and at whole Governing Body meetings through the Principal’s report to the Governors.

ASSESSMENT

Whole School Aims For Assessment

• To be an integral part of the teaching and learning and to inform planning.
• To establish a clear “paper trail” from daily planning and assessment to whole school improvement targets.
• To ensure that current planning is linked to assessment sheets / methods.
• To ensure that leadership groups and Deputy Head of School for St Rose’s carry out target setting and student progress tracking
• To ensure that assessment methods are appropriate to the individual needs of the students, this means that different assessment tools are used to meet the specific needs of individual students across St Rose’s.

Forms of Assessment

• A six-week base-line assessment period, after which an individual plan will be drawn up and agreed with parents and external professionals at a six-week review, after which IPs will be reviewed on a termly basis.
• Continuous formative assessment is used daily in lessons and also across medium term planning.
• Annual summative assessment in the form of a report to parents.
• Progress against targets is monitored using individual student targets and expectations. Students are carefully monitored throughout the year, and students not making expected progress are identified. Multi-disciplinary meetings are held and interventions and implemented to help remove barriers for learning.
• Use of an adapted form of MAPP to show progress, using targets from Routes for Learning and our long-term sequenced plans for different curriculum areas.
• Use of assessment of the St Rose’s Phonics Programme
• Assessment processes used by therapy departments.
• External assessment in the form of course-based externally set assignments or examinations, external assessment of accredited course work and accreditation outcome.

Marking & Assessment
Marking should be used to inform planning and set targets.
Teachers should:

• Ensure that lesson objectives are clear and that each student has a learning outcome for the lesson.
• Whenever possible and appropriate, mark work with the student, discussing amendments with them. For students with more profound difficulties responses should be shared and feedback given using appropriate communication strategies. Response sheets and learning diaries can be filled out as a record of summative progress and to inform formative assessment.
• Where students have cognition to make it meaningful, a student version of RAG rating card is used to support student self-assessment.
• Ensure that comments are specific and constructive, suggesting ways of improving a piece of work or how a student has responded, considering the next steps for each individual.

Reporting to Parents
Parents will be informed of targets, progress and achievements through Annual Reviews of EHC plans or statements, IP targets reviewed three times a year, parents evening and end of year education reports.

TEACHING AND LEARNING DEVELOPMENT

• Follow a programme of INSET to inform staff of new developments and to reinforce new ideas
• Have regular meetings with the Head of School for St Rose’s to update on developments and progress with departments and individuals
• To run a programme of student-tracking to audit the student experiences of teaching styles and student learning
• To support existing staff by providing material such as booklets, magazine articles and feedback from external INSET
• To liaise with members of the multi-disciplinary team with issues related to teaching and learning
• Develop a programme of peer and external observation in order to enhance pedagogical development
• To establish a capacity for coaching and peer networking in order to further develop pedagogical practice

MONITORING TEACHING AND LEARNING

• Through teachers’ personal development reviews
• Sampling of students work and work scrutiny
• Data analysis and student progress
• Peer observations and peer feedback
• Teachers’ and joint teacher/therapy meetings
• Formal and informal learning walks
• Parent, staff and student questionnaire where appropriate
• Internal and external moderation of accreditations
• External monitoring e.g. Local Authorities, OFSTED etc.

EVALUATION CRITERIA

• Teachers demonstrate their familiarity with teaching and learning issues
• A commonality of purpose
• An improvement in the standard of quality of the students learning experiences
• Teachers demonstrating their confidence in using alternative teaching styles in order to match the individual needs of the students.

This Policy Statement is considered part of the Terms and Conditions of Employment for all staff at St Rose’s