Curriculum Overview

At Rigby Hall School we believe that the word ‘curriculum’ should be interpreted in its widest meaning. It is every planned learning experience the pupils have as a member of the school, both learnt formally within a lesson and informally outside the classroom throughout the whole School day. It is all the planned activities that we organise in order to promote learning, personal growth and development. Teachers, and support staff structure these experiences to ensure that they have the most positive effect on the attainment, progress and personal development of all pupils.

The overall aim of the curriculum is to enable all the young people at Rigby Hall School to become successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens.

At the School we offer a flexible, personalised, engaging skills based curriculum providing both choice and challenge focussed on developing emotional literacy, core subject knowledge and offering a wide range of accredited outcomes. There is a strong focus on the social and emotional aspects of learning through the delivery of a range of PHSE/social development programmes. The curriculum is delivered by qualified, skilled, empathetic and experienced staff operating in a warm, safe, and nurturing learning environment.

At Rigby Hall children and young people follow a curriculum pathway suitable to their needs and development. There are pathways for children and young people with moderate learning difficulties (MLD), severe learning difficulties (SLD) and Complex Needs (PMLD). However, these are flexible allowing a student to move between pathways dependent on their development.

We aim to provide a broad and balanced curriculum for all students following the National Curriculum where applicable. Students with more complex needs follow the multi-sensory impaired (MSI) curriculum.

Our curriculum:

• Is managed and differentiated for individual needs
• Takes full account of each child’s Education, Health and Care Plan
• Promotes British values and social, moral, and cultural development
• To ensure equality of opportunity regardless of gender, race, culture, religion, social disadvantage or disability
• Supports student’s communication needs through a total communication approach (using a mix of signed, spoken and visual aids)
• Ensures the acquisition of skills in literacy, numeracy and ICT for all young people
• Is broad, whilst giving due attention to the core subjects
• Is creative and relevant to all pupils following a thematic approach based on pupil voice feedback
• Is assessed, recorded and evaluated and involves the pupils in self-assessment where appropriate
• Is well resourced linking students interests to their learning
• Reinforces the links between subjects so that learning connections are made across curriculum boundaries
• Develops key vocabulary for each subject area whether through the word aware approach, signing or symbol/photo support
• Is delivered in line with our equal opportunity and racial and cultural diversity policies.
• Promotes learning outside of the classroom in all subjects
• Promotes independence and life skills throughout all key stages including accessing the Rigby Hall flat and life skills village.

Links to the World of Work:

At Rigby Hall we hold strong values in preparing children for the world of work.  From Early Years and Key Stage One pupils develop an understanding of the world of work through carefully planned role play experiences based on their thematic learning.  In Key Stage Two, pupils extend on this through educational visits linked to careers, as well as having the opportunity to have encounters with outside visitors who they can question about their jobs and roles.  Moving into Key Stage Three, pupils have a more formalised approach where pupils can experience the world of work through time in the life skills village and internal work experiences.  Pupils start to consider their final destinations through school in Year 9 and experience a careers fayre exposing them to variuos jobs and work opportunities.  In Key Stage Four this is developed even further through experiences of work, either internally or externally dependent upon pupil need.  The life skill village becomes more utilised as pupils encounter vocational courses.  After all the exposure in school, Post 16 pupils bring all their learning experiences and interests together to enable them to make informed decisions about their future destinations and pathways, including training and paid employment when appropriate. 

Curriculum Pathways:

In order to ensure that each child accesses a curriculum that is appropriate to their individual needs, bespoke curriculum pathways have been developed here at Rigby Hall. These are as follows:

Early Years Assessment – for children in Saplings class. This pathway focuses on the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum

Green Route – for pupils with Moderate Learning Difficulties (MLD)

Purple Route – for pupils with Severe Learning Difficulties (SLD)

Orange Route – for pupils with Complex Needs (including Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties)

Post 16 - which consists of three separate pathways for post 16 pupils with moderate, severe or complex learning difficulties. These are referred to as the Employability, Learning for Life and Sensory pathways.

Please click here for the Rigby Hall Curriculum Pathways and click here for the Rigby Hall Curriculum Matrix where the National Curriculum is derived from and mapped out at each key stage.

If you require further information about our school curriculum please direct emails to Shelley Hughes, Ben Homer or Rebecca Walsh (Assistant Headteachers) at office@rigbyhall.worcs.sch.uk