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Curriculum Vision
Curriculum Vision
At Robert Ogden School, every pupil follows an ambitious, personalised curriculum shaped by their Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).
Communication, Preparation for Adulthood and Personal Development are the foundation of everything we teach. These curriculum drivers ensure that pupils develop the knowledge, skills and confidence required to participate successfully in school, contribute to their communities and prepare for adult life.
We believe that every pupil has the right to:
- Communicate in ways that are meaningful and effective for them;
- Access an ambitious curriculum that reflects both their chronological age and developmental needs;
- Develop independence, resilience and self-advocacy;
- Experience success through teaching that builds on their individual strengths, interests and differences;
- Learn within safe, predictable and autism-friendly environments;
- Develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours necessary to lead fulfilling adult lives.
Our curriculum is carefully sequenced while remaining sufficiently flexible to respond to each pupil's changing needs. Learning is planned to enable pupils to revisit, practise, transfer and apply knowledge and skills across different contexts so that learning becomes secure, meaningful and transferable.
Curriculum Philosophy and Intent
At Robert Ogden School, we believe that every pupil deserves an ambitious, meaningful and personalised education that prepares them for a fulfilling adult life.
Our curriculum is designed around the unique strengths, needs and aspirations of autistic learners. Every pupil follows an individual learning journey shaped by their Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), ensuring that statutory provision, learning and personal development are fully integrated.
We recognise that autistic pupils may require specialist approaches, including explicit teaching, visual supports, structured environments, therapeutic approaches and opportunities to transfer learning across different contexts. Our curriculum removes barriers to learning whilst maintaining high expectations for every pupil.
Communication sits at the heart of the curriculum. We recognise that communication extends beyond spoken language and includes all the ways pupils understand others, express themselves and engage with the world. Through a Total Communication approach, communication is explicitly taught, consistently modelled and embedded throughout every aspect of school life.
Preparation for Adulthood is the purpose of our curriculum and begins from the moment a pupil joins the school. Learning is planned to develop increasing independence, confidence and participation through the four Preparing for Adulthood outcomes:
- Employment
- Independent Living
- Community Inclusion
- Health and Wellbeing
We believe that autism should never limit ambition. Every pupil is entitled to a curriculum that is appropriately challenging, carefully sequenced and responsive to their individual needs. Success is measured not only through academic achievement, but also through pupils' ability to communicate effectively, develop relationships, regulate emotions, solve problems, make choices and participate confidently in everyday life.
Curriculum Drivers
Three curriculum drivers underpin all learning at Robert Ogden School and are reflected across every subject, intervention and learning experience.
- Communication is the foundation of learning, relationships and participation. Through a Total Communication approach, pupils develop the skills needed to understand others, express themselves and engage meaningfully with the world around them.
- Preparation for Adulthood provides the purpose and context for learning. Pupils develop the knowledge, skills and independence required for success in employment, independent living, community participation, and health and wellbeing.
- PSHE and Personal Development is a core part of preparation for adulthood and central to lifelong success. Pupils are supported to develop emotional wellbeing, self-awareness, relationships, resilience, self-advocacy and the skills needed to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives.
The EHCP as the Foundation: The EHCP underpins all aspects of curriculum planning. It informs teaching, provision, assessment and curriculum priorities, ensuring learning remains personalised, ambitious and focused on long-term outcomes.
The curriculum is split into 6 areas of learning:
At Robert Ogden School, learning is defined as: The process of acquiring, retaining, applying and transferring the essential knowledge, skills, understanding and behaviours required to communicate effectively, become increasingly independent and prepare successfully for adult life.
The 4 principles are:
Reading Framework
Literacy as Communication: At Robert Ogden School, literacy is viewed as a fundamental form of communication. We recognise that pupils follow different developmental pathways towards reading and writing. Some pupils begin with early communication, symbolic understanding and pre-literacy skills, whilst others progress towards increasingly complex literacy skills, and accredited qualifications. Every pathway is equally valued and supported through ambitious, personalised teaching.
Our Approach to Reading: Reading is taught through a carefully sequenced curriculum that develops:
- Early communication and pre-literacy and pre-phonics skills through the NAS Early Communication Curriculum
- Phonological awareness
- Phonics taught following the ‘Sounds-Write®’ programme, adapted appropriately to meet learning needs, taught simultaneously across the week where appropriate
- Reading fluency
- Vocabulary development
- Language comprehension
- Reading for information
- Reading for pleasure
Reading opportunities are embedded throughout the curriculum and across the wider school environment.
Curriculum Pathways
The curriculum is offered at three programme levels. Pupils can move between programmes as needs dictate.
Most pupils’ learning will progress in a linear fashion. However, it is important to consider that some pupils' learning will become more lateral.
The school operates a trans-disciplinary Therapy Team approach to providing individualised learning and support for pupils.
These include Speech and Language Therapy, Psychology, Behaviour Support, and Occupational Therapy. Much of this work is embedded/integrated into the curriculum and staff practice.
We want learning that is independent, accurate, consistent and has the ability to be generalised to new or different circumstances, this has become to be known as Deep Learning.
Before moving pupils onto the next step of their learning we must consider these processes.
Our young people follow a pathway which ensures learning is planned alongside the skills your child will find of most benefit in their future life.
It will help prepare them for the next transitional stage in their lives and the opportunities and responsibilities of adult life.
The focus is on developing a range of functional skills from communication and IT, to leisure and vocational activities. We make use of our local community’s facilities as much as possible to ensure your child’s learning is practical as well. They may learn how to set up a bank account, or how to use a bus daily.
We also offer your child vocational and enterprise experience, either in school or with local employers. We have a number of realistic work environments (RWEs) which are designed to offer our young people a taste of ‘real’ business life.
Where possible, we encourage our students to proceed to mainstream school and further education colleges.
The Inclusive Learning Hub is designed specifically for children with Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) or a profile indicative of PDA.
This specialist provision within a specialist school was developed to engage the “hard to include children” by providing pupils with their own individualised tutorial room and a curriculum that relates to them as individuals. We give high regard to the environment and pupils have negotiated control over their physical learning environment; this reduces social anxiety and allows the pupils to feel more in control and, therefore, access learning.
For the majority of children accessing the Hub their educational history has generally been disrupted by numerous exclusions or reduced timetables in other settings. Our aim is to help them enjoy learning again, make up for lost opportunities and rebuild their trust in education in order to maximise their full potential.
Inclusion is about the active presence, participation and achievement of all pupils in a meaningful and relevant set of learning experiences. Some of these experiences will come from our curriculum; others, equally important, will come from self -directed learning. An inclusive curriculum is one where all learners see the relevance of the curriculum and is tailored to encompass their particular strengths, interests and aspirations.
Our Inclusion Curriculum shapes our approach to everything we do. We have high expectations regarding educational progression for students, however, we also recognise the need for the development of social, interpersonal and relationship skills, especially giving our pupils coping strategies to deal with self-regulation.
We provide opportunities which are meaningful, accessible, motivating, contextualised and appropriately challenging to maximise engagement and progress for each child and take the learning opportunities across every aspect of the pupil’s day.
We use a combination of teaching methods, which are appropriate and adapt them to support the pupils learning styles and needs within individual classes. Learners are supported to develop their readiness to learn, attention, self-motivation, a 'have a go' attitude and to take risks in their learning. Teaching across the school gives pupils relevant opportunities for learning, and motivates and inspires all pupils to make progress across their learning intentions. This is achieved through structured routines, appropriately paced and motivating activities with assessment for learning firmly embedded across all contexts.
Teaching provides opportunities for pupils to contextualise their learning, working within whole class, small group, individual and independent learning opportunities appropriate to that learner. We personalise the learning and ensure that pupils are given the opportunity to make as much progress as possible. Through this they will be enabled to use their skills in a range of contexts, to become increasingly independent, resourceful and resilient when faced with challenges.
The use of objects of reference, symbol support and Makaton signing are incorporated into the Teaching and Learning to encourage and support understanding. ICT is used to support and enhance learning across all areas of the Curriculum and the pupil’s day. We use a range of augmentative or alternative strategies geared to individual need, to promote the ability of learners to communicate successfully, enabling them to respond and interact to their full capacity, to give pupils a voice in their learning. We constantly value our learners’ efforts, promoting self-esteem and confidence through specific praise.
As part of this we use SPELL, the National Autistic Society’s framework for understanding and responding to the needs of autistic children and adults. It focuses on five principles that have been identified as vital elements of good practice. Click the button below to find out more about the framework.
Progress Careers
“Progress Careers (formerly known as CareersInc) are proud to work in partnership with Robert Ogden school.
Our partnership ensures that students in key transition years have access to a fully qualified careers adviser who offers independent and impartial careers guidance to students. In addition to the personalised guidance, we work with the school to support and enhance the delivery of their careers programme and access to up-to-date, relevant careers information.”