Curriculum Intent, Implementation and Impact

Welcome to Tiffield Academy’s curriculum page and thank you for taking the time to look at our school’s curriculum intent, implementation and impact. As we are in the very exciting, but early, stages of the school’s journey we are happy to be able to share some information on what you and your child/young person can expect from the curriculum at Tiffield Academy. We recognise that we are in a very privileged position to be able to create an entirely new curriculum that is aspirational, purposeful, broad and balanced. We are in the process of developing this curriculum with all learners and their needs in mind.  

We are mindful that some of our learners will be with us for twelve years of their educational journey and therefore, because of this, our curriculum will consider learners’ first and last day at Tiffield Academy, ensuring the curriculum supports learners’ journeys and transitions from childhood to adulthood.

At Tiffield Academy our curriculum’s drivers are independence, communication and emotional well-being/regulation as we believe that children/young people can achieve their very best when these areas of personal development are supported. The key drivers will support learners’ abilities to engage in their learning and to achieve the best that they are capable of.

Our curriculum has been carefully created to consider students’ pathways of learning. The curriculum has been split into 3 unique pathways to allow for differentiation to take place according to learners’ needs, development stages and aspirations (best hopes).

Pathway 1 will meet the needs of our learners with complex learning needs who require a pre/informal learning approach. The curriculum will help to develop learners’ early learning skills within communication, social, emotional and cognition using a multi-sensory/model curriculum that is person-centred.

Pathway 2 will meet the needs of learners requiring a semi-formal learning approach. Learners on this pathway will start to work on subject specific content with a focus on functional literacy and numeracy skills. Much like Pathway 1, the curriculum will be delivered, in part, using a multi-sensory/model approach.

Pathway 3 learners will follow a formal approach to learning. Learners can expect to be taught a wide range of subject specific curriculum content.

As part of our primary curriculum, Tiffield Academy favours a topic/thematic approach as it allows us to harness a love of learning by using learners’ motivations and interests. By creating a love of learning through our curriculum, we believe we will be building upon important principles of intrinsic motivation where our learners are participants in their curriculum because they want to be.  Learners can expect to be fully immersed in their thematic curriculum to gain a deeper connection to their learning, benefitting from greater depth of knowledge of their immediate and wider world.

Learners that are working within Pathway 1 and 2 at Key Stage 3 can expect to continue on the thematic format, although themes will reflect changes from children’s themes to those suitable for young adults. Themes will consider all areas of preparation for adulthood and independence.

For learners accessing Pathway 3 as part of their secondary Key Stage 3 curriculum, they will no longer be a part of the thematic curriculum; learners will follow a subject specific curriculum in readiness for Key Stage 4 and 5 accreditations.

Our Key Stage 4 and 5 accreditations will be mapped for all learners to allow for preparation for adulthood. At Key Stage 4 and 5 learners can expect to engage in functional skills sessions, life skills, travel training, accessing the community, enterprise, employability and options. Options sessions will be vocation based and may change year on year, according to the learners’ interests. The qualification suite will celebrate learners’ progression and support them in whatever the young person’s destination outcome is to be. For learners expected to move on to further education placements the curriculum will help in securing nationally recognised qualifications, such as entry level certificates, to ensure our students have the best possible outcomes in meeting entry requirements.

'Curriculum on a page' document

Please take some time to further explore our ‘curriculum on a page’ below. This summarises our curriculum intentions, how we intend to implement the curriculum and how we will measure the impact of it. We look forward to sharing more on our curriculum as our school grows and develops.