- Meadowgate Academy
- Meadowgate Lane, Wisbech,
- Cambs, PE13 2JH
The Pre-Formal Curriculum has been adapted to meet the changing needs of the pupils here at Meadowgate Academy. The curriculum encourages pupils to engage with and discover the world around them and those in it. The supporting adults are there to observe what the pupils can do, rather than interrupting learning opportunities by doing it for the pupils in the way the adults see best.
Pre-formal learners are working at an engagement level in most areas of their curriculum. Students working within this pathway commonly present with the following characteristics:
Pupils working within the Pre-Formal Curriculum begin their journey at Meadowgate Academy with a detailed baseline assessment to provide a profile of responses and reactions that the young person has and can be built upon.
The Pre-Formal Curriculum is a topic-based curriculum focusing on: Communication and Interaction, Pre-formal Literacy and Maths, Physical Development, Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Expressive Arts and Design and Understanding of the World. Each pupil has individualised learning outcomes for every lesson and these are pre-dominantly based on their long term EHCP outcomes and Routes for Learning targets. Scripted routines and relevant therapies provide a rich context within the curriculum to rehearse lateral learning. Careful consideration is given to the medical, physical and sensory needs of the pupils when planning the learning activities and setting up the learning environment.
We monitor closely the learning of our pupils through the collection of observational notes, written recording, photographic and video evidence. We track pupil progress and capture evidence against EHCP targets and Routes for Learning on Earwig, our online learning platform.
The Route map provides an overview of the three strands of development: cognitive development, communication and social interaction, and environmental interaction and shows the most important milestones as orange boxes, every box on the Route map is numbered for ease of reference. Learners should not be expected to achieve them in strict numerical order. The evidence suggests that every learner is likely to pass through the key milestones, although the routes they take may vary according to their physical, sensory and learning needs.
The Engagement Profile is an assessment tool to support pupils who are working below the level of The National Curriculum and not engaged in subject-specific study. The Profile recognises that engagement is multi-dimensional and breaks it down into five areas,
The Engagement Profile allow teachers to assess, how well their pupils are being engaged and developing new skills, knowledge and concepts in the school’s curriculum. Furthermore, how effective the special educational provision is in empowering their pupils to progress against the agreed outcomes on their EHCPs and how effectively pupils are engaging with and making progress against these plans.
Meadowgate Academy incorporates numerous interventions and systems to support progress. Staff also have specialist training opportunities through SENSE (Intervener) accredited courses.
Across the school day, different approaches are used to support the children’s understanding of what is happening now and what is happening next. Depending on the needs of the children, this could be using Objects of Reference, visual supports, on-body signing and hand-under-hand signing. We also use audio cues alongside Objects of Reference to ensure a multi-sensory approach to understanding what is happening.
T.I.M.E is a tactile and auditory scripted routine. Music is used to give the children opportunities to communicate with an adult, make choices and learn to anticipate what is going to happen from an auditory cue.
T.I.M.E routines are carried out daily where the children work with an adult, interacting with the adult or an object to music. A pop song is played and either objects are explored on the child’s body through rolling, tapping and draping in time to the music, or the child is encouraged to interact with the adult during physical movements (stretching, rolling, bouncing etc.). Staff will use the burst and pause method when interacting with the child to give them opportunities to communicate ‘more’ or ‘finished’ and to develop anticipation skills.
Intensive Interaction is an approach designed to help people at early levels of development, people who have autism, people who have severe, profound or complex learning difficulties. Intensive Interaction works on early interaction abilities – how to enjoy being with other people – to relate, interact, know, understand and practice communication routines.
Intensive Interaction teaches and develops the ‘Fundamentals of Communication’, attainments such as: use and understanding of eye contacts, facial expressions, vocalisations leading to speech, taking turns in exchanges of conversation and the structure of conversation.
Communication through music is a weekly session that links an object with a certain song. The song is sung and an object moved in time to the music to engage the children. The children are then encouraged to communicate that they want a turn with the object through vocalisations, movements or facial expressions.
Communication through music is repeated in the same order each session. This allows the children to begin to anticipate what is happening and what is coming next. Objects are used to gain the children’s attention and encourage them to communicate. There can be a long pause between the break in the song and the children expressing that they want a turn. This pause is deliberately kept quiet with no adult movement to ensure the children do not get distracted and can focus on communicating.
Sensory stories convey simple narratives using a mixture of text and complimentary sensory experiences. Each section of the story (normally just a short sentence or two in length) is accompanied by a sensory experience to help bring the story to life. Our sensory stories incorporate all the senses where appropriate so touch, smell, sounds, taste and visual stimuli. Sensory stories enable students to access stories in a many different ways rather than just auditory involvement. The stories will be linked to class topics.
The Hierarchy of touch is a model developed by Sense to support independent exploration of different materials and textures. Most children begin on tier 1 which are dry textures that fall away and the child can control contact with the texture, such as dry pasta, fur fabric, feathers and beads. Once the child is independently exploring these textures, they move up to tier 2 which are still dry and mostly fall away but some bits may stick such as damp sand, glitter and silly string. Tier 3 are wet textures that stick to the hand but the child can easily break contact by lightly wiping away, such as wet sand, baked beans and water. Tier 4 is the most challenging and final stage, wet textures that stick to the hand and the child has the least control when breaking contact. This includes glue, melted chocolate, yoghurt and paint. Children are given opportunities to explore these different textures independently to build their tolerance to different textures, develop their fine motor and as a way to also express preferences, more and finished. The children have access to topic based tough trays to enable their sensory exploration and work through the hierarchy of touch.
Maths through stories are literacy stories that have a maths theme that can be explored by the Students. Using maths through stories as part of learning is a powerful pedagogical tool implemented into lessons and group work, which can boost engagement, developing vocabulary and applying skills and knowledge into context.
The Mathematical box and the curiosity programme is a fun- filled interactive way of supporting the student’s attention, language and social communication. It teaches your Student about the world, how to get on with others and how to communicate. Each session consists of four stages: Get connected, Signature Sequence, creating curiosity and playing together.
Through adult led activities and subject specific topics (Humanities, Science and Technology), students are given opportunities to explore their indoor and outdoor environments and observe change and differences. Students are supported to make sense of their physical world and their community through exploration, observation and investigation of people, places, technology and the environment.
Sensology is a workout designed to stimulate the senses, provide sensory experience and multisensory environments. Regular stimulation and awareness of their senses can help them to access thinking and learning. The benefits of using Sensology workouts are awaking the sensory systems, developing the earners awareness of their sensor system, using their working memory. Provides opportunities for learner to experience pleasure through the senses, and learn from this experience, building on skills of realisation, exploration, persistence, anticipation.
Cause and effect opportunities are created throughout the week to allow the children to make something happen and develop understanding that they have control over their environment. Children are given different objects that they can cause an effect with. This could be a switch activated toy, chimes or a ball run. The children are encouraged to use whichever body part they can to cause an effect – pressing a switch with their head, kicking the chimes with their feet, and pushing a ball with their hand. Through the use of touch, the children begin to learn that they can control what is in their environment through a controlled movement.
Children are encouraged to use switches in a variety of situations within free exploration to develop independence. Some children are using a switch to communicate with others to request, to share news, to greet and to give their opinion. Other children are using a switch linked to cause and effect activities to allow them to develop their control on their environment, making them more independent, e.g. turning the microwave on to cook their breakfast.
We baseline the children on a Switch Progression Roadmap at the beginning of their journey. Each part of the roadmap is broken down into small steps which allows us to follow a clear path to develop skills further.
These are focused on throughout the day across all lessons as well as
Children are given opportunities to make choices and to participate in their personal care routines and meal times as much as they are able to, either by rolling, bridging, reaching and grasping. This is personalised for each child, communication is brought into activities with the use of pictures, symbols,
On Body signing or verbally with a simple instruction and gesture. During lunchtime children are able to socialise with other children within their Key Stage and participate in outdoor play time. As well as taking part in topic related activity days with the whole Key Stage.
We all love stories. When combined with the benefits of simple massage strokes, stories present wonderful opportunities for creative fun and interaction. Sharing positive touch offers great scope for imaginative activity and learning for children of all ages and abilities. The benefits of positive touch are:
The Expressive Arts are process based areas of learning. Pupils will learn through the process of doing, and the more they are given the opportunity to do, the more they will learn. Teachers facilitate this creative process, but they shouldn’t lead. Teachers facilitate through guiding, offering ideas, demonstrating what will happen if and offering opportunities to experiment. Pupils encounter different instruments, tools and textures to experiment with and have lots of opportunity to practice, explore and refine ideas and skills.
The different elements of Expressive Arts are rotated throughout the year to ensure a broad and balanced curriculum. Please see the curriculum overview for Expressive Arts for more information.
Rebound Therapy is a specific methodology, assessment and programme of the use of trampolines to provide opportunities for enhanced movement patterns, therapeutic positioning, exercise and recreation for a wide range of users with additional needs. When working with students with profound or complex needs, progress is accurately measured and recorded using the Winstrada development programme. Our students have a weekly session with fully trained staffed and are progressing and building on their Rebound Profile.
Hydrotherapy sessions are run in school twice a week, once by NHS Physios and once by the class team. Hydro sessions follow a set programme by the physios designed to support the children through a range of stretches and movements. The children are given opportunities to swim on their front and back, as well as standing upright in the pool and sitting with support on the steps. All movements are carefully planned and designed to support the children’s physical development.
Hydrotherapy sessions also give opportunities for pupils to engage and interact with others through the use of Intensive Interaction, as well as supporting the regulation of their emotions. There are opportunities to work on self-help skills, such as dressing skills and personal hygiene where appropriate.
Across the school day, the children use a variety of equipment to support their physical ability and development. This provides experiences of different positions throughout their school week. The equipment is provided by the Physiotherapists and Occupational Therapist, with a protocol to follow in getting the children in and out of each piece of equipment. We have specialist chairs, Standing Frames, walkers and frames, personal care facilities and other suitable equipment to support the children’s physical development.
Younger children begin their physical journey with physio fun time that is run by NHS physios, designed to support the children’s fine and gross motor skill and body awareness. Each session includes different songs and rhymes that the children can complete different stretches and movements, such as “London’s bridge is falling down” where the children are encouraged to bridge and arch their backs up and “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” where children are encouraged to stretch their arms and touch different body parts.
Each movement and stretch is carefully thought about to ensure that each child’s needs are being met and adapted so that they can access the stretch in a way that is appropriate for them. Children’s personalised program is developed throughout the school journey, with physio’s working closely with staff to design a physio program and give opportunities for the children to experience relevant changes of positions, stretches and experiences to build on their physical ability.