Curriculum

Intent

Our curriculum is rooted in the belief that every child, regardless of their background or need, deserves a rich, ambitious, and inclusive education. We intentionally embed trauma-informed principles—Protect, Relate, Regulate, Reflect—across all areas to nurture the holistic development of our pupils, particularly those with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs.

We aim to:

• PROTECT: Provide psychological safety by ensuring consistency, predictability, and a nurturing school climate.
• RELATE: Prioritise connection and relational safety through strong, attuned adult-pupil relationships.
• REGULATE: Teach and model emotional literacy and co-regulation to support behaviour as communication.
• REFLECT: Encourage children and staff to develop insight into experiences and progress through structured opportunities to reflect.

The curriculum:

• Places reading and oracy at the centre to empower expression, vocabulary growth and access to knowledge.
• Is ambitious, ensuring all pupils, including those with SEMH and SEND, achieve strong academic and personal development, therapeutic outcomes.
• Offers sequenced learning designed around clear, meaningful endpoints.
• Builds cultural capital through enrichment and experiential learning, including bespoke interventions for SEMH pupils.
• Teaches protected characteristics, British values, and concepts of consent, responsibility, and respect in developmentally appropriate ways.

Implementation

Curriculum delivery:

• Is broad and balanced, taught through adaptive teaching methods responsive to SEMH and neurodivergent profiles.
• Uses a relational approach to behaviour, integrating nurture, restorative practices, and emotion coaching.
• Embeds co-regulation tools (e.g. calm corners, breathing strategies, sensory tools) throughout classrooms.
• Ensures SEMH pupils receive a personalised, high-support curriculum that scaffolds them back into mainstream where appropriate.
• Includes trauma-informed approaches based on PACE (Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity, Empathy) and Key Relational Skills.
• Maintains a strong staff CPD programme in trauma-informed practices, SEND, attachment, and regulation.
• Uses a dialogic, emotionally literate teaching style that values voice, builds empathy, and resilience through social buffering.
• Involves families through compassionate communication, co-regulation strategies, and support networks.

The curriculum is divided into academic core and therapeutic. The core is as follows:

• Maths
• English
• Creativity (Art, Design & Technology, Cooking, Music, Movement)
• Physical
• PSHE, including basic neuroscience

Each day children will have the opportunity to move regularly, carry out some academic work, physical activity and be creative using their hands.

Each of these curriculum areas will be taught through thematic approaches to build skills and attitudes toward learning. Units of knowledge will be the by-product rather than the aim. The Landscapes of the Mind model will be used to plan and implement a targeted curriculum aimed at opening doors which are currently closed. This will form the basis of a Curriculum Pledge for each pupil giving them the experiences needed to open each door.

The therapeutic curriculum will be intervention based, targeting individual needs. Pupils will receive 1:1 and small group interventions with trained practitioners to enable them to feel safe (PROTECT), build and sustain trusted relationships (RELATE) so that they can be soothed and co-regulated (REGULATE) and eventually begin to mentalise and resolve internal conflicts and wonky narratives (REFLECT).

The day will be divided into units of time which can be adapted, blending academic learning for some, whilst others are working on targeted therapeutic interventions. This will vary for every individual, through a mixture of individual and group sessions.

Our timetable will form a consistent structure for the children, whilst allowing an element of flexibility. When each individual joins us, we will work with parents/carers and other colleagues to produce a timetable based on each individual’s need, which may build up gradually over time.

An example of what a timetable might look like for an individual child - each session will generally last for approximately 30 minutes:

The structure of the day provides containment, certainty and predictability. Strong routines will be established that provide a rhythm to each lesson so that there is a calming phase at the start, bringing the energy level up in the middle, and a calming and soothing activity at the end to aid transitions.

Impact

Pupils will:

• Feel safe, valued, and known as individuals.
• Develop emotional literacy, self-regulation, and social buffering.
• Engage in learning because they are regulated, connected, and supported to feel successful.
• Show sustained progress in key skills, especially reading, speaking and listening.
• Become reflective learners who can talk about their thinking and feelings constructively. This will be scaffolded by the Arts where appropriate.
• Be well-prepared for their next phase of education, socially and academically.

Staff will:

• Create emotionally safe spaces where behaviour is seen through a relational and developmental lens.
• Model regulation, relational repair and attuned, empathic responses.
• Collaborate closely across mainstream and SEMH settings to share insights, support transitions, and maintain consistency.
• Be supported emotionally and professionally, recognising the impact of vicarious trauma and emotional labour.
• Use trauma-informed strategies for assessment, differentiation, and feedback.
• Contribute to a culture of compassion, high expectation and therapeutic accountability.