Curriculum

Curriculum Aim:

Roundwood School and Community Centre recognises the importance of a broad and balanced curriculum always working towards the student’s individual goals and school targets. We have developed our curriculum to meet the individual needs of our students.
We use the word “curriculum” to describe all the learning opportunities that are experienced by our students.

Our curriculum aims to:

Support students to develop self-belief to become happy and confident individuals with positive attitudes towards learning.
Enable our students to become independent and cooperative learners who feel safe and included.
Develop students’ social skills to allow them to communicate their feelings, needs and wishes.
Support our students to make positive choices, manage their own behaviour and enjoy life.
Prepare our students for a meaningful and purposeful transition to life as an adult.

Our Pathways

Roundwood School and Community Centre has developed a curriculum with four clear pathways to support the needs of the students who are referred to us by the local authority and by local schools in Brent. These are as follows -

Zephaniah Pathway -

This Pathway is intended for Key Stage 3 children.
All will follow a core curriculum of English, Maths and Science.
Additionally, we test children’s Reading and will offer catch-up and Reading
Interventions as needed. Strategies we use include Read Write Inc (Phonics); Toe by Toe and guided reading via Giglets and our well-stocked Library.
All will follow PE, IT and Art.
There is access to therapeutic support in PE from QPR, Music and Speech and
Language Therapy where needed.

Parks Pathway -

This Pathway is intended for Key Stage 4 children, who will be with us on a long-term basis up until their Year 11 exams. These students are usually single registered with us.
All will follow a core curriculum of English Language GCSE, Maths GCSE and
Biology GCSE. (Some may take Functional Skills in English and Maths as a ‘safety net’ measure’ to ensure they get a qualification in those subjects.)
Additionally, we test children’s Reading and will offer catch-up and Reading
Interventions as needed. Strategies we use include Read Write Inc (Fresh Start);
Toe by Toe and guided reading via Giglets and our well-stocked Library.
All will follow PE (Leadership Skills Certificate), IT (ASDAN Short Course) and Art
(OCR Entry Level)
We always offer Home Language GCSEs where these are available. In past years, students have completed GCSEs in Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Persian & Turkish.
There is access to therapeutic support in PE from QPR, Music and Speech and
Language Therapy where needed.

Marley Pathway -

This Pathway is intended for Key Stage 4 children, who will be with us on a short-term basis, possibly up until their Year 11 exams. These students are usually dual registered with us.
All will follow a core curriculum of English Language GCSE, Maths GCSE and
Biology GCSE.
Additionally, we test children’s Reading and will offer catch-up and Reading
Interventions as needed. Strategies we use include Read Write Inc (Fresh Start);
Toe by Toe and guided reading via Giglets and our well-stocked Library.
All will follow PE (Leadership Skills Certificate), IT (ASDAN Short Course) and Art
(OCR Entry Level).
We always offer Home Language GCSEs where these are available. In past years, students have completed GCSEs in Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Persian & Turkish.
As these children are dual registered, we can remove any of the above and offer
Teaching Assistant support to help children complete work from their home school.
For example, we have had children not follow our Sports Leadership course and use this time to complete work for their Childcare course, which is then marked by the home school. We are always open to discussion on this Pathway.
There is access to therapeutic support in PE from QPR, Music and Speech and
Language Therapy where needed.

Mandela Pathway -

This Pathway is intended for EAL (English as an additional Language) Key Stage 4 children, who will be with us on a short-term basis, possibly up until their Year 11 exams. These students are usually single registered with us.
All will follow a core curriculum of English Language GCSE, Maths GCSE and General Science lessons. (Some may take Functional Skills in English and Maths as a ‘safety net’ measure’ to ensure they get a qualification in those subjects.)
Additionally, we test children’s Reading and will offer catch-up and Reading Interventions as needed. Strategies we use include Read Write Inc (Fresh Start); Toe by Toe and guided reading via Giglets and our well-stocked Library.
We will offer PE (Leadership Skills Certificate), IT (ASDAN Short Course) and Art (OCR Entry Level) to those who feel they can succeed in any one or more of these courses. Not all options are compulsory for students in this group.
We always offer Home Language GCSEs where these are available. In past years, students have completed GCSE Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Persian & Turkish.
As these children are single registered, we can remove any of the above and offer
Teaching Assistant support to help children develop their English before they go to college or find a school in the mainstream sector.
All will have extensive support in RSHE and Careers.
There is access to therapeutic support in PE from QPR, Music and Speech and Language Therapy where needed.

Our curriculum is based on the following principles:

Nurture: compassion, respect and dignity are at the core of our practise and ensure children develop trusting relationships so that they feel safe and ready to learn.
Differentiation: learning activities are designed to match everyone’s needs, celebrate their strengths and support their areas of development.
Social skills: The curriculum focusses on developing the key skills of communication, cognition, independence and self-care, all transferable skills that equip children and young people for life beyond school. These are both embedded within our everyday learning activities and taught explicitly to all children through RSHE and Enrichment Activities.
Enjoyment: children can relate to their learning and activities and are taught in a way which engages them and fosters a love for learning.
Structure: all learning experiences are structured in a way to enable our students to reduce their levels of anxiety, to support their understanding and to help them achieve their potential.

Please click on the symbols below to learn more about our curriculum: