Our aims
Woodcroft aims to ensure that pupils become independent people who are able to develop to their full potential and live healthy, satisfying and independent lives within society. Our pupils are progressively taught how to become independent learners and effective communicators by:
Independent learners
- Helping themselves and each other
- Reducing reliance on others and developing independence
- Acquiring life skills
- Solving problems
- Acquiring knowledge about themselves, their community, their country and the world
- Thinking about the future and their place in it
Effective communicators
- Being positive towards themselves and others
- Feeling respected and safe
- Regulating their own emotions and behaviour
- Acquiring social skills and making friends
- Being tolerant and respectful of others, and mindful of those who are different from them
- Understanding and adapting to their own environment
Our curriculum
These aims are reflected in the following two curricular strands, which together have been at the heart of our work at Woodcroft School for many decades.
Academic strand
- Language and literacy
- Mathematics and problem solving
- Science and technology
- Geography, history and the world about me
- Aesthetics and creativity
- Citizenship, PHSE, relationships and PE
- Religious education
- Careers guidance
Therapeutic strand
- A total communication environment
- Sensory awareness and adaptation
- Promoting health, well-being and pastoral care
- Music therapy
- Occupational therapy and play
- Physiotherapy
- Off-site activities and work with animals
The academic curriculum is adapted for individual pupils from the Equals schemes of work, with elements from Cornerstones Maestro for those following the national curriculum more closely. Support for our therapeutic curriculum is based on the SCERTS model, incorporating social communication, emotional regulation and transactional support. Team Teach is used to help support both curriculum strands.
There is considerable overlap between the two aspects of the curriculum, so the therapeutic curriculum is interwoven with the learning objectives from the academic curriculum. Planning and assessment follow the Equals informal, semi-formal and formal schemes of work structure. The therapy and well-being team work with teachers to ensure that their individual pupil assessments are incorporated into the planning cycle.