Our Curriculum
We offer a broad and balanced curriculum individually tailored to the needs of the young person.
Our ambitious curriculum
Stafford Hall School’s creative, skills-based curriculum has many enrichment opportunities to encourage talents and interests benefiting all those who attend to enhance their learning. We aim to make the school’s curriculum broad and balanced, bespoke to meet the needs of individual students.
National Curriculum Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2
Following the guidelines of the National Curriculum for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, we strive to ensure each young person receives the best learning opportunities.
Accreditation is offered alongside all programmes of study including:
- Mathematics AQA: Entry Level, Functional Skills Level 1/2
- English AQA: Entry Level, Functional Skills Level 1/2
- Science AQA: Entry Level 1/2/3
- Art, Design and Technology AQA: Entry Level 1/2/3
- Personal Development and Life Skills AQA: Entry Level 1/2/3
- Sport and Fitness: opportunities to develop attributes such as resilience, confidence, commitment, drive, self-awareness, empathy, team working and problem-solving through an enrichment programme of swimming, indoor trampolining, indoor climbing and tennis
National Curriculum
Stafford Hall School have created a Nurture curriculum for those young people who are not yet ready to access the Key Stage 1 and 2 curriculum. This is based on the revised Early Years Framework 2021, incorporating the seven areas of learning and development. These are: communication and language, physical development, personal, social and emotional development, literacy, mathematics, understanding the world, expressive arts and design. Activities and experiences are planned specifically tailored to meet the needs of the individual based on these seven areas, furthermore, the early learning goals, which summarise the knowledge, skills and understanding throughout.
Four guiding principles shape practice in the school’s Nurture Curriculum*. These are every young person:
- Is a unique individual, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.
- Can learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships;.
- Can learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time. Young people benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.
- Develops and learn at different rates.
* based on the DfE Statutory Framework for Early Years Foundation Stage 2021
Reading and Writing, including Phonics
As reading is the key that unlocks the whole curriculum so the ability to efficiently decode is essential. Stafford Hall School specialises in developing reading skills using Twinkl Phonics. Twinkl Phonics is a DfE validated full systematic, synthetic phonics programme that contains everything you need to deliver phonics teaching to children from the very beginning of learning to read and write to full fluency. It delivers GPCs in a clear and rigorous way so that skills are built progressively over time, ensuring that children have a secure base from which to develop.
Life Skills
Life skills is deemed essential for preparing young people for adulthood so that they may make the best of opportunities to live a fulfilling life. The life skills curriculum at Stafford Hall School is embedded into personal development and reinforces constructive support and guidance given by support staff, parents/carers. Where necessary discrete lessons are taught for real life purposes and then put into practice, for example, building skills to become an independent learner so that young people can access the local library, community events or interests.
Based on the Preparing for Adulthood framework, the Life Skills programme at Stafford House School aims to cover three main areas: Independence, Learning to Live in the Community and Good Health. The curriculum offers young people practical, real-life experiences in everyday context. Life skills is woven within the school environment and transcends all activities, behaviours and attitudes within the school.
Links are constantly made between school and home to highlight how skills and knowledge can be transferred from one area to another. For example, learning about eating healthy at school is linked to real life experiences of preparing a healthy meal in the home incorporating budgeting for nutritional cooking and basic food hygiene. Young people are constantly encouraged to reflect and reason on areas of learning and the skills needed to complete a task. This enables a better understanding of transferable skills which can be used in other areas of their lives.
At all times at Stafford Hall School, all young people are supported to make the best choices to enable independence and learning with an increased social understanding about adulthood. This is to ensure they are all able to make the most of their life and transition into adulthood well equipped with the necessary skills, confidently, securely and happily.
