Curriculum, Assessment and Outcomes

A curriculum is the basis for any school to provide a meaningful and effective education to the pupils who attend.

At Briarwood we believe this should be a broad and balanced approach which identifies and meets the needs of our pupils.

The curriculum, alongside specialist teaching approaches, provides consistency throughout the school, whilst recognising developmental and age related aspects to learning.

Intent

At Briarwood School our curriculum aims to ensure that the journey our pupils take through their education is informed. Through ensuring their access to the appropriate curriculum model - Acorn (Pre-Formal), Woodland (Semi-Formal), Forest (Formal), we aim to secure outstanding outcomes to develop their academic achievement, independence, engagement and social development as they transition through school and move towards adulthood. Our skills-based curriculum promotes preparation for adult life through ensuring learners have access to age and developmentally appropriate education that encourages all students to:

Enjoy - learning that develops curiosity, creativity, expression and confidence.

Engage - in the opportunities that our curriculum provides; whether this is academic, social, and emotional or a bespoke provision.

Learn – Our curriculum aims to enable pupils to develop knowledge, understand concepts and acquire skills, and be able to choose and apply these in relevant situations.

This includes;

• Being equipped with skills that support them to be numerate and literate

• Communicating effectively within their own means

• Building independence, resilience and self-help skills

• Equipping pupils with the knowledge and cultural capital they need to be active members of their communities, including their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

• Leading as much of an active life as possible through developing independence skills to look after their body including the development of mobility skills

• Learning strategies for social and emotional development to promote them to access successful relationships

• Having positive interactions with the community and gain a sense of belonging Our curriculum provides a broad and balanced education for all pupils that is coherently planned and sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge for skills and future learning.

Curriculum Design

The Briarwood curriculum has been designed as a multi stranded approach in order to provide pupils with the most appropriate approach and content. In order to provide pupils at Briarwood with experiences that are relevant, interesting and challenging, and to identify opportunities for progression, we have adopted a curriculum structure which encompasses 3 broad levels:

Acorn, (previously known as pre-formal), Woodland, (previously known as semiformal) and Forest (previously known as formal).

These terms, originally developed by Whitefield SAC (2009), offer a means of making subtle distinctions between not only groups of learners but also the degree of curriculum formalisation they will experience in either building the prerequisites for, or working within, a more ‘conventional’ National Curriculum type approach.

 

You can find the Curriculum Policy in our Policy Library. 

You can find out more about each of our curriculums by following the links at the bottom of this page. 

Performance Tables

At Briarwood School, students do not undertake national curriculum assessments as their educational needs require a highly personalised and flexible curriculum.

Instead of following the standardised national curriculum, which includes assessments like SATs or GCSEs, Briarwood offers a bespoke curriculum tailored to each student’s abilities, focusing on developing life skills, independence, and functional learning. As a result, traditional performance data, which relies on standardised testing, is not collected.

This individualised approach ensures that students are assessed based on their personal progress and achievements rather than through comparisons to national academic standards, which may not be suitable for their unique learning journeys. Consequently, Briarwood, like many other special schools, is not included in the national school performance tables, as the standardised metrics used for mainstream schools do not reflect the outcomes of their bespoke educational programs.

You can still find lots of information and data about Briarwood at the School Performance link below.