Curriculum

The School’s curriculum is based on Ruskin Mill Trust’s Practical Skills Therapeutic Education (PSTE) approach to human development, which has been developed from the insights of Rudolf Steiner, and has been established through the Trust’s more than thirty years of work with special needs children and young people.

The children and young people begin their educational journey of PSTE through an experience of the world and then use this experience as the basis for their physical, intellectual, and spiritual development.

Children and young people are supported to learn as much as possible outside of the classroom, participating in crafts, farming, gardening, and the exploration of nature. From these experiences, individuals come to understand the larger world and their place in it, along with the connections between themselves and their community.

On their journey, children and young people are supported to develop the skills that will enable them to regulate their behaviour and emotions, focus their attention, develop relationships, and to make a meaningful contribution to their community. The result is that each individual develops a new sense of confidence, self-worth, and their own potential.

Planning and assessment

All children and young people have a carefully planned programme of study, developed through collaboration between the education, land, therapy, and care teams, along with the child and young person’s family and wider support network. Each child and young person has termly learning aims in all areas of their education, including maths, science, English, independent living, in addition to their Education, Health, and Care Plan outcomes. These aims are tailored to the needs of each individual in order to assure that they are meaningful, achievable, and ambitious. Progress is regularly assessed to ensure that each individual is moving towards the level of independence that their abilities and aspirations allow.

Class groups

The typical individual level of need means that children and young people each require individualised attention from trained educational professionals, and so class sizes are small, often consisting of groups of only four or five individuals with a teacher and appropriate levels of teaching assistants and support staff. In addition to allowing for individualised attention, classes are designed to foster healthy interactions between peers at a similar level, leading to the development of social skills and peer relationships.

Beginning with the safe and supportive space of the classroom, children and young people are encouraged to develop confidence through moving further into the outdoors, whether in the school’s garden, woodland, farm, or craft workshops.

Through supportive programmes, each individual is challenged to encounter new sensory experiences, which will give them confidence and provide the basis for their educational and therapeutic development. By engaging in activities that have real meaning and purpose, children and young people develop a sense of belonging and of their ability to contribute to their community.

Outdoor Learning

The children and young people spend as much time as possible outside of the classroom, exploring and learning in the natural world. The site and the curriculum are oriented to continually challenge our children and young people to venture further into the world and learn increasingly complex skills, while simultaneously ensuring that they have the appropriate support to remain safe and engaged in learning.

Over the course of their journey, children and young people move further from their classroom and towards the surrounding community, working with highly skilled land and outdoor skills tutors to develop their sensory, emotional, and cognitive profiles and abilities in line with their individual outcomes and aspirations.

A Seasonal Curriculum

The academic year is driven by the seasons and educational teams adjust the delivery of education in relation to the opportunities given by the changing environment. This learning is reinforced and deepened through festivals and seasonal celebrations to which the children and young people contribute and in which they participate. By linking the curriculum to the movement of the seasons, the children and young people develop a sense of time and sequence, as well as their place within a larger cycle of how our culture adapts to the changing of the seasons.

As an independent school we follow the independent school standards and teach to the following curriculum areas: