A contemporary curriculum
Our curriculum is designed to engage students in learning, increase self-awareness and self-esteem and support social, academic and life skills development.
Practical Skills Therapeutic Education is an educational method with a difference, offering a rich and varied curriculum. Students engage with practical activities in the fields of arts, crafts, commerce, agriculture, nutrition, living skills and the environment.
The transformation of natural materials is an integral part of Ruskin Mill Trust’s approach and informs the curriculum. For example, in pottery the clay is transformed into a bowl. In basketmaking, the willow becomes a basket. In felting, the wool from the sheep on the farm becomes a place mat. Crucially, through engaging with a curriculum of practical activities it is not just the natural materials that are transformed into purposeful objects. For in shaping and transforming materials, students shape and transform themselves. In this way students come to recognise themselves and others, they develop self and social awareness and are empowered to achieve and make positive contributions to community, giving back in a self-directed, productive and enjoyable way. At Ruskin Mill Trust, we call this developing self-generated conscious action.
Utilising materials from the rural and agricultural landscape, students at T’yr Eithin will engage in a range of practical activities and traditional crafts including green wood work, weaving and textiles, and pottery. Students will also work on the land in horticulture, farming and woodlands.
The curriculum offer includes:
• Green Woodwork
• Weaving and Felting
• Pottery
• Horticulture
• Farming
• Kitchen
• Iron Age Forge
• Living Skills
• Therapies
• Art History
• Performing Arts
• Complementary Therapies
• Work Experience
• Social Enterprise
• Sharing in Community
All educational sessions have maths and English embedded. Qualifications can be taken alongside. Welsh can also be used.
Personal Support
Each of our students has an assigned Education, Health & Care Manager (EHCM) who meets with them regularly to help manage daily concerns and challenges, provide support for their educational journey, and review and track progress.
Range of Therapies
All our students have access to a range of therapies and support including speech and language, counselling, art, movement and physiotherapy.
