Carrington Infant School is a mainstream infant school in Flackwell Heath, with a six place Additionally Resourced Provision (ARP) for children with a diagnosis of Autism or Social Communication Difficulties (SCD). We are a fully inclusive school where all children are valued and learning is tailored to ensure every child is supported to reach their individual potential.

Our ARP is full for this academic year, for the process of how to apply for future years please speak to the iSend Support Line on 01296 382135.

INTENT

To provide the children with a curriculum that is mindful of the individual needs that they present. 

Our informal curriculum intends to make our pupils independent members of the community, where their 'voice' is heard, their needs are met and they are taught to 'be'. 

The curriculum focuses on the development of communication and interaction, cognition and learning, personal and social emotions, physical and sensory and life skills.

The curriculum is designed to build upon and generalise previously acquired skills, whilst developing further skills to promote our students’ life skills and cultural capital to prepare them for the next step in their school journey. Our curriculum follows the recommendations of The Engagement Model [July 2020] and delivers a non subject-specific curriculum which puts play, functional life skills for the 21st century and the creative curriculum at its core. 

It is noted that due to the nature of the pupil group progress will not be linear. It will be lateral. Assessment for these pupils is not teacher-driven nor assessment-driven. It is driven by the five areas of the Engagement Model:

• Initiation
• Participation
• Exploration
• Anticipation
• Realisation

Children are also assessed against the outcomes set out in their educational and health care plan (EHCP).  

Our school values of Kindness, Respect and Honesty are modelled at all times. 

IMPLEMENTATION

We have six schemes of work that underpin our teaching. 

• My Communication  
• My Sensory Play 
• My Creativity 
• My Outdoor School 
• My Physical Well-Being
• My Independence

The SCERTS ethos is heavily embedded into our approach to learning and the activities we plan for the children in our care.  

SCERTS:  

SC – social communication  

ER – emotional regulation  

TS – transactional support  

Through this approach we are able to maximise opportunities throughout the day.  This includes supporting and developing the children’s communication, helping to regulate through self or mutual regulation and providing support with transitions which enable the children to understand their day and what is expected of them through the range of transactional supports available to them. 

In addition to this, we provide them opportunities to make their own choices and develop their independence in a range of different areas including their self-help skills e.g. dressing.  Each day consists of fun, practical, sensory-related activities that promote a love of learning while increasing the children’s independence, confidence, self-esteem, social interaction and communication skills.   

The pupil’s receive weekly visits from an on-site speech and language therapist. Where required external support is provided and recommendations are built into the children’s week as appropriate.  

Our offer goes beyond the classroom. The children have weekly trips to Forest School, trips to the local library, church and access workshops alongside their mainstream peers. 

Where safeguarding is concerned, we maintain an attitude of “it could happen here”. Due to the context of ARP, the children may be at greater risk of abuse due to their learning needs, vulnerability and developmental delay. ARP staff have additional Safeguarding Training such as the Brooks Traffic Light tool. 

By creating our highly personalised and specialist curriculum and assessment systems, we are able to demonstrate the impact through individual progress.  We record and measure the progress each student has made against their own starting point, focusing on their individual priority areas of development.