Curriculum Overview

At The Livity School, we believe that the most effective and powerful curricula are those that are flexible, allow for responsiveness, and continually change through evaluation.

 

Our curriculum is based on the ideas of Dr Penny Lacey (2011). For Lacey, a curriculum for young people with learning difficulties needs to be constructed around the ‘twin pillars’ of communication and cognition. With this in mind, our curriculum is informed by a developmental perspective, rather than a National Curriculum perspective, where the starting point is each individual pupil. 

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Lacey, Penny (2011) A Profound Challenge in SEN Magazine. Accessed at https://senmagazine.co.uk/content/education/57/designing-a-curriculum-for-pmld-a-profound-challenge/

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At The Livity we plan opportunities for more bespoke intervention programmes and cross-class learning, to bring enhanced personalisation. Through a rolling plan of themes, pupils experience varied contexts for learning, and encounter each of the foundation subjects within the UK National Curriculum. Across our school we have three curriculum pathways: 

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- Informal: for pupils with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD), working between P1 and P4, and at a developmental level between 0 and 18 months.

- Semi-Formal: for pupils with Severe Learning Difficulties (SLD), working broadly between P4 and P7.

- Formal: for pupils with Moderate Learning Difficulties (MLD), working between P8 and into National Curriculum levels. 

 

Rather than need to fit into either the Informal, Semi-Formal, or Formal stages we strive for pupils to have a ‘blended’ curriculum experience, unique to them.

Although all pupils from Year 1 upwards are placed in a class which follows one of the above three curricula, we are aware of the need to blend between them for pupils whose needs fall between the informal and semi-formal curriculum.