Welcome to Fistral!

 

Our Class:

Fistral is a KS3 and Year 6 class at Curnow Upper School and is home to a range of learners including those with sensory, social, communication and complex needs. We pride ourselves on our whole team approach, working closely with parents and professionals to develop support plans such as Sensory Passports, AET targets, OT programs and EHCP targets to ensure our health and well-being is balanced so we can learn throughout the day.

Our Curriculum:

Individual Pupil Pathways are identified at the start of Year 2 to ensure that the curriculum and learning is meaningful, provides challenge and relevance and that the learning environment meets the needs of the pupils. 

All pupils on the A2L Pathway will have an individualised timetable with high aspirations and access to the full curriculum. We ensure that all pupils, when they are able to learn, have the opportunities and support to access the curriculum with a focus on the core subjects. We also recognise that at times pupils will need a higher level of support to regulate and be able to learn. Through this pathway we ensure that the balance between an academic and therapy-based curriculum is weighted to meet the pupils' needs and at times this might need to be reactive.

All pupils on the A2L pathway will have an individual ‘suite’ of support to ensure their emotional, communication, social and sensory needs are fully supported and that these strategies, resources and systems provide the therapeutic curriculum to allow them to learn and progress over time.

The implementation of the curriculum will provide pupils with the ability to work alongside other pupils in small group sessions, have 1:1 sessions to maximise learning and have link sessions where appropriate into R2L class groups and activities.

We are ensuring pupils on the A2L pathway are able to cope in different social settings, are able to communicate and have a voice, to meet their sensory needs in more socially acceptable ways and learn key skills within the curriculum to support their adult lives.

Our Reading, Communication and Phonics:

Fistral class has 5 students with social communication, sensory and ASD based needs.  They all use AAC in a variety of manners and it is important that we celebrate and support that.  Hence, we use a holistic approach to communication in class. We use sound buttons, visual timetables, symbols, photos, adapted communication boards, Makaton, Speech and are starting to adapt the Gestalt language processing method for some of our students, with support from SALT.

Communication is part of our Therapeutic learning curriculum. These strategies are interwoven within each day and staff model effective communication strategies to students at all times. 

We work on our reading skills in a range of ways in Fistral class. We are all sensory readers. We enjoy letter of the day and are working on the new Phonics scheme :  Phonics for Pupils With Special Educational Needs. We enjoy exploring letter sounds, playing with words, having experience of blending and segmenting. 

Learning Environment:

We are very lucky here at Curnow to have a variety of learning environments that provide quality spaces for children to undertake learning activities. Fistral Class is next to our SI therapy, sensory pod and active learning area that lead directly onto our own outdoor learning space. The outdoor leisure area is fitted with customised giraffe swing and trampoline, along with a selection of musical instruments and a sensory room.  We use the outdoor learning areas as much as possible as we recognise the positive effects that being outside can have on the children’s wellbeing and engagement. We also have access to the hall, school library, therapy room, and hydro pool to further support our learning and development.