Semi Formal

This pathway is designed for children and young people who are working within the pre-key stage standards or key stage one of the national curriculum and are ready to apply their skills in a more functional way. Children and young people follow a subject specific curriculum enriched with a range of experiences including community engagement and contextualised learning. Learning in this pathway is a mix of sensory based learning and a more formal structure to meet the needs of the individual child.

Who is the Pathway for?

This pathway is typically for pupils with Severe Learning Difficulties (SLD) or those with complex needs who are working beyond the Engagement Model but for whom the standard National Curriculum requires significant adaptation.

These learners often have a spiky profile, excelling in some areas while needing intense support in others, and require a curriculum that is paced to allow for deep consolidation and repetition.

An Integrated Approach

Learning on the Semi-Formal Pathway is active, repetitive, and highly scaffolded. We move from the concrete to the semi-abstract, always grounding new concepts in real life, relatable experiences.

Within this pathway we promote:

Thematic Learning

We use engaging, half-term themes to help the children and young people to make connections between their ideas and see the relevance of what they are learning.
Total Communication

We use a wide range of communication methods to ensure all pupils are heard and understood promoting strong pupil voice. We use a range of communication strategies including gestures, body language, objects of references, signs, symbols and aided language displays to support and develop language. We develop key vocabulary in context, communicate with our peers and follow more complex instructions.
Physical Wellbeing

Pupils have access to a range of weekly physical development activities including PE, swimming, trampolining, forest school, community engagement and the adventure playground. Physio and occupational therapy advice is integrated into children and young people’s learning programmes as appropriate for identified needs.
Regulation

We use a range of sensory environments both inside and outdoor alongside personalised strategies and programmes to ensure that our pupils are in their ‘just rightness’ for learning. Children and young people are encouraged to identify their feelings and take steps to manage them appropriately.
Social Awareness

Children and young people are supported to develop the ability to be in proximity to others, share space, and play alongside their peers.
Scaffolded Independence

We use fading techniques, where adult support is gradually withdrawn as a pupil becomes more confident in a task, building true self-reliance.

Curriculum Focus Areas

The Semi-Formal curriculum encompasses a range of exploratory and investigative approaches alongside more formal learning experiences.

English: Children and young people read a wide range of texts to support their oracy, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing development. Writing is purposeful and covers a range of genres which leads to a planned event.
Maths: We use the mastery approach to teaching maths, ensuring all pupils have access to appropriate representations, structures, and variations to support making mathematical connections in their learning.
Science: This is continued through our Post-16 curriculum offer and gives children and young people an opportunity to develop their understanding of the world around them whilst setting up simple tests and performing experiments.
History & Geography: Children and young people begin to understand simple chronology and events in the past and present. They compare geographical features within their experiences.
Art and Design: Children and young people learn about and explore materials and their properties through a range of media including sculpture, painting, drawing, collage, printing, and textiles. Art is continued through our Post-16 curriculum as a leisure activity and in Year 14 as a unit for OCR accreditation.
Music: Children and young people develop their understanding of beat, pulse, tempo, dynamics, and pitch. They experience a wide range of music from different genres and cultures around the world.
Computing: Children and young people develop their understanding of e-safety and digital literacy. They develop their skills in communication through multimedia and data as well as programming and algorithms.
PSHD and RSE: Children and young people develop their awareness of personal, social, and health skills, developing their understanding further in Key Stages 4 and 5 where relationships and sex education become the focus.
Religious Education: Immersion in a range of experiences and artefacts supports children and young people’s understanding of similarities and differences in the world and the importance of caring for others.
Food Technology: By exploring a range of foods and learning simple skills, children and young people learn skills for life and develop an understanding of their likes and dislikes.
PE: Children and young people enjoy a wide range of PE experiences, and through experiencing a range of sports, they develop their gross motor skills. PE experiences may be on our extensive site in the sports hall, MUGA, adventure playground, hall, or playground, or may be offsite—for example, visiting The Dell Stadium, swimming, the park, or the country parks in the local area.
Forest School, Horticulture, and Outdoor Learning: Our sensory pathway offers pupils a wide range of outdoor learning opportunities, including regular forest school sessions, horticulture sessions in our on-site allotment, and opportunities for orienteering around the school site.

Assessment

On the Semi-Formal Pathway, we track progress using a range of developmental frameworks that recognise small, incremental steps of success. Skills are contextualised using a range of different experiences and environments.

Semi Formal

An Integrated Approach

Curriculum Focus Areas

Assessment

Get in Touch