Whilst many of the pupils access the mainstream curriculum in lessons, all of the Dovecote provision also access interventions within the unit itself.

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The LifeSkills programme is run in years 7 and 8, endeavouring to promote independence in all the pupils. It encourages them to organise themselves rather that rely on parents and carers to ensure they have possessions with them, uniform clean, their surroundings tidy and that they are beginning to think for themselves in their day-to-day existence. It also assumes that they will eventually live independently to some degree & we look at finances, the world of work to support them in future planning & the nurturing of hopes & dreams.

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In KS4 we offer ASDAN to ensure that they can access qualifications as evidence of the skills they have mastered & knowledge they have gained. This is a fully recognised certification programme, often offered in colleges of Further Education, so will be useful to them throughout their future education. It allows the pupils to continue with a practical, personalised programme, that furnishes them with skills and knowledge that they can utilise throughout their lives.

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Our curriculum lead can support the students in any of the curriculum subject areas if needed, liaising closely with subject specialists to ensure any that are delivered in Dovecote are parallel to the topics being studied in mainstream at the same time. This enables integration to occur seamlessly at any time, with a consistent team of TAs to support the children wherever their learning journey takes them.

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Most subjects, accessed through mainstream lessons, are assessed through the same reporting system as the main school, with formative assessment completed through our Ozone section of lessons, where the pupils work independently. Some of our Dovecote pupils complete these in the Dovecote unit, where they can access any reasonable adjustments they may need, but still have that worked marked by their class teachers in line with general school policies.

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We have a number of pupils working below secondary level and have a finely graded system, widely used in primary settings, called BSquared to assess their progress. This allows us to evaluate in detail their prior learning and then to log their progress in small steps across the main core curriculum of English, Maths and Science in order to ascertain their accomplishments and set targets for the next half term.

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With constantly high expectation, a true belief in a positive growth mindset & never-ending perseverance, we find our children blossom & flourish.