• My child is now engaging more with others, learning and making so much progress. At times he may regress but I know they are there for him, ready to meet his needs and treat him with the care and respect he never received in secondary mainstream education. A massive thank you to all. (Parent from Hutton Grove) 2023

  • ‘The school has a great record of personalising their education to best suit the needs of the individual.’ (Staff 2023)

  • ‘I am able to be myself and have been given a chance to grow as a teacher as well as things I feel passionate about. It also is a flexible job which gives me enough time outside of school to be able to live a well-balanced life.’ (Staff 2023)

  • ‘I’m happy to be part of a team that looks to improve the lives of our students and provide them with the best opportunities for the future.’ (Staff 2023)

  • ‘ I am proud to work with some of the best colleagues and I believe our students have developed well since attending Southover.’ (Staff 2023)

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Curriculum

About

Students’ achievements when they arrive at The Southover Partnership are often below age-related expectations.  This underachievement is recognised and planned for through a personalised curriculum that will match their age and stage of achievement.  Regardless of this, we have very high expectations of pupil progress and attain this by creating a team of specialist staff to support each child. Our class sizes are small, and group work do not usually exceed 4 students per group. Within our Outreach Services the staffing ratio is predominately 2 staff to 1 student. 

 

The school is committed to providing a broad and balanced curriculum, based on the National Curriculum, September 2014, for those pupils of compulsory school age. This is blended with vocational and work-related learning, independent living, project-based learning and social and communication skills. In addition to the academic and vocational curriculum, the students’ individualised timetables provide opportunities for pupils to withdraw from some lessons to participate in specific interventions, including 1:1 therapy sessions, social skills group and PSHE+ intervention. Some subjects are taught discretely while others are covered via a creative curriculum approach. 

 

In addition to being subject specialists, all of our staff have a thorough knowledge of child development, attachment theory, emotion coaching and zones of regulation, which underpins our approach to learning and provision at The Southover Partnership School.  

Our curriculum’s aims

With our highly flexible curriculum, we will enable our students to become:  

 

  • successful young people, who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve 
  • fascinated by the world around them 
  • imaginative, creative and reflective in their learning 
  • confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives 
  • socially responsible people who can interact with people of varying backgrounds and cultures 
  • responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society, upholding the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law and individual liberty 
  • positive contributors to our local community through school based and local activities 
  • tolerant and respectful of those who have different faiths and beliefs and gender orientation 

My Curriculum

When young people arrive with us, they will undergo a period of induction and assessment with a phased entry and/or provision at home as necessary.  The purpose of this programme is to tailor provision to match the child’s need.  

‘My Curriculum’ is the school’s unique approach to giving each child an individually tailored programme of study. Teaching starts from a pupil’s interests and National Curriculum subjects are built around these. ‘My Curriculum’ continually develops knowledge and skills, and includes a range of work experience opportunities for all our older secondary students and ensure that there is a continuous focus on the development of communication and interaction skills. In line with the Independent School Standards, we offer we give students experience in linguistic, mathematical, scientific, technological, human and social, physical and aesthetic and creative education.  

The key areas include:   

  • My Core skills – English, Maths and Science 
  • My Choices – Humanities, ICT, Religious Studies, Business Studies and ICT 
  • My Creative Self – DT, Cooking, Music, Art, Drama, Digital Media, Photography, Animation, Farm studies and Stables 
  • My Body – Travel training and P.E.  
  • My Healthy Self – PSHE (Inc. RSE) 
  • My Future Self – Work experience and Split placements 

KS3 Curriculum: 

There are 4 hourly lessons a day at The Southover Partnership, and 20 lessons in a week. Students in KS3 have English (3), Maths (3), Science (2) and PSHE (1) as their compulsory subjects. Although not compulsory, students often take part in P.E. lessons (2) and Farm studies (4). Therefore, students generally have approximately 5 lessons of their own choice from ‘My Curriculum’. As an organisation, we use students’ interests to engage them while keeping a broad and balanced curriculum. Although KS3 students don’t generally take part in external exams, there are exceptional cases where KS3 students were entered to and awarded external accreditation. Figure 1 illustrates a sample timetable for a KS3 student:  

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
9.30-9.40 – Breakfast 9.30-9.40 – Breakfast 9.30-9.40 – Breakfast 9.30-9.40 – Breakfast 9.30-9.40 – Breakfast
Period 1 9.40-10.40 PSHE Period 1 9.40-10.40 Maths Period 1 9.40-10.40 FARM Period 1 9.40-10.40 PE Period 1 9.40-10.40 English
10:40 – 10:50 – Break 10:40 – 10:50 – Break 10:40 – 10:50 – Break 10:40 – 10:50 – Break 10:40 – 10:50 – Break
Period 2 10.50-11.50 Science Period 2 10.50-11.50 ICT Period 2 10.50-11.50 FARM Period 2 10.50-11.50 PE Period 2 10.50-11.50 Maths
11:50 – 12:20 – Lunch 11:50 – 12:20 – Lunch 11:50 – 12:20 – Lunch 11:50 – 12:20 – Lunch 11:50 – 12:20 – Lunch
Period 3 12.20-1.20 Maths Period 3 12.20-1.20 English Period 3 12.20-1.20 FARM Period 3 12.20-1.20 English Period 3 12.20-1.20 Art
1:20 – 1:30 – Break 1:20 – 1:30 – Break 1:20 – 1:30 – Break 1:20 – 1:30 – Break 1:20 – 1:30 – Break
Period 4 1.30-2.30 Cooking Period 4 1.30-2.30 DT Period 4 1.30-2.30 FARM Period 4 1.30-2.30 Humanities Period 4 1.30-2.30 Science
2:30 – Home 2:30 – Home 2:30 – Home 2:30 – Home 2:30 – Home

KS4/5 Curriculum: 

After learning the foundation from both compulsory subjects and optional subjects, students in KS4 begin to work towards their qualifications. Since we offer a broad subject coverage, students in KS4 are able to work towards external qualifications, regardless of their academic ability. These include Entry Level Certificates, Level 1&2 (BTEC and NCFE), GCSEs, A-levels and other vocational qualifications. For our KS5 students, we offer more flexibility as they may attend split placement at a college or work experience (my future self), in addition to other aspects from ‘My Curriculum’. Table 2 shows a sample timetable for a KS5 student:  

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
9.30-9.40 – Breakfast 9.30-9.40 – Breakfast 9.30-9.40 – Breakfast 9.30-9.40 – Breakfast 9.30-9.40 – Breakfast
Period 1 9.40-10.40 Period 1 9.40-10.40 Period 1 9.40-10.40 Period 1 9.40-10.40 Period 1 9.40-10.40
PSHE GCSE Maths (Foundation) College PE GCSE Maths (Foundation)
10:40 – 10:50 – Break 10:40 – 10:50 – Break 10:40 – 10:50 – Break 10:40 – 10:50 – Break 10:40 – 10:50 – Break
Period 2 10.50-11.50 Period 2 10.50-11.50 Period 2 10.50-11.50 Period 2 10.50-11.50 Period 2 10.50-11.50
GCSE Maths (Foundation) BTEC Business Introductory L1 College PE GCSE English Literature
11:50 – 12:20 – Lunch 11:50 – 12:20 – Lunch 11:50 – 12:20 – Lunch 11:50 – 12:20 – Lunch 11:50 – 12:20 – Lunch
Period 3 12.20-1.20 Period 3 12.20-1.20 Period 3 12.20-1.20 Period 3 12.20-1.20 Period 3 12.20-1.20
GCSE English Language GCSE English Literature College GCSE Triple Science Arts Award
1:20 – 1:30 – Break 1:20 – 1:30 – Break 1:20 – 1:30 – Break 1:20 – 1:30 – Break 1:20 – 1:30 – Break
Period 4 1.30-2.30 Period 4 1.30-2.30 Period 4 1.30-2.30 Period 4 1.30-2.30 Period 4 1.30-2.30
BTEC Home Cooking L2 BTEC Home Cooking L2 College Entry Level 3 Humanities GCSE Triple Science
2:30 – Home 2:30 – Home 2:30 – Home 2:30 – Home 2:30 – Home

Outreach Curriculum

Our curriculum offer is bespoke to the commissioning body and the learner for which we teach. The plans and targets are set up specifically around the EHCP and with a core focus on PSHE, Sensory Processing, Communication, Literacy and Numeracy. All students receive a timetabled plan of learning relating to their age-appropriate cognitive level of learning.  

Therefore Outreach students are able to achieve accreditations at varied levels from Pre-Entry to GCSE.