At Miller House School we want out pupils to leave with the highest academic level that the students can achieve, but not only be confident in their academic ability but also to leave with the ability to function in the world around them in preparation for adulthood.
The curriculum is built on 2 concepts
1. Building academic and practical qualifications
2. A holistic approach to building character and social and emotional skills and self esteem to function in the world around them.
Our School is a learning environment at the heart of its wider community. We promote the care of our pupils – setting, respecting and expecting high standards in all aspects of school life. We aim to meet the needs of our pupils, preparing them for adult and working life in the 21st century. The vision for our school’s curriculum is to provide a broad and balanced education, based on the realities of modern life and delivered in a therapeutic learning environment.
All pupils at Miller House School will have access to an education that is personalised, engaging and will encompass a purposeful and ambitious curriculum. We believe the word ‘curriculum’ should be interpreted in its widest meaning. It is every planned learning experience the pupils have as a member of the school, both learnt formally within a lesson and informally outside the classroom throughout the whole school day. It is all the planned activities that we organise to promote learning, personal growth and development. Teachers, Instructors and support structure these experiences to ensure that they have the most positive effect on the attainment, progress and personal development of all pupils.
The curriculum consists of all of the activities designed or encouraged within the school’s organisational framework to promote the intellectual, personal, social, physical, therapeutic and cultural development of pupils. It includes the formal programme of lessons and the informal programme of enrichment activities. The curriculum is also designed to robustly ensure that pupils gain experience in the following areas of learning linguistic, mathematical, scientific, technological, human and social, physical, aesthetic and creative as well as providing opportunities for therapeutic and spiritual, moral, social and cultural development (SMSC) and cultural capital.
All pupils who arrive at Miller House School have experienced disruption to their learning. Many have not attended formal education with consistency or for a considerable time. Pupils often arrive as reluctant readers and writers as well as experiencing emotional barriers to learning. It is essential that pupils are engaged into an ambitious curriculum that inspires them to achieve the best they can. Teaching at Miller House School is ambitious for all. Staff are aspirational for all pupils. The curriculum encompasses all aspects of the national curriculum.
The overall aim of the curriculum is to enable all the young people at Miller House School to become.
Successful Learners, Confident Individuals and Responsible Citizens.
At Miller House School we offer a flexible, personalised, engaging skills-based curriculum providing both choice and challenge focused on developing emotional literacy, core subject knowledge and offering a wide range of accredited outcomes. There is a strong focus on the social and emotional aspects of learning and opportunities will be absorbing, rewarding, effectively differentiated and the teaching styles will be diverse. The curriculum is delivered by qualified, skilled, empathetic and experienced staff operating in a warm, safe, nurturing and state-of-the-art learning environment.
The Curriculum will:
o Annually, build upon pupils’ prior knowledge and help them to store knowledge in their long term- memory so they make progress by knowing more and remembering more.
o Ensure that the right components are embedded in long-term memory to ensure pupils can perform more complex tasks.
o Provide pupils with opportunities to ‘overlearn’ key concepts through repeated recall to secure learning.
o Contribute to the achievement of overall subject goals.
o Ensure that all pupils can achieve the best possible outcomes.