Our Curriculum

At Thomas Wolsey Ormiston Academy, we strive to provide a broad, balanced and flexible curriculum which promotes academic, personal, social, emotional and physical development.

We work hard to ensure that there is continuity and progression within our curriculum and plenty of opportunity for the development of independence skills. 

We strive to ensure that each young adult leaves school with:

• Increased awareness, knowledge and experience of the wider world
• An established means of communication
• The social interaction skills to navigate and participate in a wide range of situation
• Maximum functional movement for both comfort and independence
• Resilience to cope with unfamiliar situations and change
• The confidence to know their own minds and know they have worth
• A sense of control and influence over their lives which enables them to work towards increased levels of self-advocacy and plan for their future and life beyond school
• A sense of their value as citizens within their local community
• A desire to continue to be curious and carry on learning

And as far as is possible:

• The practical skills and knowledge to carry out a wide range of daily living tasks​
• The ability to read and understand shared meanings

Our curriculum is tailored to the needs, interests and abilities of each and every learner and developed in consultation with parents and carers, therapists and class teams. We are continually building on previous experience, knowledge, understanding and skills. We do this by knowing where our learners are and where they need and want to go next. Through our observations and tools such as Earwig, we monitor and evaluate next steps of progress.

We strive to provide a learning environment that is rich, stimulating and rewarding and encourages and enables pupils to flourish and develop.

Our curriculum design therefore is a dynamic and continuous process which aims to provide each child with an individualized programme of study which is relevant, accessible, challenging, age-appropriate, stimulating and fun.

Reviewing our Curriculum

Our curriculum is constantly evolving. Whilst the guiding principles remain the same as outlined on these pages, we are continually refining it to reflect the needs, interests & developmental stages of our current cohort of children, new understandings about teaching & learning & the wider educational landscape.

Key Changes

Whilst all our children have unique learning profiles, it is helpful to group learners with similar learning profiles when thinking about the curriculum content & how it is delivered. Our ‘Early’ learners now make up the majority of our cohort. We now identify a fourth profile of learner, Entry learners, who are at the very earliest stages of a more ‘subject-specific’ curriculum. These learners typically show real of intentionality in their learning but still require sensory-based, experiential approaches to learning.

Pupils now follow two skills-based programmes – the TWOA Phonics Scheme and the TWO Numeracy Scheme which create the space to focus on building phonogical awareness, (& blending & segmenting for reading & spelling) and number sense (& application) in sequential & meaningful ways at all ages and stages.

The academy is currently undergoing an ambitious PD (physical development) restructure. The aim is to build a universal skills-based progression programme, (similar in concept to the schemes above) that encompasses the breath of learning skills and approaches needed for a cohort that is hugely diverse in terms of age, cognitive development & physical ability.