Welcome to the Learning for Life curriciulum webpage
 

At Longcause School, we recognise that some children will find the development of specific social skills and life skills a challenge. As a result of this, Longcause School has created it's own unique PSHE curriculum which we name our 'Learning for Life Curriculum' (LLfL) 

Our aims:

• They will learn how to be safe in a range of different contexts and how to manage a range of situations that could arise. 
• They will learn about the importance of physical health, including their mental health. 
• We wish to provide pupils with a range of facts about their own mental health and to provide them with different strategies and techniques in order to more fully support their mental health needs.  
• They will learn about the different forms of relationships that they may experience, the benefits that this can have on their emotional well being and how to manage relationships.
• They will develop the skills that they need to manage different social situations and to have the skills needed to be able to form relationships and develop connections.
• They will develop social communication skills in order to manage their day to day lives and encounters with others.

Through our discussions with families and a whole school collaboration with staff, we were able to identify the key skills that we felt were the most important aspects for our pupils’ lives. Our curriculum is aligned with our schools vision of Learning for Life, and therefore the curriculum encompasses the National policy for PSHE, RSE and Health Education, yet is much broader in the skills that the pupils have the opportunity to develop. 

The LLfL Curriculum focuses on the following areas- Social Communication, Relationships and Health, Relationships and Sex, Looking after a Home, Personal Health and Safety, Safety inside the Home, Safety outside the Home. 

Starting in KS1, pupils have one session a week dedicated to life skills and one session dedicated to social communication. In particular, social communication is part of our whole school ethos and therefore many classes will use a total communication approach and it is therefore interwoven through the entire curriculum in a consistent approach, particularly within the younger classes or those with the most complex needs. In Key Stage 4 pupils follow an ASDAN accredited route, determined by the needs of each group.

Online safety is to be taught through computing, which is discretely taught termly across the school, though will link into other strands of the curriculum. Due to the needs of our pupils, there is more time dedicated to the teaching of Health Education and Relationship Education. ‘Staying Safe’, which relates to safety within both primary and secondary relationships, will be taught termly to ensure that these skills are as embedded as possible due to the vulnerability of our pupils. This will be taught through ‘Staying Safe’ mornings relating directly to the content of the Relationships and Health Education strand of our curriculum. 

Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education. 

The Department for Education has developed a new framework for schools to implement which has been statutory from September 2020. This framework is to support us in teaching children and young people to be safe and healthy, and how to manage their academic, personal and social lives in a positive way. We will be delivering the new framework within our current LLfL curriculum and have adapted our curriculum to meet these guidelines and ensure full coverage of the statutory framework. 

In addition, we have created a 'Mental Wellbeing' strand of the LLfL curriculum, taught throughout the curriculum and as a yearly scheme of work, in order to support children in developing the skills and knowledge they need in relation to mental health. We will be using our knowledge of our pupils in order to ensure that all content delivered is age and developmentally appropriate.

Thank you to all of the families who responded to the consultation for the new RSE curriculum. We had a fantastic response to the questionnaires and were pleased to welcome families in to school to discuss this further.

If you would like any additional information please contact Faye James by emailing fjames@longcause.plymouth.sch.uk.

Staying Safe mornings

The Department for Education has developed a new framework, ‘Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE), and Health Education’ for schools to implement.

At Longcause a key priority for our pupils is that they are able to identify how to keep their bodies safe from others. Therefore we will be delivering six ‘Staying Safe’ mornings throughout the academic year, once per term.  Each morning pupils will be learning about the following 4 skills:

1) That their body is private

2) That their body is theirs and should not be touched without consent

3) Key rules about secrecy

4) How to get help

Additionally, pupils in Key Stage 4 will also begin to learn about safe and unsafe behaviour in relationships, including in sexual relationships. The content of the ‘Staying Safe’ mornings comes directly from the new statutory guidance from the DfE, which has informed our LLfL curriculum. Learning provided will be appropriate to the age and needs of the pupils, and will be taught by their class team. 

KS4 Accreditation

Pupils in KS4 follow the ASDAN PSD accreditation. More information about this can be found on the KS4 page.