Roehampton Hospital School’s curriculum mirrors the National Curriculum across all key stages with a focus on four core areas: English, Maths, Science and Personal Development. At Roehampton Hospital School, we have qualified and highly experienced teachers who provide these subject areas that will support our young people across all levels of ability, including pre-entry levels, GCSE, A Levels and the International Baccalaureate. Literacy and numeracy skills are developed through subject teaching, marking and assessment and through our Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) programme.
All our students can complete their national exams with us as we are a registered exam centre. This includes GCSEs, A Levels, BTECs, Functional Skills etc.
Our bespoke personal development programme incorporates Careers (CIAG); SMSC and RSE and ensures that our young people are prepared for all aspects of life. The aims of our personal development curriculum is to provide a comprehensive programme to young people on the wider world, to encourage understanding and tolerance for all, to avoid prejudice, stereotyping and radicalisation, and instil an ethos for young people to feel empowered to engage in society in a proactive and positive way.
Our curriculum includes personal, health, social and cultural education (PHSCE). Areas also incorporated are relationships and sex education (RSE), an awareness of British values and spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) values to deliver all aspects of learning. We also work with external organisations to provide timely, local and current issues for young people.
All of our young people have their academic and emotional progress closely monitored and tracked. This is carried out by home schools/colleges and Roehampton Hospital School staff. Academic and Emotional progress is reviewed every six weeks.
At our school, we offer textiles as part of an integrated therapeutic approach to education, part of our Stepping Stones programme. Our curriculum offer includes knitting, crochet and sewing, and young people are free to engage with this as they wish.
Knitting and crochet are simple and repetitive activities that can help a young person struggling with anxiety, and encourage mindfulness and learning from mistakes. Some young people do not come to education with a positive impression of school, and to be able to acclimatise in their own time with a familiar and quiet activity, which they can see grow over time, is a way to encourage attendance and foster a sense of achievement.
Textiles is also a fantastic creative outlet which can allow young people to express themselves and take a break from study. We know that a lot of young people can be anxious to maintain their high achieving grades, but at Roehampton Hospital School we try to encourage them to engage in other things so that they can process what might be going on in their recovery.
Roehampton Hospital School is committed to giving young people a well-rounded educational experience, and textiles is one of the ways we do this.
Art and music also form part of our Stepping Stones Programme.
To ensure there are no barriers preventing any of our young people accessing our curriculums offered we consider all obstacles through our outstanding SEND provision.
New admissions
The curriculum offered to the new admission will be selected from following:
- The home school/college curriculum
- Our Roehampton Hospital School curriculum
- Our Stepping Stones Programme
A combination of any of the above can also be selected as appropriate.
Admissions vary in their length so critical areas of the national curriculum such as personal development and careers education are covered with higher frequency to ensure gaps in knowledge are avoided because of absence from home school and college. Our education staff liaise closely with home schools to provide a variety of activities and direct tuition which allows students to continue to engage in their school’s curriculum. Young people that are home schooled are also catered for as education staff plan in accordance with parents and our specialist teachers, to ensure that learning continues during their hospital stay.
We plan with each home school and college to make the reintegration back to home school/college for each young person as smooth as possible and this can sometimes mean that we assist in the application of a completely different school or college placement. An alternative educational provision may also be an option for the young person if they have found it difficult to settle in mainstream education due to their specific learning needs. When this is necessary, staff collate school reports, Statements or education health care plans (EHCPs), and work closely with LAs and SENDCo teams to provide a list of suitable placements that can be presented to parents, carers and the young person for evaluation. Overall, no decision is made solely by our school without the complete involvement, collaboration and consent of parents, carers and the young person.
Returning to school after a period of absence is a difficult time for young people and we aim to build strategies in partnerships with the school or college to ensure that the transition is an easy one. Once school reintegration has started, we request feedback from the placement and are able to inform the multidisciplinary team of the young person’s progress and needs. Adjustments to school visits are often made to cater for each young person’s needs and careful consideration given to their ability to adapt after a period of poor mental health.
At Roehampton Hospital School, our strength is to build relationships quickly with young people to ensure that they feel comfortable and ready to learn in our classrooms. Our staff identify learning needs and frequently use WRAT 5 as an initial assessment. This is the Wide Ranging Achievement Test that measures an individual's ability to read words, comprehend sentences, spell, and compute solutions to maths problems. This information is used in conjunction with any home school assessment information we may have received. On arrival at the hospital school, young people are encouraged by staff to engage in non-subject specific activities such as mindfulness, reading, arts and craft. This process is known as the Stepping-Stone Programme which supports young person from the ward to attend the classroom until school specific work arrives and they are feeling emotionally stronger and able to begin learning again. We work closely with each individual to tackle any barriers to learning that arise. If a young person has been disengaged from learning for some time, we work closely with the medical team to discuss and design a plan of action that will help the young person reengage. This will typically use a balance of educational and therapeutic strategies to build up their courage, resilience, skills and confidence.