Class 7 Vision

At Freshfield Primary School Specialist Base provision, we believe every child deserves to feel safe, understood and supported in their learning. Our curriculum is designed with children’s wellbeing at its heart, helping them to develop confidence, readiness to learn and a sense of achievement.

By recognising and valuing each child’s individual starting point and special educational needs, we aim to support every child to make meaningful progress and experience real success — progress measured always against their own starting point, not national age-related expectations.

Our curriculum is thoughtfully designed to support children in developing the transferable skills they need for each stage of their education and for life beyond school, at a pace that feels right for them. We place strong emphasis on communication, physical development, cognition, self-care and independence, recognising these as essential foundations for both learning and wellbeing.

To help children feel confident and ready to engage, our curriculum is skills- and play-based, allowing learning to grow naturally through curiosity and enjoyment. Through a caring, multi-disciplinary approach, we work closely together to build trusting relationships and begin each child’s individual learning journey from the moment they are welcomed into the Freshfield family. For all children, successful transition is a priority into, within and out of the setting.

Class 7 Curriculum

To ensure learning experiences are purposeful, engaging and appropriately challenging, the curriculum is structured around five clearly defined pathways. These pathways enable staff to identify and support progression both within and across pathways, ensuring that all pupils are supported to achieve their potential.

Pathway placement is determined by pupils’ stages of development rather than age or year group. Each pathway supports the development of skills, knowledge and understanding across a broad range of areas of learning. The curriculum is designed to be flexible and responsive, enabling pupils to move between pathways as their needs, strengths and readiness for learning change over time.

Teachers use pupils’ individual EHCP outcomes as the starting point for all learning intentions, ensuring that provision is personalised and ambitious. Strong emphasis is placed on Communication and Interaction, Cognition and Learning, Sensory and Physical Development, and Social, Emotional and Mental Health.

Learning opportunities at Freshfield extend beyond discrete lesson times and are embedded throughout the school day, including during play, break times, snack times, personal care routines and community-based activities. These opportunities are carefully planned across a range of settings, supporting pupils to develop confidence, independence and readiness for life beyond school.

Class 7 Assessment and Progress

Progress across all pathways is measured using ipsative assessment — every pupil’s progress is measured against their own starting point. This reflects the principle that all progress is deeply meaningful, and that learning must be relevant and ambitious for each individual.

EHCP targets are embedded into daily learning across all pathways and reviewed regularly. Evidence is gathered through observations, photographs, videos and professional discussion. Progress is shared with families through Annual Reviews, parent consultations, SEND meetings and reports.

Therapeutic input — including Speech and Language Therapy and Occupational Therapy — is embedded into provision across all pathways and planned in consultation with the SENCO and relevant therapists.

At Freshfield Primary Unit, we have four unique curriculum pathways, each with its own distinct teaching and learning approach to meet the collective needs of the pupils within each pathway, which is then personalised to a higher degree to meet specific needs of each individual:

• Pre-Formal

• Informal

• Semi-Formal (Exploration and Play)

• Formal

Please click the following pages for more detail of each Class 7 provision.

Freshfield Context: Inclusion, Community and Our Values

Freshfield Primary School’s Resource Unit serves pupils with Education, Health and Care Plans across Nursery to Year 6. Pupils on all pathways are part of the Freshfield community — they share in our whole-school values, join in with assemblies and events and benefit from purposeful inclusion across the school day, alongside the highly specialist support their needs require. Freshfield Primary School’s values run through everything we do in the school. They are designed to be accessible to all pupils across all pathways.

The EQUALS curriculum, delivered within Freshfield’s Resource Unit, ensures that pupils with the most complex and profound needs access a curriculum that is ambitious, purposeful and deeply respectful of who they are. Every session is an opportunity to work within and towards our values.