Nurture Pathway & Avenue

The Nurture Pathway and Avenue is for children with Severe Learning Difficulties. It provides experiences and opportunities which promote communication, functional skills, emotional well-being, confidence and independence. It is developmentally appropriate and seeks to teach relevant and meaningful skills to improve the life opportunities of the pupil accessing it. The curriculum is driven through personalised targets from individual Education, Health and Care Plans and Equals curriculum milestones. Pupils may receive bespoke interventions to help remove barriers to learning such as sensory breaks, regular movement breaks, non-phonic approaches and the use of Attention Autism and sensory stories.

The Nurture Pathway and Avenue curriculum includes literacy, phonics,, the world about me and functional use of English and maths which are taught alongside practical based learning and which focus on the application of skills & knowledge in art, PE, Forest School and community engagement.

Planned activities provide opportunities for pupils to develop skills across different domains, for example a visit to a local park, theatre performance, local shop/cafe would include aspects of ‘My World’; ‘My Communication’; ‘My Thinking and ‘My Engagement’.

There are numerous approaches to learning which include rebound, swimming, forest school, TACPAC, Write Dance, dough disco. Positive communication and student voice (being able to make choices) is very much at the heart of the learning environment.

Within the Nurture Pathway and Avenue, for some pupils a highly structured learning environment can be very challenging and some classes aim to explore different activities and resources that provide more developmentally appropriate learning opportunities which are more informal and child-led. This informal approach is driven by capturing the pupil’s interest at any given moment. This approach supports experiences within and beyond the community and sensory needs are addressed for individual pupils to promote self-regulation and increase engagement. Although pupils might be cognitively able to access the Nurture and Aspire Pathway/Avenue, the approach and ethos of the informal curriculum is key to them being able to access these curriculum areas fully.

Some pupils on the Nurture Avenue will complete a number of units through the AQA Awards Scheme on a rolling programme, which focuses on developing key skills for life in areas such as independent living, life skills and including functional Numeracy and Literacy. Some pupils within the Nurture Avenue will also complete Equals Moving On accredited units in literacy, numeracy, ICT, World studies, independent living and vocational studies.