Maple

Welcome to Maple – class teacher, Paul Shepherd

Learners in Maple follow the blue and yellow curriculum pathways in key stage 2.

This page gives an insight into our class and what we get up to each day. If you are looking for specific information on our curriculum, you can find further detail on our curriculum page.

If you’d like to find out more about any aspect, please get in touch.

A typical day in Maple…

In Maple, our sessions follow a mix of the primary/early years curriculum model, accessing both provision activities and more formal lessons, with a very practical, visual and sensory approach to learning.

Most children in the classroom need support with communication at varying levels, so we use a range of methods of communication in our class including sign, symbols, verbal, gesture, objects of reference and a communication iPad app as needed. All children use a visual timetable or personal visual timetable to help structure their day. Classroom routines are structured and predictable with timers used for clarity and clear finishes.

For our morning provision we access a range of topic related activities outside linked to different curriculum areas, this allows the children to have a movement break after time on the bus, time to learn through play and to socialise with children from other classes. Inside provision consists of activity trays linked to different areas of the curriculum and their individual learning targets. During their time inside, staff will do 1:1 work with children on their individual learning targets, with a different focus area each day.

Our snack session is a key time to develop the children’s communication and choice making skills. The children access a range of different playgrounds at playtime, enabling them to develop a range of gross motor skills through accessing bikes, scooters, climbing equipment and sand pits.

Before lunch, children have ten minutes of choosing, which they work towards during morning lessons.

Lunchtime is a social and communication based time for children, they eat together in one of our two classrooms and then have time to access the outdoor areas for play.

In the afternoon, children have some calming time, children in the main classroom will be accessing books for pleasure, engaging in 1:1 reading, or listening to topic related stories. In the second classroom, children listen to calming music and are offered sensory massage or deep pressure and sensory modulation activities, time to rest and relax or access our sensory story sack linked to our topic with other books in the reading corner.

The afternoons are where we have our topic sessions including PE on a Thursday afternoon in the hall. Friday afternoons are good work assembly and ‘choosing reward time’.  Following our afternoon lesson children access playtime and are then offered fruit during our class shared story time.