Faculty Ethos and Aims
The Shine Centre is a specialist provision for students with social, emotional and mental health difficulties (SEMH) and/ or at risk of exclusion between the ages of 11 and 16 years. Some of our students have an Education Health Care Plan (ECHP) or are undergoing statutory assessment. Our young people often have, or have had, problems associated with conventional schooling and need an environment that places their social emotional health at the heart of their learning; one that is not merely beneficial to their future lives, but also achievable and rewarding. We work in partnership with parents/ carers and our mainstream staff.
Our provision is underpinned by the Every Child Matters outcomes and a common goal to ensure every child can experience the following:
- Be Healthy
- Stay Safe
- Enjoy and Achieve
- Make a Positive Contribution
- Achieve Economic Wellbeing
- Curriculum Offer
At the Shine Centre we are committed to providing an individualised approach in order to improve outcomes. Vulnerable pupils often require something a little different in order to achieve; to improve outcomes we put social emotional health at the heart of our offer. Our young people often have, or have had, problems associated with conventional schooling and need a scheme of work that is not merely beneficial to their future lives, but also achievable and rewarding. We remain committed to providing all students within the Shine Centre with a broad and balanced curriculum.
The Shine Centre aims to:
- Place social, emotional and mental health at its core
- Give every pupil the opportunity to achieve and succeed
- Be individualised and developed in conjunction with each pupil and their parent/ carer
- Wherever possible, students should access parts of their curriculum within mainstream teaching and learning
- In addition to the mainstream offer, give opportunities for further vocational qualifications, enabling pupils to achieve in a variety of ways
- Where possible, take a topic-based approach, drawing on the interests of the pupils
- Include creative, curriculum-based outdoor learning, for example:
- English, Maths and Science
- Enterprise
- Topic
- Involve pupils in their local community through voluntary and work experience opportunities, preparing them for a successful adult and working lifeGive pupils opportunities for enterprise-based projects, linking to formal vocational and financial qualifications for example:
- Bike maintenance
- The allotment
- Shine Café
- Give regular opportunities for therapeutic work, for example:
- Gardening
- At breakfast and lunchtimes
- Through tailored mentoring and emotional literacy
- Include external links with the fire brigade, youth offending team, community police, HART and the sexual health nurse
- Include regular curriculum-based visits
- Pupils also have access to a trauma counsellor who works with the centre one day a week.
Curriculum Map and Rationale
The key ideas around all curriculum plans we have within the Shine Centre are that pupils can access us for any period of time. We need to have a curriculum that is flexible enough for pupils to have 3 weeks respite with us or for a pupil to gain all appropriate qualifications and experiences with us over 5 years. This curriculum is required whilst we address and cater to the young people’s social, emotional and mental health needs.
The KS3 curriculum has been designed to roll across 3 years. Its takes aspects from each curriculum area and splits them across a 3year programme. The rationale behind this is that it allows maximum flexibility for pupils to reintegrate back into mainstream lessons when the time is appropriate. This ensures that they are building skills around a variety of topics within a subject area.
The KS4 curriculum allows for pupils to complete their chosen option subjects alongside additional vocational subjects and courses that may not be on offer in the mainstream. Alternative qualifications such as Step up to English, Entry level Maths and Entry level science are completed by all our KS4 pupils
The vocational subjects on offer include a variety of ASDAN qualifications (tailored to individual pupil’s interests), Princes trust, Child Development, BTEC Cookery, Health and Social Care and Construction. We also offer the Duke of Edinburgh qualification to our pupils. This year we are also giving 12 of our pupils the opportunity to Complete a BTEC in Fire Safety with Cleveland Fire Brigade, a course which will run over 10 weeks, 1 day per week.
The curriculum has been mapped out with faculty leaders and we have subject specialists assisting with English, Maths, Science, World Affairs, Duke of Edinburgh, Health and Social Care and Art and Music. Subject specialists are involved in the planning, teaching and assessment of each subject to ensure quality first teaching,
Literacy is embedded throughout each curriculum area with key words present and used in all core lessons. Frayer models are used though out topics where appropriate. Literacy is marked within books in line with college policy with subject specific words corrected for spelling. Subject specific language is encouraged though out lessons to widen and improve vocabulary.
Psychology of Learning
All core lessons, topics and the strategic mapping out of them has been in line with faculty leaders and their considerations for organising their curriculum. This allows for linking of topics and ongoing retrieval whilst building on a topic and previous knowledge. Lessons in Maths and Science begin with a retrieval style question to link to prior learning. Interleaving style tasks are often used to continuously consolidate learning. Students are provided with sufficient time within lessons to practice new skills and reflect on their own learning. Students are also given time to respond to feedback (both verbal and written) within lesson to improve their work.
Given the nature of our provision and some pupils volatile nature it can often take longer to embed key ideas and therefore chucked learning is used frequently to ensure tasks are manageable. The use of mini whiteboards for working things out is also used to build student confidence as we often see the fear and embarrassment of getting something wrong can be a barrier to learning and a trigger for behaviour.
Inclusion in the Shine Centre
Inclusion is at the very core of everything we are in the Shine Centre. We are a layer of support to the mainstream that can allow our pupils another chance in an environment that is not mainstream education. We are a team of skilled staff who have inclusion at the heart of every lesson we teach, facilitate or support.
Students are taught in groups of no more than 6. They are split into KS3 and KS4 and then split further by academic ability. The staff to student ratio is high and pupils are given therapeutic time with skilled staff each week. Students’ SEND needs are catered for and staff are informed following and meetings about our pupils. A member of Shine staff is present at every EHCP or EP meeting for our pupils. Staff are frequently involved in meetings with external agencies including S&L, CAMHS and Social Care.
All pupils have a file and the following paperwork which is updated regularly to ensure that we can best meet the needs of the pupils we work with on a daily basis, CSP, Overview, Risk Assessment, Case Study, Target Setting and a Boxall Profile. These documents contain information which allows us to best safeguard and educate our pupils.
A variety of strategies are used to support our pupils during lessons, this includes, but is not exclusive to scribes, readers, the use of laptops/computers, sentence starters, scaffolding, rest breaks, chunked learning, visual aids and kinaesthetic learning.
Staff spend a lot of time with students and get to know them very well. Information is shared regularly amongst staff and relationships between home and school are strong for all pupils. We have high expectations of all of our students regardless of their SEND need.
Curriculum Guidance for Staff
All Shine Centre staff were involved in the overhaul of the curriculum. Staff have taken responsibility for certain areas and have developed with support from the team. Staff are also supported by mainstream staff who are subject specialist. Planning for each lesson is provided and is tweaked for differentiation purposes by Shine centre staff.
Faculty meetings and staff time can be used to differentiate resources and to plan for learning.
In addition to the support we receive from our mainstream colleagues we also offer a drop-in session weekly for mainstreams staff to get support from us on strategies that work with our pupils.
Assessment
Assessment within the Shine centre is similar to mainstream. The assessments within the core subjects are given to our pupils so that we can assess what they know and recognised the areas that they need to develop in. This information can then be used to inform planning and bridge gaps in knowledge.
Assessments are marked with mainstream teaching staff and are moderated in line with our mainstream students to ensure accuracy of grades.
There is more to the Shine centre than academic achievement, we appreciate the young person as a whole and to support this Boxall is used to assess and monitor SEMH needs and to demonstrate progress outside of academic attainment. Once the profile is complete the scores of each individual are compared to the standardised emotional literacy scores of children in a similar age group/
Individualised, achievable targets for social and emotional aptitudes are then set for the student which are reviewed and re-assessed periodically. Both profiles have two sections, each consisting of a list of 34 descriptive items. Students Boxall Profiles are updated at termly.
Assessments are communicated to parents via frequent telephone contact, reports and parents’ evenings. For students with CSPs and EHCPs additional meeting are held throughout the year.
Enrichment
Enterprise schemes such as the Shine café, bike maintenance and technology projects are planned throughout the year. Pupils taking responsibility for money and running entire projects providing them with vital life skills.
Pupils do additional enrichment activities within their timetabled hours such as bike maintenance and gardening.
Educational visits are planned into the curriculum to places such as the Centre for Life, Theatre and Beamish. These days will cover academic content whilst providing life skills and experiences. Duke of Edinburgh will also play a key part in our enrichment.
Visits from the school nurse, community police and careers-based professionals are also planned into the curriculum. This supports curriculum content in addition to supporting our young people to leave us with the skills to be positive members of society.
Work experience opportunities have been investigated for our pupils and will be further explored following the lift of covid restrictions.
Plans for pupils to be involved in collecting/growing food for a local food bank following the lifting of covid restrictions are also being thought out.
Cultural Capital, Careers & Locale
Links with Cleveland Fire Brigade have already been established. The College careers adviser works closely with KS4 pupils in the Shine centre. Opportunities such as visits to local parks to look at career options in small animal care have been established. Links with local FE providers are established so pupils can access alternative provisions such as motor vehicle and beauty courses.
