Curriculum

• English (including Communication and Literacy) 

The content of the English NC are suitably modified in planned schemes of work to meet the varied needs of students, including literary heritage set texts for some classes, although for students with more complex needs, (in particular the PMLD groups), the development of communication skills lie at the heart of the English curriculum structure.

For many students the development of communication skills is fundamental to participation and achievement in all curriculum areas, as well as to the forming of relationships, and forging of links to the wider community. Speech and language therapists, (SALT’s), will work closely with staff to inform individual target-setting in this area.

For PMLD students the principles of intensive interaction underpins the teaching of communication. In this model the teacher and the student interact in a natural, playful way and the student becomes an active learner who shares control of the activity.

The total communication framework includes both verbal and non-verbal systems of communication, for example, speech, intensive interaction, touch cues, objects of reference, photographs, gestures, and Makaton/BSL signs and symbols.

When appropriate individual targets are also set regularly in reading, speaking and listening, and writing.

Literacy lessons are delivered for many groups, and a wide range of stories, poems and associated objects are used to extend students’ understanding of the world around them.

Suitable reading schemes are provided for students who have a text-reading potential, and suitable testing systems such as The Running Reading Record is administered for diagnostic purposes. An annual test is also carried out for all students who can access the printed word to establish a word recognition age.

• Maths

Many students are able to follow formal maths lessons covering approximately two topics per term.

Emphasis is placed upon students explaining the mathematics they adopt to solve problems, using the correct mathematical vocabulary. Strong emphasis is placed on basic numeracy and its practical application such as the use of money, and time.

A wide range of teaching styles and resources are used including maths games, practical equipment, computer programmes, calculators and maths DVD’s.

For some students maths is about developing an awareness of their environment through the development of early cognitive skills. The maths curriculum, therefore, is closely linked to sensory-motor development, (this in turn is closely linked to sensory development in science and communication). The development of these skills allows our pupils to access the more ‘formal’ maths curriculum

Maths is also taught as a cross-curricular subject linked to other areas of the curriculum; for example, using and applying maths in real situations such as use of money in shopping; or café sessions where matching, sorting, sequencing, counting and money skills are required.

Although these groups tend to form a small minority, students from year 9 and above will be able to sit the GCSE examination in year 11 or, if preferred, from the 6^th Form Centre in year 12, supported by Riverside.

• PSHEE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education), and Citizenship

Students are taught appropriate aspects of the school’s PSHEE and Citizenship programme according to their age group and individual needs. Through the programme students learn to understand themselves physically, emotionally, socially and sexually and to understand their relationships with others, and develop as individuals in a wider society.

All students, regardless of ability, are encouraged to; make choices and decisions; develop personal autonomy by having a degree of responsibility and control over their own lives; make a difference or make changes by their individual or collective actions; discover that there are different viewpoints which lead to a respect for the opinion of others.

Some elements of the Citizenship curriculum are taught in discrete lessons, and there is strong links to the School Council which we anticipate will meet half-termly, allowing students a collective voice on matters of interest to them.

Staff and students at both Moselle and William C. Harvey have worked hard in recent years to achieve the ‘Healthy Schools’ national standard as part of this element of their schools’ work, and reaccreditation has been awarded to Riverside as part of the new school’s focus on enabling students to eat and live healthily.

Sex and Relationship Education, (SRE), lessons are provided at Riverside, although parents have a statutory right to withdraw their child from such lessons.

In KS4 we anticipate that all students will undertake either the ASDAN (Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network), ‘Transition Challenge’ course, or the OCR ‘Life and Living Skills’ course, each of which targets the development of social, independence and citizenship skills. However, core themes and values within the subject are also addressed both through teaching in other subjects, and throughout the full range of extra-curricular activities at the school.

A primary aim of the school is to prepare students for eventual further education, and possible open employment or a training scheme at age 19. (We anticipate that the majority of Riverside students will progress to the Haringey 6^th Form centre at the end of KS4, where these skills will be further developed).

Work-related programmes are delivered, tailored to meet the needs of students, and include a range of enterprise activities which enable students to engage in money-making activities, some run in conjunction with Haringey Education and Business Partnership.

We intend to continue the Moselle model of some students running an enterprise company which produce, market and sell high quality bespoke ceramic and mosaic products.

KS4 students are able undertake an annual week-long residential work experience placement carrying out conservation work for the National Trust in Slindon in Sussex.

A Connexions Careers Service special needs adviser is scheduled to visit Riverside on a regular basis, and the adviser holds preliminary careers interviews with students from year 9.

Year 11 students also have the opportunity to join Haringey’s KS4 Engagement programmes, (such as the Music Engagement project, and Horticulture Training project at the Harington Scheme), which are based in local colleges, city learning centres and sheltered workplaces – many of which lead to Open College Network vocational qualifications which are equivalent to GCSE grades D–G. 

• Science (including Environmental Studies)

There is an emphasis on practical teaching in science through termly topics across both key stages to encourage the development of scientific enquiry skills in the main areas of life processes, materials and physical processes. Students are able to take part in simple scientific experiments and be encouraged to observe and make and record, (when possible), predictions. There are strong links with schemes of work and activities in other subject areas such as lifeskills and design and technology.

For students with very complex needs the main aim is to provide the context for focussed exploration leading to a generalised understanding of the world in which they live. Students have opportunities to experience science at different levels, through activities ranging from sensory stimulation to the observation and recording of changes in the natural world. Elements of the science curriculum for these students is also taught as a cross curricular subject, relating closely to sensory development e.g. multi sensory room programmes; body awareness and massage sessions; mathematical development and communication.

Environmental Studies is an important cross-curricular theme, and at Riverside we are planning for a horticultural roof terrace with a greenhouse, and students are also able to access Woodside’s new on-site allotment. Studying the environment, (for example learning about and carrying out recycling activities), allows students to learn about science in a practical way, and is also linked to potential vocational training.

There was an established pathway for ex-Moselle students to join the Harington Scheme, (a horticultural and general vocational training and employment scheme based in Highgate), after leaving school and this pathway will be set up for Riverside students. The Harington Scheme were also contracted to maintain the old Moselle school grounds, so a number of ex-students continued to contribute to the school environment through their work, and it is anticipated that some of these arrangements will continue at Riverside.

• ICT (Information and Communication Technology)

All students at Riverside have access to a variety of desktop computers in their classrooms to support students’ learning in all areas of the curriculum. In addition, the school has interactive whiteboards, (IWB’s), in all classrooms and other learning areas.

There is a specialist ICT suite, equipped with a wide range of ICT hardware to which all students have timetabled access. Lessons in the suite are led by a dedicated ICT coordinator who also leads on the development of ICT throughout the school.

ICT therefore appears both as a discrete subject and cross-curricular subject on timetables. The broad aim is to support learning across the curriculum and to equip our students for life in a growing technological age. The development of augmentative communication, and of fundamental skills (such as visual tracking, attention and sensory motor coordination) are particular priorities.

Many of the students, with more complex needs, have individual or small group sessions in the new darkroom where targeted individual programmes shape the sessions. This provision is fully-equipped with sophisticated switch mechanism provisions and other electronic sensory learning resources.

• Design and Technology

For students for whom it is appropriate D & T is taught through planned product-making assignments in a fully-equipped craft room in which the range of facilities include machine tools. Students are able to develop skills in investigating, designing, making and appraising products.

Particular links are made with food technology in the lifeskills curriculum, and with a variety of enterprise schemes involving the making of products, linked to the Haringey Education and Business Partnership.

We recognise that for many of our students planning, communicating and evaluating are difficult concepts. For students with very complex needs D & T is concerned with gaining experience of a wide variety of materials through tactile activities, designed to stimulate an ever-growing awareness of their surroundings.

• Lifeskills (including Food Technology and Cookery)

The school’s lifeskills curriculum includes cookery, food technology and home management skills and is taught through weekly lessons led by a specialist teacher in the new lifeskills room. Breakfast clubs are built into the morning routine for those students for whom this would be beneficial.

Classes are able to make use of the school’s greenhouse and Woodside’s on-site allotment to grow herbs and vegetables to support this programme. Students’ understanding of the importance of healthy eating forms a key part of Riverside’s work and the legacy of the culture established at Moselle and William C. Harvey through the process of achieving the National Healthy School is invaluable.

Linked elements of the lifeskills programme include the development of independence skills. A system of student-led job responsibilities put in place at Riverside, whereby students are encouraged to carry out regular community tasks according to their levels of ability and understanding, (for example food, card and paper recycling).

A senior assistant qualified as a travel trainer is on site to support both group and individual independent travel activities, and we intend to train as many students as possible to travel to school independently, (currently just under 10% of Riverside’s students travel independently).

• PE (Physical Education)

The PE curriculum provides for students’ increasing confidence in their ability to manage themselves and their bodies with a variety of movement activities. A balance of individual, team, co-operative and competitive activities provide for the preferences, strengths and needs of each student. 

Sports taught at Riverside includes football, hockey, cricket, basketball, rounders, tennis, badminton, volleyball, athletics, dance, gymnastics, fitness, sailing, climbing, cycling and swimming, using the Tottenham Green public pool and Riverside’s hydrotherapy pool.

Trampoline/rebound therapy is also offered to the more complex student group on an individual/small group basis. This is invaluable in helping such students to weight-bear and eventually to learn to walk.

At Riverside we have links with ‘Haringey Tennis Development’, ‘Step into Dance’, ‘Cycle Training UK’, ‘The London Community Cricket Association’, ‘Haringey Sports Development’ and ‘Tottenham Hotspur Football in the Community’, all of whom support coaching, extra-curricular activities and visits.

Regular inter-school competitions are organised against other special schools. Competitive sports include basketball, football, cricket, boccia and New Age kurling using Riverside’s hall, Woodside High’s gym and pitches, and other sporting venues, including The White Hart Lane stadium across the road from the school.  We hold a sports day annually with all students taking part in athletic competitions.

A variety of sports activities are made available for students to participate in during breaks and lunchtimes which are supported by staff.  This includes daily access to bicycles, tricycles and helmets for cycling round Riverside’s playground circuit, and there are weekly cycle lessons and cycle maintenance sessions.

Moselle and William C. Harvey were awarded both the ‘Activemark’ and the ‘Sportsmark’ awards for delivery of the National School Sport Strategy in 2008. At Riverside the same high standard of sports provision continues in terms of the delivery of the programme, the percentage of time available for PE and school sport, the range of sports and opportunities, and links to sports clubs.

• Music

All students have weekly class lessons from a specialist music teacher, using a wide range of instruments, in Riverside’s music room located in Woodside’s creative arts block.

Lessons are geared to the particular learning levels of the class and the development of skills ranges from playing instruments individually and collectively to simpler call and response activities. Opportunities are provided for musical performances, and we anticipate significant links in the subject with Woodside students, with the possibility of some Riverside students taking a music GCSE course at Woodside.

Individual instrument tuition in guitar and piano is offered for students who can access such provision. This is funded partly through the LA and partly through fund-raising.

Regular visits are arranged from professional musicians who either perform or run workshops for the students, and we will continue the Moselle tradition of a ‘Creative Arts Week’ during which a wide variety of musicians are invited into school to provide a comprehensive programme of  performances and workshops, to which parents are also invited.

Weekly music therapy is provided for many individuals and small groups of students, to address their emotional and communication needs, both at Riverside and, for some students, at Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy Centre. This provision continues to be funded by the local Tottenham Grammar School Foundation charity.

• Art and Design

Art and design is taught through weekly timetabled discrete lessons throughout both key stages as a discrete subject by a specialist teacher, in Riverside’s art room located in Woodside’s creative arts block, (Cedar Block).

Many Riverside students are able to undertake activities and develop skills in the subject which approach the standards expected in a mainstream environment. These students are able to take the subject to GCSE level and it is this applies to a significant core number.

Other students explore the language and meaning of art through the elements of tone, line, colour, pattern, texture, shape, form and space within 2D or 3D work. For students with very complex needs, art is primarily a sensory activity where they can experience the textures, patterns, lights and colours.

Displays within the Riverside building (and at public venues such as the local Tottenham Green Centre where there is currently a permanent display space outside the Marcus Garvey library  reserved for rotating displays of  Riverside’s students’ art work), reflects students’ achievements in art.

• Drama

Elements of drama appear in a variety of class settings, ranging from role-play which could have a communication or self-expression focus, to cameo dramatic presentations prepared for assembles.

At Riverside we plan to continue the traditions, (well-established at Moselle and WCH), of a combined annual drama production and carol-singing concert presented to an audience from Christmas 2013.

In addition, we are confident that we are able to continue to provide long-term placements for groups of trainee drama therapists to work with individual students to help with their emotional development.

A further intention at Riverside is to maintain close links with the Chicken Shed Theatre Company who put on very successful performing arts productions for school audiences. Many students continue to attend Haringey Shed, an inclusive performing arts group which is an offshoot of the Chicken Shed company. The group operates from Northumberland Park School in the evenings.

• History

History is taught through modular topics taken from the appropriate key stage programmes of study although the content is modified to make it relevant and accessible for different groups of students. For many students their understanding of the past may begin with their own lives and recognition of past, present and future events of meaning to them.

Old photographs, artefacts and day trip visits to museums and other places of historical interest are organised to help pupils understand the past, and we maintain close links with the local Bruce Grove Museum in particular.

• Geography

Geography is also taught through modified modular topics taken from the appropriate key stage programmes of study, and there is clear curricular links with Riverside’s international dimension work.

Extensive use is made of the school grounds in terms of physical geography, and the local environment where skills such as shopping, recording/discussing the weather are also practised regularly.

Annual residential school journeys for students for whom these trips are suitable are offered. On these trips students gain knowledge of the wider environment. Cross-curricular work in geography is concerned with helping students to make sense of their local environment and develop an understanding of their place within it, starting from finding one’s way around the school and recognising familiar people and landmarks with a gradual shift away from the immediate locality to the wider environment.

• RE (Religious Education)

The school is fortunate in having students drawn from a variety of cultural and religious backgrounds. We promote positive images of all groups, encouraging tolerance and respect. There are weekly assemblies with follow-up lessons which provide the opportunity to share the different religious and cultural traditions of the school, including customs, forms of worship, stories and beliefs.

The six main world religions are studied according to students’ varying levels of understanding – Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Sikhism, along with Humanism, and studies in the subject promote sensitivity to the needs and feelings of others and a respect for people of other cultures and beliefs. (Parents have the right to withdraw their child from religious education and collective worship).

• Modern Foreign Language (MFL - Spanish)

At Riverside Spanish continues to be taught as the school’s modern foreign language at KS3, but only to those students for which this is a meaningful experience. These students are encouraged to speak the language, learning key words, greetings and aspects of Spanish culture. Students with very complex needs are be disapplied from this subject.