Saxon Hill Academy's vision, ethos, and values are centred around providing a comprehensive and inclusive education that prepares pupils for their future lives. Saxon Hill’s mission is to equip young people with the skills, knowledge, and values necessary to take the lead in their own learning and lives. Our Leaders curriculum is designed to nurture the holistic development of every child, equipping them with essential skills and qualities to thrive in all aspects of life. It is broad, balanced, and relevant, with a focus on inspiring learning and promoting leadership and autonomy. The curriculum is spiral by design, allowing pupils to revisit learning, build on previous knowledge and learn from new experiences in a fresh context.
LEADERS Curriculum Framework:
The LEADERS curriculum at Saxon Hill Academy encompasses six Aspects of learning, each vital for the holistic growth of our pupils:
1.Communication, Language, and Literacy:
- Develop strong communication skills.
- Foster a love for reading, writing, and language exploration.
- Enhance comprehension, expression, and critical thinking abilities.
2.Independence & Well-being:
- Empower students to become independent thinkers and decision-makers.
- Promote physical and mental well-being through healthy habits and self-care practices.
- Cultivate resilience, adaptability, and self-confidence.
3.Thinking and Problem Solving:
- Encourage creative and critical thinking skills.
- Develop problem-solving strategies and decision-making abilities.
- Foster curiosity, experimentation, and a growth mindset.
4.Physical Skills and Fitness:
- Enhance gross and fine motor skills through physical activities and exercises.
- Promote physical independence, an active lifestyle and physical fitness.
- Provide opportunities for students to develop team work, a love of sport, coordination, strength, and agility.
5.Community and the Wider World:
- Foster an understanding of diverse cultures, perspectives, and global issues.
- Encourage empathy, compassion, and social responsibility.
- Promote active citizenship and engagement in local and global communities.
6.Creativity:
- Cultivate creativity, imagination, and artistic expression.
Vocational Studies (Towards independence only and encop):
- Cultivate creativity, imagination, and artistic expression.
- Provide opportunities for students to explore vocational interests and develop practical skills.
- Foster innovation, problem-solving, and entrepreneurship.
Driving our LEADERS curriculum are our 'Golden Threads for Learning and Life', which serve as guiding principles for teaching and learning at Saxon Hill Academy, through which Our pupils will be empowered to become lifelong learners, compassionate leaders, and active members of society. Saxon Hill’s "Golden Threads for Learning and Life" are woven into everything they do, and promote cultural capital, SMSC development, and personal development, ensuring that all pupils leave our school as confident, capable, and compassionate individuals ready to make a positive impact on the world around them and be Leaders in their lives.
Towards Independence (14-19) Department
Awards
Pupils in the pre-formal and informal pathways within the Towards Independence Department work towards a range of units as part of the AQA Unit Awards Scheme (UAS). Pupils undertake some units linking to the Thinking and Problem Solving and Communication and Social Relationships aspects. Teachers also then select units that interest the pupils and link to the work experience and community engagement opportunities that they are undertaking. Please see the below programme of study to see which selection of units pupils are undertaking this year.
Accreditations
Aim Qualifications:
Pupils in the semi-formal pathway within the Towards Independence Department work towards an Award, Certificate or Diploma in Skills for Living and Work with AIM Qualifications. Pupils can achieve Entry Level 1, Entry Level 2 or Entry Level 3 in a range of units, including English, Maths and Vocational options. Please see the below programme of study to see which selection of units pupils are undertaking this year.
AQA Entry Level Certificates:
Pupils in the formal pathway within the Towards Independence Department work towards Entry Level Certificates in Maths and English with AQA as well as undertaking some Vocational units within the Skills for Living and Work AIM Qualifications.
Towards Independence Programme of Study
Work Experience and Community Engagement
In the Towards Independence Departments, pupils undertake regular work experience opportunities. Please see the Preparation for Adulthood page to see the range of opportunities on offer.
Pupils' progress and achievements during these sessions are tracked on Evidence for Learning using Task Analysis that have been created for each opportunity.
Preparing for Adulthood (PfA) is about enabling and empowering, children, young people and adults with SEND as well as their families to prepare for a smooth transition from children’s right through to adulthood. At Saxon Hill, we focus on the below four pillars of the Preparing for Adulthood (PfA):
- opportunities for further education and employment
- independent living including access to supported living
- having friends, relationships and being part of the community
- being healthy
The transition years from childhood to adulthood raises new challenges and opportunities for most individuals however, for young people with SEND, the transition may take longer and will likely require additional preparation.
Preparation for Adulthood (PfA) is woven into the curriculum at Saxon Hill Academy, starting in our Explorers (EYFS) Department, progressing as pupils develop. In the Adventurers (secondary) Department, pupils undertake discrete PfA sessions and opportunities, such as trips out into the community, organising fundraising events, developing further independence and having a range of visitors speak on future careers. Once in the Towards Independence Department, work-experience sessions and accessing the community is embedded into the curriculum. Pupils also visit colleges, choose which careers talks they would like to attend and actively participate in the local Rotary Club.
Community Work Experience Placements
Saxon Hill has established several community based work placements in order to provide real work environments for our students to develop work and employability skills. This enables our students to work within real business environments, and develop a range of vocational skills while developing their functional numeracy, literacy and communication skills. Their work at these venues provides evidence of skills that are then accredited to gain Awards, Certificates and Diplomas in Skills for Living and Work as well as stand-alone accredited units that interest and inspire pupils.
Further community work placement opportunities were established as we wanted to expand the range of work based opportunities available to our students. We had previously identified a lack of local work based learning opportunities for young people and adults with physical and learning difficulties. Saxon Hill decided to take a proactive approach and looked to develop opportunities that current pupils could access as part of their curriculum whilst also offering opportunities for our former pupils to return to in order to learn new independence and work related skills. As a result, two opportunities were initially created; Saxon Hill Craft Barn and Saxon Hill Community Café. This opportunities continue to grow and develop, with this year seeing the introduction to a weekly work experience slot at Beaudesert Park Farm as well as further in school work experience opportunities.
Saxon Hill Craft Barn
Saxon Hill Craft Barn was established in 2012 originally named “Lichfield Scrap Barn” with the twin principles of work experience placements for our students and financial sustainability. We are a craft store that uses clean business surplus and donated items from the public, as arts, craft and play resources, making use of items that would otherwise have gone to landfill sites. Saxon Hill Craft Barn is based in the beautiful location of Chasewater Country Parks on the edge of Burntwood and Brownhills.
The store has a large customer base with many returning customers looking for crafting items at wonderfully low prices. The Craft Barn has a thriving Facebook page crammed with ‘make and do’ suggestions and all the current offers. With new deliveries being made all the time, we never know what interesting items may be added to the offers next week, check our Facebook page here.
The academy students access the two Craft Barn units several times per week. In the workshop unit, students learn skills to help sort, manufacture and assemble craft packs ready for sale. In the retail unit, students price up and face up stock on the shelves, operate the till and learn about customer service during opening hours. The store has recently received extensive refurbishment and as a result there are now more opportunities for the community to visit the shop and access this work based learning with their service users. We are currently developing partnerships with other organisations including schools to broaden our work based offer at this venue.
Saxon Hill Community Café
The Saxon Hill Community Café was established in 2013 and is based on the site of Saxon Hill Academy. It is open for the use of pupils, staff and invited visitors to the academy and also during ‘out of school’ hours, the café is open to the community for booked events. The café serves a variety of hot and cold food and drink in an attractive, warm and friendly environment. Students in the Towards Independence department are based in here during the week where they make lunches for themselves, visitors and staff.
Dobbies Garden Centre, Shenstone
We had established a close relationship with a local garden centre.
It was agreed that we could build our very own class base at the Dobbies, Shenstone site. This provided a warm, comfortable base for students to make their own drinks and lunches during their visits. This enabled students to stay on site for much longer periods and the work opportunities increased rapidly.
Now students use this work base and some of the accompanying concession shops within the complex during the week and learn valuable work skills such as unpacking deliveries, stacking shelves, facing up products, designing displays, pricing up products and scanning purchases at the tills. This project is a huge success as students benefit enormously from the expertise of the corporate retail world.
Lichfield Food Bank
The Lichfield Foodbank collection centre is based in the grounds of the Academy; this enables learners to identify and sort foods in the classroom, deliver dated foods to the Foodbank, to record sell-by dates and weights within the collection centre itself and to package collections of food packs ready for families. In addition, learners support the Foodbank by taking part in the collection of foods and donations in local supermarkets.
Beaudesert Park Farm
This year has seen the introduction of a fantastic weekly work experience opportunity at Beaudesert Park Farm. Pupils have been able to gain an insight into how a working farm runs and have been able to gain valuable experience supporting with daily jobs. This could be ensuring all animals have enough water, feeding baby animals, cleaning out the chickens or collecting eggs. Pupils have also been able to learn about how products from a farm can be processed and sold, within an industrial kitchen. Pupils have then made a range of products, such as sausages, burgers, bread and hot cross buns. Pupils went on to package these to industry standards, priced them up and sold them, giving them a full overview of the production process.
School-Based Work Experience Opportunities
We also offer additional work experience and life skills opportunities weekly in school. Pupils can undertake a session in our Towards Independence flat, where they learn skills such as making drinks, cooking simple snacks and meals, cleaning and socialising. The pupils in the Towards Independence Department also buy and prepare staff meal deals on a Friday, focussing on budgeting, shopping, good health and safety practices and cooking skills. Pupils also work towards a half-termly pop-up shop, where they decide on a theme, undertake market research, make items to sell and decide on pricing to make a small profit. This is then opened up to all pupils and staff with all profits from the meal deals and pop-up shop go towards the end of year Prom.
Rotary Interact Club
Towards Independence learners are an Interact group, supported by Tamworth Rotary. The Interactees - 'Saxfieldians' have an elected President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary. The Saxfieldians have established their community based projects as part of their criteria and these are; The Lichfield Foodbank, SANDS, St John's Hospital and their overseas project Aqua Box.
It is imperative that we support our young people to understand that the community is theirs and that they have a very important contribution to make to it.
to view a sample of how we track individual student engagement with work experience opportunities as part of our PfA Preparing for Adulthood programme.
At Saxon Hill we believe that language and communication are central to living and learning and should be a source of pleasure, enjoyment and richness for all students.
The journey to becoming a reader begins with the development of prerequisite skills to learning which include: engagement; communication skills; awareness of meaning; attention skills; a sense of rhythm, pattern and order; memory retention; and sound discrimination.
Intent
At Saxon Hill we intend for our pupils to:
- Build the strongest foundations for a lifelong love of reading. We know reading provides a gateway to learning and gives all learners with access to rich experiences which may exist outside of our learners’ immediate world.
- Use reading as an effective tool for communication.
- Access meaning from different forms; rich and varied language, text, symbols, expressions, objects, pictures, people and the environment.
Implementation
Impact
All pupils, regardless of their disability or any barriers to learning, deserve the opportunity to be a reader and the curriculum at Saxon Hill recognises and develops the skills they will need to do so. The English Curriculum alongside the Age-appropriate Literature Map from EYFS to our 14-19 department ensures that all pupils are exposed to rich and varied language and a variety of texts.
Our adapted and personalised phonics pathways mean that every learner is able to access the right form of phonics teaching for them and is able to make good progress towards reading in all its forms.
For more information of Reading and Phonics at Saxon Hill, please click below:
We have also created a video demonstrating ways in which we make reading engaging and accessible at Saxon Hill. We hope this inspires you and gives your inspiration for reading at home with your child.
AC can be defined as follows: ‘Augmentative Alternate Communication' (AAC) refers to any means by which an individual can supplement or replace spoken communication. Communication may range from any movement or behaviour that is observed and interpreted by another person as meaningful, to the use of a code agreed upon between people where items have specific meanings, i.e. a language.
Intent
At Saxon Hill, we believe everyone has the right to be heard and know that they have been listened to. All pupils at Saxon Hill can communicate but some require the rest of the school community to take time to enter into a dialogue. Our aim is for all non-verbal pupils or pupils with limited verbal communication to have in place communication tools that are understood by staff and fellow pupils. AAC (augmentative alternate communication) is recognised as cross-curricular and is vital for pupils to be able to access and engage with the curriculum. Progress and attainment within a pupil’s communication and/ or English targets are recorded termly and shared with parents during parents’ evening, EHCP reviews and end of year reports.
Implementation
A pupil’s communication needs are assessed within the school setting using a combination of individual assessments: classroom observations by the class team, observations by a SALT or the communication lead and liaison between staff and family. At Saxon Hill, we use a variety of AAC tools to build our total communication approach. Such tools can include PODD, Makaton, VOCAs (Voice Output Communication Aids), Objects of Reference, TaSSeLs, Intensive Interaction etc. Class teachers liaise with a range of professionals and use their own observations to decide which approach may work for a specific pupil. This is then trialled, adapted and changed if needed.
All staff are provided with regular training linking to communication in school as well as external training opportunities. Teachers are also provided with additional CPD (Counting Professional Development) opportunities and are able to offer bespoke support with adapting AAC tools from SALT, MSI specialists and the communication lead.
Impact
Pupils at Saxon Hill will have access to a range of AAC tools, which meet their needs and abilities. As part of our total communication approach, staff will promote and model the AAC tools that are most appropriate for the individual pupil to enable them to develop their communication skills. This will unlock many learning opportunities across the curriculum for our pupils, as well as improve their mental health and wellbeing and increase levels of engagement. A pupil should be able to transfer the communication skills that they learn at Saxon Hill into the wider community, empowering them to access further opportunities outside of the school environment as well.
Tania is our Food Technology lead at Saxon Hill. Tania teaches across the school, sharing her expertise and love for cooking. Pupils learn a range of food preparation and health and safety skills, alongside preparing and cooking a range of savoury and sweet dishes. Please see your child's class timetable to see if they have a Food Technology session with Tania this year or if they're doing this learning with their class teacher.
You can contact Tania on tania.begley@saxon.set.org
We have a Forest School on site led by qualified instructor Isobel Jellyman, which is fully accessible to all abilities and age groups. Please take a look at our Forest School Curriculum Handbook for details about the learning opportunities available to pupils.
You can contact Isobel on@ isobel.jellyman@saxon.set.org
Forest School newsletters
Here are some photographs of our students enjoying the Forest School experience:
