Butterflies Class makes provision for pupils with EHCPs and those with EHCPs in process and whose needs cannot be met through the full-time mainstream curriculum at Millbrook Combined School. Butterflies Class has 10 places for pupils with EHCPs and those with EHCPS in process who have a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Millbrook Combined School is committed to providing a safe, secure, ASD-friendly environment in order to meet the needs of all pupils in Butterflies and provide the foundation each child needs for a healthy and fulfilling life beyond primary school.
Pupils are placed in Butterflies provision through careful consideration by the SENDCo, Headteacher, Parents and other agencies involved in the child’s care and education. Schools are reminded that they must ensure that pupils in these SEND provisions remain an integral part of the whole school, therefore all school policies, including safeguarding and behavior are applicable. Our Butterflies class is taught by a qualified teacher and special learning support assistants.
Our personalised curriculum focuses on preparing our pupils with transferable skills for life, living and working. Building communication, interaction, independence, play and learning skills. Our curriculum is adaptive and responds to the individual needs, strengths and interests of our pupils. It is skills and context-based. Our pupil’s Education Health Care Plan Outcomes and other specialist reports underpin all we do, and we prioritise parents’ views throughout.
We work within a flexible framework which is responsive to our pupil's needs; promotes independence, thinking and problem-solving skills in a range of contexts thus preparing them for the next stages of their learning.
We strive to build emotional regulation and resilience in all to promote positive mental health and wellbeing.
Our personalised curriculum enables our pupils to take part in a wide range of experiences tailored to their needs, interests, and motivations. It is based on cognitive science and autism research. We access support from within the borough with our planning and assessment. Our curriculum provides a provision map identifying curriculum content and coverage and a framework of suggested learning opportunities for how learning can be scaffolded. It offers our pupils frequent and regular opportunities to repeat, retrieve and generalise knowledge and skills across contexts. Individual priorities (as identified in EHCP Outcomes or similar professional documents) are embedded in daily learning.
This is implemented through structured, personalised, and flexible teaching. We use a combination of teaching methods and adapt them to support the pupils learning styles and needs. We implement all outside professionals’ input throughout. Our curriculum is designed to advance understanding, give our children opportunities for generalisation and opportunities to encounter learning objectives over time, revisiting and transferring knowledge until they can demonstrate the required degree of understanding.
We ensure the impact of our personalised curriculum by using observation to record what a child can do and the next steps, the use of assessment within one-to-one learning e.g., workstations to ensure skills are embedded and the use of Autism Education Trust Progression Framework to track progress across all areas. Our pupils are at the heart of our curriculum and their Education Health Care plans outcomes and other specialist targets are used to ensure the curriculum is having an impact on their progress. We develop concepts which are the intentions that the pupils are working towards regardless of cognitive abilities. Within these concepts there are small steps, the pupils will gradually increase their understanding of them. This enables us to show both lateral and linear progression. We assess pupils understanding both in the task set and in comparing pupil's work overtime.
For more information about Special Educational Needs and Disability at Millbrook.