Introduction

St Hugh’s is an 11-19 outstanding special school. It caters for students with a range of moderate, severe and profound/multiple learning difficulties as well as complex medical needs and Autism. The majority have significant communication difficulties. Communication underpins all learning and therefore we are committed to providing specialised teaching to promote speech and language and communication skills in all our students- these skills make up a large part of personal programmes at a range of levels, underpinning all activities and objectives.

Aims

Within our overall school aim of ‘ ‘Learning Together, Learning for Life’, our school aims are to enable our students to actively engage in their own learning by:

• helping students to develop a repertoire of learning skills and strategies to support their development as learners
• using a range of assessment techniques including assessment for learning, with the emphasis on formative assessment that engages the learner. This helps the student to identify their strengths and weaknesses.
• employing teaching and learning strategies that develop the competence and confidence of every learner by actively engaging and stretching them, and building on their individual needs;
• having curriculum choice which develops breadth of study, personal relevance and flexible learning pathways thereby enabling students to acquire the skills to fulfil their own potential. Ultimately curriculum choices engage and respect students;
• having a student-centred approach to school organisation with high quality support for teaching and learning and the whole team focusing on the needs and interests of the students and young people. Students are listened to and their voice is used to drive whole school improvement;
• ensuring that students have a one-to-one mentoring relationship with an adult, and benefit from peer support and social inclusion opportunities
• forming strong partnerships beyond the school which drive forward progress in the classroom thus removing barriers to learning and supporting student well –being. This engages the community, local institutions and social services; who in turn can support schools to drive forward progress in the classroom.

Please see our Personalised learning policy detailing how we manage and evaluate students personalised learning programmes.

The Government has announced that it will not publish any school or college level educational performance data based on tests, assessments or exams for 2020 and 2021. The update published here clarifies what this means for the way school and college accountability will operate for 2019/20 and 2020/21.

St Hugh’s School offers qualifications and accreditation at Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 (Post 16). The following accreditation overview, maps and attainment results can be read and downloaded here:

Examination & accreditation reform continues and all new qualifications are in place for teaching from September 2020. Potential qualification entries are:

GCSE – English Language, English Literature, Maths, Science,
Entry Level Certificate – English, Maths, Science, PE
BTEC Level 1 & Entry Level 3 – IT Users, Art & Design, Sport & Fitness, Creative Media, Performing Arts, Land Studies
Unit Awards & Personal Progress Awards – all subjects
Qualifications studied in partnership with External Providers include:

City & Guilds Introductory Award (NLC)
WJEC – Construction (Skills Centre)
BTEC Engineering/Motor Vehicle (Skills Centre)
NCFE Occupational Skills – Hair & Beauty (Skills Centre)
Occupational Skills – Hair & Beauty (Skills Centre)