Curriculum
At The Forge School, we want our pupils to aspire to be the best version of themselves. Our ambitious curriculum offers our pupils not only the National Curriculum but the learning and life skills they need now and, in the future.
F (Friendly) O (Organised) R (Resilient) G (Goals) E (Engage)
We use these Learning and Life Skills to underpin the learning and experiences we undertake in all areas of school life.
These skills are personal to The Forge. They reflect the social, emotional and educational needs of our pupils.
Leaders have designed a Curriculum that has taken into consideration students past experiences within education and their SEND provision. They have therefore adapted the National Curriculum to better ensure it meets students’ stages of learning and developmental needs.
Classes
Classes at the Forge are named after famous/notable Authors, Artists, Explorers, Scientists and Mathematicians. After a school Democratic vote, we decided to name our classes:
Zephaniah
Armstrong
Kahlo
Hawking
Johnson
Please talk to your child about what they have learned so far about these inspirational people.
Class Organisation and Curriculum Offer
We group our class’ according to Academic ability and Social, Emotional Need. This is with the intention of supporting their learning and SEND needs. Pupils are allocated to suitable classes, with high staff:pupil ratios, with the primary focus of re-engaging pupils in their education.
Currently the classes are organised as:
- Zephaniah, Armstrong (Key Stage 3 KS3)
- Kahlo, Hawking and Johnson (Key Stage 4 KS4)
This is continually under review. Any class changes are strategically planned, and all members of the school community are appropriately informed.
Zephaniah and Armstrong Class’ (KS3)
Every pupil is expected to attend full time (9am – 2.00pm). The class team will be in regular contact with parents and carers.
We do not want to disadvantage our pupils and want to support them in being able to go back to a mainstream school or a SEND setting when they are ready. As such, we follow the national curriculum and ensure that our pupils are challenged appropriately. Pupils in KS3 will be taught their age appropriate curriculum or access a primary Curriculum according to their academic ability. Pupils will access the following subjects:
- English
- Maths
- Science
- Art
- Food
- PE
- World Studies – History, Geography and RE
- Duke of Edinburgh Award
- PSHE
- Thrive
Kahlo, Hawking and Johnson (KS4)
Although we support every pupil in returning to mainstream education or moving to an appropriate SEND setting, we also acknowledge that it can be difficult for a pupil to return towards the end of year 10 or 11. As such we offer as many accreditations as possible to allow our KS4 pupils so that they can leave the school with a range of nationally recognice qualifications in line with those they would have taken prior to exclusion.
We are ambitious towards our pupils future goals. We attempt to give our pupils every opportunity to pursue their future careers, what ever they may be.
All pupils will be expected to take GCSEs in English, Maths and science. Further to this we also other alternative qualifications such as Functional Skills, BTecs, Duke of Edinburgh Awards and Food Hygiene Course. As a school we are Goals focused, as a result our accreditation result is always under review and we are also looking to offer additional qualifications were possible.
Pupils will access the following subjects:
- English
- Maths
- Science
- Art
- Food
- PE
- World Studies – History, Geography and RE
- Duke of Edinburgh Award
- PSHE
What else do we offer to support our pupils to access the Curriculum and develop holistically?
- The Thrive Approach
In order to develop healthy, happy, confident children who are ready and open to learning, we have adopted The Thrive Approach.
Thrive is an approach to working with all children. It is based on neurological evidence which addresses brain development so that all children learn to regulate their emotional responses, develop resilience and manage disappointment and frustration.
Thrive provides a way of understanding and addressing the emotional and social development of all children. It helps us to check a child’s readiness to learn, to identify any gaps and then plan to meet them. Through doing so, we will be able to make sure that all of our pupils have what they need to make the best possible progress in their learning.
For more information, please look at the Thrive website https://www.thriveapproach.com/ or contact our Thrive Leads, Zoe Newman and Sarah O’Neil.
2. Bespoke Interventions:
- Boxing Therapy;
- In School Mentor attending at least twice a week;
- Therapy Dogs once a week;
- Regular Access to our own School Dog;
- Bespoke Interventions such as Attending Farm Provisions
- Use of a Local Community Centre as a Alternative Work Space.
The list above is not exhaustive and is under continual Review
3. Weekly Rewards based on pupils working towards their Learning and Life Skills.
This has included attending a local Pool and Snooker club, Bowling, Cinema visits, Local Countryside Walks, Go Carting and a lot more!!!!
The Forge School
Curriculum Rationale (Intent)
All pupils at The Forge School will have access to an education that is personalised, engaging and will encompass a purposeful and balanced curriculum. Pupils attending the Forge are some of the most vulnerable children in the community coming to us at a point of crisis in their lives: they have been permanently excluded from their mainstream school and find themselves facing any number of challenges, directly or indirectly, associated with that permanent exclusion. Our pupils often come to us with gaps in their learning and unmet or unaddressed SEND challenges that serve as further obstacles to their engagement in learning. When delivering our Curriculum our Intent is to enable all the young people at The Forge School to develop skills to support their Learning and wider lives.
At The Forge, we want our pupils to aspire to be the best version of themselves. We have incredibly high expectations and are passionate about ensuring that every pupil is exposed to a range of possibilities to broaden their aspirations, build their confidence and deepen their knowledge of the world around them. We recognise that inequalities in society reproduce themselves because of cultural capital. Our pupils are with us because they have experienced a period of turbulence in their mainstream schools. As a result of this, many of our pupils have a negative view of education. We passionately believe that it is our responsibility to turn this around.
We want to develop our pupil’s cultural capital, so that they do not impose limits on themselves for what they can go on to achieve. By planning for cultural capital within our curriculum we aim to help our pupils who may otherwise not have a high cultural capital and, in doing so, help improve their life chances.
We believe the word ‘curriculum’ should be interpreted in its widest meaning. It is every planned learning experience the pupils have as a member of the school, both learnt formally within a lesson and informally outside the classroom throughout the whole school day. It is all the planned activities that we organise to promote learning, personal growth and development. For this reason our planned curriculum is ambitious, bespoke to every pupil and continually under review. We recognise that our pupil population is constantly changing so we also review our curriculum in order to meet the need of all our pupils.
Building our pupils’ Learning and Life Skills (Personal Growth)
We have designed our Forge curriculum with the intention of helping our pupils to develop learning skills or re-engage in their school lives. We aim to develop our pupils’ learning habits in order to prepare them for a lifetime of learning.
Developing our pupils’ Learning and Life Skills is central to everything we do; it is not an addition to our curriculum but underpins the whole learning process. Our Learning and Life Skills are as follows.
- F – to be Friendly;
As a school community we feel that this means to be collaborative, respectful, have the ability to work with others and demonstrate appropriate manners.
- O – to be Organised;
As a school community we feel that this means to be Independent, attend school every day, prepare for working life, and have all school equipment ready.
- R – to be Resilient
As a school community we feel that this means to show grit and determination, be ready to rise to challenges presented to us and to stay focused.
- G – to be Goals focused
As a school community we feel that this means to be focused on individual lesson learning objectives or questions. To be focused on weekly or long term targets. It means to be focused on career ambitions. We feel it means to be ambitious and reflective.
- E – to be Engaged
As a school community we feel that this means to ‘’lock into’’ learning, to enjoy learning and to be focused during learning activities. We also feel it means to be curious and to enjoy a range of learning opportunities.
It is our mission that all Forge pupils will be supported to:
- Acquire knowledge and skills relevant to adult life and a world of rapid and continuous technological and social change
- Acquire sound numeracy and literacy skills
- Develop a life-long love of learning
- Develop personal and moral values, respect for shared values and for other cultures, religions and ways of life
- Develop and acquire the qualities and qualifications necessary to enable them to reach their potential, progress to the next stage in their chosen learning or career pathway and compete with others nationally.
This list above is not exhaustive and will be made bespoke to every individual who joins our school community.
Subject Details
Please click on the links below to find out more about the Subject your child will be studying.
Reading at The Forge
Art
Careers
Duke of Edinburgh Award
Please Select for further details – The Duke of Edinburgh Award
ENGLISH
KS3 English Intent and Program of Study
GCSE English Curriculum Intent
GCSE English Curriculum Road Map
Food
Maths
PE
PSHE
PSHE Curriculum Intent
PSHE Curriculum Road Map
Science
KS3 Science Curriculum Road Map
GCSE Biology Curriculum Road Map
World Studies – RE, History and Geography
World Studies Curriculum Intent
World Studies Curriculum Program of Study
World Studies Curriculum Road Map
For more information on our curriculum, please contact Daniel Rogers (Assistant Headteacher) at drogers@theforge.worcs.sch.uk. Alternatively you can contact your child’s Form Tutor. As a school we are proud of every learning opportunity we offer and will happily answer any questions you may have.
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