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The Courtyard School is a free school for pupils with special educational needs. The pupils who attend the school have a diagnosis of autism spectrum condition and/or speech, language and communication needs. We provide a personalised curriculum for up to 48 pupils, aged 13-19. At The Courtyard we run a soft skills curriculum called SCERI . SCERI refers to Social Communication, Emotional Regulation and Independence respectively. At The Courtyard we believe that it is important to teach our pupils skills that aren't achieved academically. The SCERI targets are skills which will help students live and work independently once they have graduated from The Courtyard. These targets will change every term and are implemented through a Keyworker curriculum, as well as teachers utilising them in every lesson. We decided to use the Skills Builder platform to help support staff and students explore and developed the soft skills we are focusing on with the SCERI targets. Every student will have their own personalised targets for the term that relate to the themes under each heading.
Overall impact
We have seen a lot of improvement to the students' ability to access and understand the skills compared to how our SCERI targets are run. Staff have been able to provide lots of examples of students displaying and developing the skills every week which are shared school wide in assembly.
Keep it simple
To support students we have Key Worker sessions twice a week where students will look go through the short lesson resources and also track their progress through each skill. In lessons 'dojo points' or merits will be awarded for students displaying or developing the skills. Teachers receive a CPD session each term dedicated to upskilling them on the Skills Builder software to ensure all staff are on the same page with the shared language the school is developing around the skills. Parents have been kept up to date via the school news letter. They receive feedback on their child's SCERI target in their annual review and have access to the Skills Builder resources for use at home.
Start early, keep going
All students partake in the SCERI targets and the Skills Builder resources school wide but we do have a small cohort for 48.
Measure it
The progress is tracked by students and their Key Worker using the SCERI framework, with feedback from all staff on how they are progressing across the school.
Focus tightly
During Key Worker time students are able to role play some of the skills they are focusing on. These situations will be reinforce by feedback on any progress of these skills in lessons, at break/lunch time and in enrichment activities. Dojo points are used to give students a visual reminder of their achievement. This data is collected and shared by staff and also celebrated in an assembly each week with students achievements being read out to the whole school.
Keep practising
We had a residential weekend for students where many activities fostered opportunities for students to practice their skills which they had been developing in the classroom environment in real world scenarios. Staff used the language we had been developing in Key Worker sessions to support students with these activities.
Bring it to life
We have lots of work experience opportunities for students in the 6th form where they have a chance to practice these skills. Employers have access to training to support them working with our students and they are introduced to the language used for the Skills the students are developing.
What's next
We are happy with the way the program is running and hope to integrate the skills language into lessons more explicitly next year.
