Narnia

The Narnia setting at Phillimore Community Primary School offers an integrated provision for children in Foundation Stage up to Key Stage 2 who have Social and Communication Needs. All the children in Narnia have an Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP) and have been allocated a place by the Local Authority Placement Panel - which is accessed through the Annual Review and EHCP Assessment process.

Narnia offers a supportive environment where the learning is planned and delivered in small steps to meet the needs of the different children. Learning is accessed through play, opportunities to explore and personalised activities.  The curriculum in Narnia is broad and balanced, being planned to be aspirational for all of the children and also specific to each child's needs - ensuring that we build on their personal areas of strength.

As well as focussing on the children’s core academic development, time is also allocated to working towards their individual EHCP targets, developing their emotional literacy skills and their life skills; in order that they are equipped for life beyond Narnia.

Narnia is an Integrated Resource rather than a specialist resource.  For our children this means that whilst a lot of their learning and development takes place in the resource base, we also aim for the children to spend time in their year group appropriate, mainstream classroom. 

The amount of integration that takes place over a week is dependent on the individual child and their needs; with a focus on the children experiencing success, working alongside peers and putting into practice the targeted skills and knowledge they have been focusing on. 

If you are interested in learning more about what we do in Narnia, please contact the School Office who will be able to help you organise a visit.

The Narnia Team is Mrs Jessop, Mr Russell, Mrs Cook, Mrs Manterfield, Mrs Nisa, Mrs Senior

We have developed our own curriculum for the children in our integrated resource. 

Intent

We believe that learning should be fun, purposeful and challenging through a broad, balanced and creative curriculum that nurtures and develops the whole child, developing life-long learners who take ownership of their learning and are proud of their achievements.

Our children in Narnia are provided with a range of opportunities to be adventurous and to discover new things all the time.  They are taught to be curious and to build strong emotional regulation and resilience.  We aim to give the children a curriculum that builds strong life skills and knowledge for them to achieve their best academically.  We embed these through our Phillimore School Values of we work hard, we concentrate, we don’t give up, we understand others, we try new things, we improve, we imagine, and we push ourselves.

Implementation

W have a bespoke curriculum for the children working in our Integrated Resource.  This is closely linked to the children’s individual development and encompasses the national curriculum, development, Birmingham SEN Toolkit and SCERTS. 

We plan learning around the children’s individual needs, interest and EHCP targets.  We place a high emphasis on a multi-sensory approach, outdoor learning and communication rich environment.

We use Birmingham Toolkit, development matter, Pre-Key Staf Standards, Maths Mastery and White Rose to support the teaching of maths.  This is delivered in a multi-sensory wat to meet the children’s needs.  The aim is for some pupils to access Maths in the mainstream classroom where appropriate. 

We use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds SEND program to deliver phonics and this is taught in small groups and 1:1 with the aim for some of our children to access the mainstream classroom and groups where appropriate.  We use the Birmingham Toolkit and Little Wandle Letters and Sounds SEND program to help deliver reading within Narnia.  Writing is planned using the Birmingham Toolkit and where appropriate dictated sentences link to the current topic.  Children again access the mainstream classroom for writing if appropriate. 

Our wider curriculum is planned through using development matters, Pre-Key Stage Standards and where appropriate the National Curriculum and Curriculum Essentials.  Each half term the wider curriculum is set out using an appropriate topic chosen.

Impact

The pupils in Narnia build positive relationships with staff who are supporting them and the wider school staff.  They spend time in Narnia and their classroom with other peers where appropriate.  Our pupils and parents/carers are part of our whole school community.  We have positive relationships with families, and this helps us to support their children in the school setting. 

Curriculum

Each child’s learning journey is unique therefore children follow a personalised pathway building on skills and knowledge.  In order to consolidate key skills, knowledge and independence we plan a three-year topic cycle. The curriculum overview outlines the non-negotiable skills to be taught each half term with the topic as a vehicle for teaching. The medium-term plans for our setting form the curriculum more specifically in terms of the content of what is taught/ what activities are delivered when. This is due to many children remaining in the same provision for a number of years, so the curriculum needs to flexible in order to ensure children are exposed to different ways of learning the same skills & different contexts for learning.