Although we admit learners from as young as five years old, from day one our focus is on preparing them to leave us at age 16. Regardless of the age at which our pupils join us, our priority from the outset is to ensure they are ready for the next stage of their journey, be that full-time education, a traineeship, or an apprenticeship. Our curriculum, therefore, is designed to prepare our pupils for life in modern Britain, and to address any barriers to learning they experience as a result of their autism, additional diagnoses, or past experiences. We understand that at Maple Grove the learning journey, personal circumstances and educational and personal outcomes for every pupil are entirely unique, and so our curriculum strives to provide pathways to vocational and academic qualifications that match the capacity and potential of each learner. Built on both the Autism Education Trust’s Pupil Progression Framework, and the National Curriculum programmes of study, our curriculum is broad and varied, and provides pupils with rich learning experiences that are both highly personalised, and aligned to the structures that lead to formal, external accreditation.
We are committed to core British Values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect for, and tolerance of, those with different faiths and beliefs, and through our PSHEE curriculum we actively promote our pupils’ understanding of and respect for a diverse range of people, especially those who belong to groups susceptible to discrimination. As a school for children with autism, our aim is that pupils make the maximum progress possible in the areas of difficulty typically associated with that diagnosis, including their social communication, emotional regulation, and sensory processing. Our curriculum also aims to ensure pupils are able to both sustain and generalise the skills they acquire, over time, and across different contexts and circumstances. Above all, our aim as a school is to ensure our pupils leave us with the highest possible levels of independence and autonomy, whether that be through the acquisition of practical and academic skills, regulation of their own sensory and emotional needs, or effective articulation of their own choices and pursuit of their own interests and life goals.