Curriculum - Areas of Learning

Each of our curriculum pathways contains five key areas of learning. These reflect the grouping of subjects but also, incorporate the four areas of SEND: Communication and Interaction; Cognition and Learning; Social, Emotional and Mental Health; Sensory and Physical. In respect of the Foundations curriculum, the Chalet five areas of learning are aligned with the seven areas of the EYFS curriculum. Our planning and timetables all follow this structure. The five areas of learning at The Chalet School are:

My Voice; My Independence; My Thinking; My Emotions; and My World

My Voice - Communication and Interaction

Communication lies at the heart of The Chalet School. Our whole school community is committed to ensuring all pupils with complex communication needs have access to and use a Total Communication system that is functional and practical for their needs, within school, home and community environments. At the Chalet School we believe that communication is the foundation of all learning. Communication is supported across the school using signing, symbols, objects of reference and communication boards as well as AAC devices for some pupils.   

This aligns with the Communication and Language strand of the EYFS curriculum wherein children develop listening, attention, understanding, and speaking skills through conversations, stories, and role play, building the foundations for literacy and social interaction.

Communication and interaction are embedded through every aspect of curriculum by focussing on: 

Total communication includes many communication strategies used consistently around the pupil in all contexts. Pupils with speech and language difficulties or more complex special needs may require support to initiate and take part in communication and interaction. We use all methods of communication available to pupils. These include: 

Opportunities to learn, develop, consolidate and generalise language skills occur throughout the school day. These include less structured times such as playtimes, lunchtimes, snack times and outdoor activities. Outdoor learning activities are used to motivate and encourage pupils to use their skills in a range of contexts.  

Two Local Authority Speech and Language Therapists attend site once a week and one therapy assistant one day a week. These professionals support the assessment and monitoring of individual speech and language programmes as well as supporting staff through CPD within the classrooms to support pupils in the most suitable way for individual pupils. They support the class teams to ensure that there is a functional communication system in place for pupils and are also involved in regular planning and review for individual pupils.  

My Independence - Sensory and Physical

One of our key aims for our pupils is that they are equipped with the knowledge and skills to live as independent a life as possible. This includes being able to take increasing responsibility for their own self care and using strategies to meet their basic needs.

This aligns with the Physical Development strand of the EYFS curriculum which focuses on improving gross and fine motor skills, coordination, and awareness of health and self-care, supporting independence and overall wellbeing.

Physical education is a core area in independence and self-care. Staff at The Chalet School understand that this subject area reaches far beyond the traditional PE curricula as it incorporates all aspects of pupil experience including sensory regulation and interoception (i.e interpreting the internal signals from their own body) as well as proprioception (i.e. their understanding of their body in the physical world around them). We work closely with our Occupational Therapy team to ensure that pupil’s physical development is embedded in all aspects of the curriculum, as well as the discrete PE lessons.

Our PE curriculum is designed to harness prior physical development skills and teach pupils new knowledge and skills, so that they can learn how being physically active can enhance and enrich their lives. The school uses iMoves scheme to develop the whole child, including resilience, communication, team work etc. The curriculum is developed to cover a wide range of physical activities, enabling knowledge and skills development so that pupils can apply these to a range of sports when they are ready. We aim for pupils to understand how to cooperate and collaborate with others as part of an effective team and promote fairness and equity of play. We present them with opportunities to compete against themselves and others to build self-confidence and perseverance. Through enrichment opportunities, we aim to give pupils access to activities such as swimming, dancing, football, trampolining and Panathlon.  

Our DT Cooking curriculum is underpinned by opportunities for children to use their senses – using taste, touch and smell to express likes and dislikes of food, developing knowledge of the techniques needed for cooking before combining knowledge to follow recipes.  We want all of our pupils to have diverse experiences and therefore exposing pupils to a range of foods from around the world widens their breadth of knowledge and understanding of other cultures. Pupils are encouraged to interact with unfamiliar foods at a stage suitable for them, developing the trust and courage to try something new. When creating and following recipes to make foods, pupils are taught how to use utensils and appliances at an appropriate age and stage. 

At The Chalet School, outdoor learning plays an important role in supporting the holistic development of our pupils and thus improve independence skills. Our outdoor learning is designed to be a purposeful, inclusive and nurturing extension of the classroom that promotes independence, curiosity and a deeper connection to the world around them. We provide a safe, structured yet flexible outdoor environment where pupils can develop life skills such as exploration, play and real-world experiences. It provides opportunities to practice and grow in independence - from dressing appropriately for the weather, navigating outdoor spaces, managing tools and resources and make choices about activities, including learning how to be a safe risk-taker. Pupils access weekly sessions with a trained outdoor learning teacher as well as accessing outdoor spaces throughout the day.  

My Thinking - Cognition and Learning

The Cognition and Learning aspect of the curriculum at The Chalet School equips our pupils with the knowledge they need to develop early reading and literacy skills; mathematical knowledge and scientific thinking skills; digital literacy and application skills.  Our pupils are engaged through play, creativity and personalisation. The extent to which different pupils engage with the National Curriculum needs to vary, according to their attainment level and nature of their SEND.

This aligns with the Literacy and Mathematics strands of the EYFS curriculum which introduces reading and writing through phonics, storytelling, and mark-making, fostering early comprehension and communication skills; and develops understanding of numbers, counting, patterns, shapes, and measures through practical, play-based activities.

Literacy

Reading
At the Chalet School we aim to immerse all pupils in a literacy rich environment. Multi-sensory approaches are crucial to ensure engagement and participation. We provide motivating resources and a reading rich environment to promote the love of reading. Pupils have access to reading materials throughout the day.  Reading is at the heart of the curriculum and each pathway has a reading route which allows pupils to develop reading skills with the aim of becoming lifelong readers. Our curriculum develops all strands of reading such as language, storytelling, sound discrimination, phonological awareness, sight recognition and comprehension.  

In the Foundation pathway early language skills form part of the reading curriculum. Pupils are immersed into a language rich environment with lots of opportunities to engage in songs, rhymes, music and sensory stories. In this pathway pupils develop listening skills, sound discrimination and build vocabulary.  Pupils accessing the Footsteps pathway develop pre-reading skills and reading readiness through songs, story sacks, storytelling, letter recognition and word awareness and pre phonics.  In the Stepping Stones pathway pupils continue to develop pre-reading skills, phonics and continue to develop reading skills through songs, story sacks and letter and word recognition.  Pupils accessing the Building Bridges pathway develop reading skills through phonics, word recognition, and comprehension skills.   

Phonics  
Our approach to teaching phonics is structured and sequential and develops pupil’s fluency and confidence. The Chalet school uses the Phonics for SEN programme. This is a complete, systematic, linguistic programme offering a simple approach to teaching phonics which supports pupils with Special Educational Needs. The programme breaks phonics down into manageable core elements, taking pupils through incremental steps in learning all the sounds at the same time as teaching and developing the key skills of blending, segmenting and phoneme manipulation. This helps pupils to understand ‘how words work’. The activities are presented in a simple format designed to limit distraction and are age neutral.  

Writing  

The Chalet School curriculum aims to equip pupils with the skills and knowledge needed to use their writing skills functionally and recreationally in school and beyond The Chalet. The school is using a ‘Talk for Writing’ by Pie Corbett approach to support the writing offer. Talk for Writing is an engaging teaching framework based on the principles of how pupils learn. It enables pupils to imitate the language they need for a particular topic orally before reading and analysing it and then writing their own versions. This has been adapted for the four different pathways.  

Pupils are supported within their handwriting journey from mark making through to letter formation though the schools bespoke 6 stages of writing boxes. The phonics lessons support pupils to learn to form letters and link these to their phoneme knowledge. Moving from writing individual sounds to letters and forming words and then sentences. See Literacy Curriculum Intent for more information.

Maths  
Pupils are taught Maths through the White Rose scheme including the Nursery subsection which supports curriculum for the Foundations and Footsteps pathways. This ensures that pupils are building Maths knowledge in a sequential way. Through the Nursery White Rose Scheme, pupils are exploring early mathematical concepts through play and the provision.  

In the Stepping Stones and Building Bridges Pathways, pupils are taught to use numbers in a functional way across all elements of Maths and demonstrate their knowledge through concrete, pictorial and abstract methods developing their reasoning skills as appropriate. This will enable pupils to secure and demonstrate their knowledge and skills as they develop increased understanding. The knowledge and skills that pupils develop will have an impact on all aspects of their lives, ensuring that they can recognise and use numbers for a range of functions and in a variety of different situations. It creates the building blocks of functional skills which pupils will need as they progress further throughout their lives. See Maths Curriculum Intent for more information. 

Computing  
Computing at The Chalet School aims to develop ‘thinkers of the future’. We want to equip pupils with computational thinking and creativity. The computing curriculum begins with the child as a whole, understanding daily routines, schedules and the key fundamentals of life, such as getting dressed, building patterns with blocks or following basic recipes. These are the building blocks to areas of computing such as algorithms. Pupils are often very adept at using some technology such as iPads and tablets when they start at The Chalet School but have no understanding of the importance of safety when using technology. We enable pupils to develop their knowledge about how to stay safe online and hold this in high regard when using computers, laptops, tablets and iPads. See Computing Curriculum Intent for more information.

Science 
Science at The Chalet School is planned to ensure pupils have high-quality teaching and learning opportunities which allow them to explore their environment at home, at school and in the local community; we know that first-hand experiences are crucial in developing pupils’ scientific knowledge. The knowledge that pupils develop will support their understanding of Science in every aspect of daily life, helping them make links and widening their understanding of the world they live in. Pupils will be encouraged to observe, predict, investigate and ask questions. We promote and celebrate the knowledge the pupils have developed.  See Science Curriculum Intent for more information.

My Emotions - Social, Emotional and Mental Health

PSHE, RSE and SMSC 

This aligns with the Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) strand of the EYFS curriculum which encourages confidence, resilience, emotional regulation, and positive relationships, helping children to manage feelings and work collaboratively

PSHE and RSE is a core subject at The Chalet School. Pupils will learn how to communicate their needs effectively, what emotions are and how to express them appropriately, how to socialise in an appropriate way including greeting people, taking turns and sharing. They will learn how to be resilient in their learning and development where they can gain a further understanding of themselves as unique people and are taught strategies to build resilience, lead independent and fulfilling lives and enjoy safe and healthy relationships. Our PSHE and RSE Scheme of Work is bespoke for The Chalet School drawn from the PSHE Association SEND Planning document to ensure knowledge is sequential and offers opportunities for the pupils to gain knowledge in a meaningful way for them. See PSHE Policy, RSE Policy and SMSC Policy. 

My World - Exploring wider subjects

This aligns with the Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design strands of the EYFS curriculum which helps children explore their environment, communities, technology, and the natural world, promoting curiosity and cultural awareness; and encourages creativity and imagination through art, music, movement, role play, and design, allowing children to express ideas and emotions.

Religious Education
Through Religious Education we aim for all our pupils to have immersive and memorable experiences to enable them to gain understanding and knowledge about faiths within their local community and the wider World. Bringing pupils together to share their thoughts and feelings, understand rules and the reason we have them and to identify similarities and differences within and beyond ourselves also links with PSHE, RSE, SMSC, British Values and is practiced every day by all pupils through circle times. Across the school pupils will take part in themed days exploring religious festivals and cultures to enable them to develop their knowledge of diversity, ethnicity, tolerance and respect. 

Music
To ensure our pupils have the best opportunity to develop and nurture their musical talents and awareness, we use Charanga, a scheme of work that teaches the pupils to listen and respond to a variety of musical genres, through the medium of singing, playing instruments, exploring form and composing their own musical creations. Charanga is sensory-rich, fun-filled, inspires creativity, and self-expression. The music curriculum at The Chalet School allows the pupils to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding to enable them to become performers, listeners and composers which is further enhanced by participation in our school choir!

The curriculum is sequential and is built on prior learning, over time, the pupils will both develop new skills and concepts, and re-visit established musical skills and concepts which supports the children to gain a deeper understanding. The music curriculum supports the pupils to develop transferable skills which will have a wider application to their lives including waiting their turn, teamwork and making a choice.   

Topic – including History, Geography 
Our history and geography curricula are designed to be inclusive, experiential, and meaningful, enabling all pupils to develop a sense of identity, place, and time. We aim to foster curiosity, critical thinking, and an appreciation of the world around them, while adapting content and delivery to meet a wide range of learning needs. As with all subject areas, the topic curriculum is delivered via a kinaesthetic approach involving sensory, audio and visual resources, with communication strategies at the heart of delivery and outcomes.

Topic overviews ensure that across the year pupils’ learning is enriched by elements of all the EYFS Areas of Learning and National Curriculum so that pupils are engaged and stimulated throughout their learning journey at The Chalet School. The topic overview is run over a two-year cycle. The topics ensure the curriculum coverage is progressive throughout the school and that the curriculum is relevant and meaningful. 

Bi-Annual Topic Cycle - Year A  (2025-2026)

 Bi-Annual Topic Cycle - Year B  (2026-2027)