Curriculum

When a student is too unwell to attend their home school, the school will make adjustments to try to accommodate the student’s needs. If more support is needed, the school will make a referral to Lavender. (Please see Admissions page)

Our younger students will be taught within the home or community. We will follow the home school’s curriculum until the student is well enough to reintegrate back or until the school have made alternative plans for the student’s ongoing education.

Our older students, in years 9, 10 and year 11 could be offered a placement at Lavender or in community tuition. Students in provision, have often missed large chunks of the secondary curriculum. Our intent is to ensure all students have the option of recovering missed work and continuing their learning in the core subjects. Students can take their GCSE’s at Lavender and are given careers and post 16 advice within the PSHE curriculum. We also aim to provide our students with information and support to improve emotional wellbeing. We encourage resilience and positive mindsets, and work to create individualised toolkits for managing anxiety. Combined, these lead to a successful transition Post 16.

We encourage our students to become active learners, responsible for their own learning through:

Smaller class sizes
well informed and empathetic staff
screening for additional needs where appropriate
the opportunity for 1: 1 sessions
creating neurodivergent friendly classrooms
staff trained in trauma informed practice

A student information document will be devised upon entry to our services and regular reviews with the home school and other professionals where appropriate, will be held, to ensure the best possible outcome. Tuition will follow the home school curriculum.

Our timetable concentrates on the core subjects: English Language, Maths and Combined Science. Additional GCSE subjects, Art, English Literature, Statistics, Sociology and Computer Science are also offered. Our timetables are individual to each student and so there is flexibility to offer additional subjects in exceptional cases. Students can also be offered Entry Level Science, English and Maths and Functional Skills ICT. All students have a weekly PSHE session which includes our careers programme and relationships and sex education. Our week ends with a whole school assembly with a theme each week covering various days of significance and religious awareness in line with SMSC, FBV and PSHE guidance. In our assembly we celebrate individual achievements, school community contributions and attendance.

Our timetable also includes the Lavender Personal Development Programme which consists of 4 areas: Skills, Project, Activity and Physical:

Personal Development Skills: incorporating dialectical behaviour therapy skills and creation of individualized toolkits for managing anxiety for Year 11 students
Personal Development Project: projects based on half termly themes to encourage research, group work and creativity. Themes have included 'Inspirational People', 'Communication and Presentation' and 'This is Me'
Personal Development Activity: half termly projects including film editing, crafts, art, hair and beauty, board games for social skills, cooking
Personal Development Physical: different physical activities to cater for all interests including yoga and mindfulness, football, badminton, table tennis and tennis. We also offer off-site opportunities and in the past this has included ice skating, boxing and rock climbing

Our students are supported by CAMHS, Educational Psychology, Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy and specialist teachers.

Lavender Curriculum Map

	Year 9	Year 10	Year 11
English Language	All pupils	All pupils	All pupils
Mathematics	All pupils	All pupils	All pupils
Science	All pupils	All pupils	All pupils
Art	All pupils	All pupils	Optional Qualification
English Literature	All pupils	All pupils	Optional Qualification
Humanities	All pupils
Computer Science		Optional Qualification	Optional Qualification
Information Communications Technology	All pupils	All pupils	Optional Qualification
Sociology		Optional Qualification	Optional Qualification
Statistics			Optional Qualification
RSE	All pupils	All pupils	All pupils
Personal Development Programme (Including musical and cultural experiences)	All pupils	All pupils	All pupils
DBT skills practice as part of our Personal Development Programme			All pupils

2024-2025 GCSE Options for Year 11 – Lavender Campus

Core Offer

11A and 11B pathway

11C pathway

English GCSE (AQA or Pearson)
Maths GCSE (Pearson Edexcel)

Combined Science GCSE (AQA) (worth 2 GCSEs)

Statistics GCSE (Pearson)

Functional Skills ICT

English GCSE (Pearson Edexcel)

Maths GCSE (Pearson Edexcel)

Entry Level Certificate in Science

Entry Level Certificate in Maths and English

Functional Skills ICT

Additional Study Options for Year 11

Name of Course

GCSE Art and Design

Exam Board

Pearson Edexcel 1FA0

Outline

Personal Portfolio – 60% of qualification

Completed within lessons

Externally Set Assignment – 40% of qualification

10 hour sustained focus period under exam conditions in May

Name of Course	GCSE Statistics
Exam Board	Pearson Edexcel 1ST0
Outline	Statistics is about making decisions when there is uncertainty. Perhaps one of the most versatile areas of maths, it gives students the skills to collect, analyse, interpret and present data There are 2 exams in May/June, usually 1 hour 45 mins each, each paper is 50% of qualification
Name of Course	GCSE Sociology
Exam Board	AQA 8192
Outline	GCSE Sociology helps students to gain knowledge and understanding of key social structures and issues through the study of families, education, crime and deviance and social stratification (wealth, race, education) There are 2 exams in May/June, usually 1 hour 45 mins each, each paper is worth 50% of qualification

Name of Course

GCSE Computer Science

Exam Board

OCR J277

Outline

The course covers computer systems, computational thinking, algorithms and programming

There are 2 exams in May/June, usually 1 hour 30 mins each

Name of Course

GCSE English Literature

Exam Board

AQA 8702

Outline

This course gives students the opportunity to study a small range of literary texts in detail. Students will gain an understanding of the themes and ideas that writers convey and of the historical context of each text. They will learn how to construct literary essays that discuss ideas and concepts in plays, poetry and the 19^th century novel.

Texts studied include: The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by RL Stevenson; Macbeth by William Shakespeare; An Inspector Calls by JB Priestley and a selection of poems based on power and conflict.

There are 2 exams in May/June:

Paper 1 – Shakespeare and 19^th Century novel – 1 hour 45 mins, 40% of grade

Paper 2 – modern texts and poetry - 2 hours 15 mins, 60% of grade

Name of Course

BTEC Level 1 and Level 2 Home Cooking Skills (This is NOT a GCSE qualification)

Exam Board

Pearson Edexcel

Outline

This practical course aims to give students the knowledge, skills and confidence to enjoy cooking meals at home. Students will gain understanding of how to economise when planning meals to cook at home.

The course is assessed through on going practical tasks, tutor assessments and a portfolio of written evidence

Food Technology Curriculum Offer

Post 16 Entry Requirements

A Levels	Usually at least 5 GCSEs at grade 4 and above
Level 3 course	Usually at least 4 GCSEs at grade 4 and above
Level 2 course	Usually at least 4 GCSEs at grade 3 and above (Kingston, Carshalton, Merton, South Thames Colleges) Usually at least 3 GCSEs at grade 3 and above (Croydon College)
Level 1 course	3 GCSEs at any grade (Kingston, Carshalton, Merton, South Thames Colleges) GCSE English and Maths at grade 2 or above where possible (Croydon College)