Curriculum Overview

St Vincent’s School Curriculum

Aims

At St Vincent’s School we offer a broad, balanced and ambitious curriculum for pupils with sensory impairments and other needs designed to:

Meet the needs and interest of all students
Enable students to develop the knowledge, understanding, skills and qualities to enable them to become independent, effective lifelong learners, happy and successful citizens
Enable students to achieve academic success
Enable students to build aspirations and prepare students for adulthood and the next steps in their education
Promote employability skills.

The Curriculum

The curriculum and school life at St. Vincents provides all of our children, parents, staff and wider community to live out our Mission to ‘Love, Live, Learn and Grow’. We are committed to provide a curriculum which is broad, rich and deep and aims to nurture, enrich and highlight every child’s individual strengths and talents. We carefully consider how the curriculum is accessible to all through a multi-sensory approach.

With our guidance and support, our school council met in June 2025 and wished our curriculum and school to be joyful, to help everyone ‘to be as successful as they can’ be with plenty of courage and dedication, to help everyone to show their creativity which help’s everyone learn as much as they can about the world, whilst showing care and compassion to everyone they meet.

This takes place both within and beyond the classroom through a well planned and sequenced full National Curriculum with simultaneous enrichment opportunities that enable our children to live and grow. Our curriculum also considers the Curriculum Framework for Children and Young people with Vision Impairment (CFVI) so obstacles can be reduced and removed and children can acquire the skills they need to do their very best. Our curriculum timetable also gives time for children to develop their Independent Living Skills, Habitation and Life Skills, as well as time for the teaching of a specialist VI curriculum including Braille and assistive technology.

We offer a broad range of GCSE’s, some level 1 and level 2 BTEC’s and entry level ASDAN qualifications as we aim to deliver individual outcomes, enabling all of our learners to gain a flight path and route to employment.

We offer an alternative provision curriculum for our AP children, reflecting their unique needs, challenges and aspirations. Our curriculum is designed with the belief that every child - regardless of their barriers or challenges to learning - deserves a high quality, meaningful education that empowers them to achieve their full potential.

The Key Drivers to Our Curriculum

The Key Drivers to our curriculum are Success, Dedication, Courage and Creativity. We say ‘Dedication to Success’ in school, recognising sometimes success comes with lots of hurdles to overcome.

Success

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts."
— Winston Churchill

We give our children at St. Vincent’s a board, rich and deep range of experiences that help them strive to be as successful as they can be, nurturing individual strengths and talents to fulfil life long learning skills.
We aspire to introduce learning experiences and vocabulary matched to the children’s year group.
We recognise our role in helping our children and young people prepare for the world of work with confidence, developing their independent living skills and make them aware of career opportunities through experiences beyond the classroom.
We will help our children engage with the possibilities the world has to offer them and engage with communities, locally, nationally and internationally.

Dedication

"If you do the work you get rewarded. There are no shortcuts in life."
— Michael Jordan

We are dedicated to providing the best learning for all of our children, enabling our learners to take ownership of their learning, show commitment to their goals and pride in completing tasks to the best of their ability.
We will help our children recognise that abilities can be developed through hard work and dedication, not just natural talent.
We will show that success will be measured not only outcomes but by the consistent effort and determination along the way.
We will always seek to find the best research, new approaches and outside agencies support to help deliver the best outcomes for our children.

Courage

“Fear is a powerful weapon, but so is courage”
— Malorie Blackman

Through a nurturing and caring approach and environment we will support children to step outside their comfort zone, try new things, and take safe, thoughtful risks in their learning and personal growth.
We will teach our children to have the courage to question the world and ask the questions they want to ask, standing up for what they believe is right, both in and out of the classroom.
The curriculum will help all of our children and young people face challenges with bravery, learning from failure and being persistent when things go wrong or are difficult.

Creativity

"Creativity is intelligence having fun."
— Albert Einstein

We will enable our learners to become excellent problem solvers, approaching challenges with curiosity and originality.
We will emphasise that creativity is a journey; mistakes and experimentation are part of the learning process.
We will provide varied opportunities for children to explore and refine their interests such as art, music, digital technology, drama, and languages.
We will provide experiences so all pupils can work together and value teamwork, understand different perspectives and develop confidence to live life to the full.

To ensure all our children receive a high quality, broad and balanced curriculum we have implemented a range of schemes of work to ensure high quality first teaching, adapted to meet the needs of all learners.

Primary

R.E. - Religious Education Directory (RED)
Maths – White Rose Maths
English – Literacy Tree
Science – White Rose Science

Art – Kapow

Music – Kapow

P.E. – Complete PE
Spanish - Rachel Hawkes Resources

D and T – Kapow

PSHE – PSHE Association

Computing – Teach IT

History – Kapow

Geography – Kapow

Secondary

Maths – KS3 - White Rose Maths Edexcel KS4 - AQA (for GCSE)
English – KS3 English Mastery (Ark Curriculum+) KS4 AQA (for GCSE)
Science – KS3 - White Rose Science KS4 - AQA (For GCSE) - AQA - For entry level

Art – KS3 & KS4 - Oak National Academy

Music – KS3 Musical Contexts KS4 - RSL - Awarding the Contemporary Arts

P.E. – KS3 - Complete PE. KS4 - Pearson (For BTEC).

D and T – Oak National Academy Resources

PSHE – PSHE Association
MFL - Spanish - Claro!

Computing – KS3 - Teach IT KS4 - Pearson (For BTEC)

History – KS3 - Boost Learning KS4 - AQA (For GSCE) WJEC Board for Humanities Entry Level Award.

Geography – KS3 - Boost Learning KS4 - AQA (For GSCE) WJEC Board for Humanities Entry Level Award.
Citizenship - Oak National Academy Resources and Citizenship Association Resources.

Post 16

Post-16 education offers learners the opportunity to develop practical skills and confidence through a range of pathways, including WJEC Board Entry Level qualifications, which provide accessible and meaningful accreditation tailored to individual needs and abilities.

Therapies

Referral’s can be made for children to have additional therapies within the 24 hour provision, these include:

Music Therapy
Speech and Language Therapy
Physiotherapy
Rebound Therapy
Educational Psychologist

Complementary Reading

Parents and Carers may be interested to read more about the new CFVI. If you have any questions in relation to the CFVI, and how this is delivered in school, please get in touch: office@stvin.com.

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum

National Curriculum Assessment and Qualifications Factsheet Sept 2014 update

Curriculum Framework for Children and Young People with Vision Impairment (CFVI) | RNIB

Please see subject tabs for the curriculum map and progression document for each subject.