A journey to employment for young people with SEND – St Martin’s School, Derby

Practice Description

St Martin’s School has developed the unique SHAPE curriculum, focusing on “creating confident individuals, successful learners, and responsible citizens”. The curriculum is designed around five key elements which are at the core of all learning and lessons: safety; health & happiness; aspiration & achievement; positive contribution; enterprise. In each lesson, the teacher informs pupils which skills and attitudes will be targeted and developed, ensuring they are lived out and continually practiced. This also helps young people develop the skills and reflect on their achievement and development in preparation for employment. Due to the increased barriers SEND pupils unfortunately face, the school also specifically focuses on developing resilience in students, developing open ended tasks that don’t necessarily have a right or wrong answer.

The School also forges partnerships with a wide range of external partners (including local employers and community partners) to reduce the barriers faced by students in the job market and ensure students have broad information and experience to guide their choices. The school make efforts to ensure that students are prepared for real-life situations by organising trips to different education providers and employers, and organising careers enterprise days so that students have a real understanding of different working and learning environments. Employers are also invited to visit the school, and are invited to collaborate on real life cross-curriculum projects for pupils. Most importantly, these activities are carefully planned, and fine-tuned to suit SEND pupil’s interests, aspirations and needs. You can read our full report here.