Education

Personalisation is at the core of the education provided at MacIntyre School. We pride ourselves on delivering stimulating, highly effective learning in a caring, sensitive and creative environment, centred around the individual needs of each child.

Students are taught in small age appropriate groups within the Lower School (Key Stage 3 and 4) or the Upper School (Post 16 Department), created with careful consideration to individual needs. Classrooms are highly structured and visually organised to provide appropriate levels of stimulation according to individual sensory and communication needs.

Teaching makes use of a wide range of strategies to best meet student learning preferences, including autism specific strategies designed to reduce anxieties and support students to overcome barriers to learning, enabling them to achieve to their full potential. Exciting activities are designed to engage students and support them in developing new skills through a challenging, vibrant curriculum.

British values are keenly promoted throughout the school, including through the establishment of a democratically elected Student Council and a values system embedded throughout the school and celebrated in whole school assemblies.

The strong, positive relationships formed with families, carers, school residential teams and local authority colleagues and the regular communication between all are critical to the students’ happiness, progress and well-being. Students at MacIntyre School enjoy coming to school and are keen to learn.

OfSTEd Report 2017:

Teaching enables pupils to make good progress from their different starting points. This is because staff have a good knowledge of pupils’ needs and provide appropriate support to each individual. Staff across the school know the targets set out in pupils’ individual learning plans and maximise opportunities to help them to take their next steps.

Assessment of progress at MacIntyre School

At MacIntyre School we aim to give each student the richest and most appropriate education. It is very important to us to ensure each student is assessed accurately and to know exactly where they are in their learning at any given time. This enables us to develop targeted strategies and learning programmes so they can achieve the best outcomes possible.

Every student that attends MacIntyre School has a digital individual Assessment Book that records and tracks all their targets including ILP targets (Individual Learning Plan), curriculum targets from B-squared and, where appropriate, ASDAN targets. In order to ensure that all our students are consistently showing good levels of achievement a range of tools is used to effectively measure progress against the personal curricular aims and objectives of each student. This approach enables us to ensure each child and young person has the best opportunity to achieve beyond expectations.

All students who have an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or a Statement of Special Educational Needs must, by law, have an Annual Review. Every internal and external specialist that works with the student (Social Workers, Speech and Language Therapist, Occupational Therapist, Music Therapist, etc.) provides a report and input to the review as appropriate. The review highlights the achievements made during the year by the child and this forms the basis of the projection of the next year’s curricular aims and objectives.

Curriculum Overviews

Pre 16 Curriculum Overview Sixth-Form Curriculum Overview

Exam results

We are required to show exam results for our pupils at the end of Key Stage 4 and 5.

We are a school for children and young people with severe learning difficulties, autism and complex needs; in 2016, all of our pupils were working below the levels required to be able to achieve GCSE or other formal qualifications.

Pupils in the sixth form of our school do follow accredited ASDAN programmes of study. Last year all students in our sixth form achieved at least one accredited ASDAN module. 21 students achieved a total of 30 modules between them.

This year we have raised our aspirations and each student in each year of the sixth form is on track to achieve at least two accredited ASDAN modules.