Curriculum Overview

Curriculum map 

Intent: why do we teach what we teach? 

At The Elmgreen School, the Health and Social Care curriculum intentions are to:

1.    Ensure all learners  are challenged to think deeply, recall and skilfully apply information and supported to produce work at the highest level.

2.     Ensure all learners  learn to their fullest potential and to appreciate the subject they are studying.

3.    Ensure that all learners achieve the best possible outcomes by carefully studying the educational material given to them in lessons.  Learners  will be supported to develop an understanding as to why achieving good outcomes is important for their future goals.

The health and social care sector comprises two sub sectors; Health care and social care.. There are more than 300 distinct career paths in this sector. The sector is a major employer, employing almost four million people across the UK.

The BTECs Health and Social Care programme that we deliver at the Elmgreen School embodies a fundamentally learner-centred approach to the curriculum, with a flexible, unit-based structure and knowledge applied in project-based assessments. They focus on the holistic development of the practical, interpersonal and thinking skills required to be able to succeed in employment and higher education. Employers are looking for recruits with a thorough grounding in the latest industry requirements and work-ready skills such as teamwork. Higher education needs students who have experience of research, extended writing and meeting deadlines.

 Also, our intent at The Elmgreen School is to expose our learners to content which will enable them to include the knowledge, understanding, skills and attributes required in the employment sector. The BTEC National Diploma in Health and Social Care qualification offered at KS5 has its own purpose. The mandatory and optional content provides a balance of breadth and depth, while retaining a degree of choice for individual learners to study content relevant to their own interests and progression choices. Also, the content may be applied during delivery in a way that is relevant to local employment needs.

The proportion of mandatory content ensures that all learners are following a coherent programme of study and acquiring the knowledge, understanding and skills that will be recognised and valued. This is achieved through learners performing vocational tasks that encourage the development of appropriate vocational behaviours (the affective domain) and transferable skills. Transferable skills are those such as communication, teamwork, research and analysis, which are valued in both higher education and the workplace.

BTEC’s approach provides rigour and balance, and promotes the ability to apply learning immediately in new contexts by ensuring that delivery of content is kept up to date e.g. reference to regulation, legislation, policies and regulatory/standards organisations within the UK. 

Implementation: how do we teach what we teach? 

The overarching Health and Social Care Curriculum is driven by the Associate Assistant Headteacher who is also the BTEC Quality Nominee regulating the course standards.  However,  the Head of Department  is the subject specialist for Health and Social Care and manages the day to day delivery and curriculum planning of the course.

All learners are encouraged to aim for the mountain top and to work to their full potential, therefore they all work to the same learning objective every lesson.  However, the Subject Specialist plans for the fact that some learners will need more modelling and scaffolding, while others require greater challenge.  Therefore, the aim is to meet the learning and academic needs of all learners every lesson through the use of differentiated questioning and teaching strategies, carefully chosen resources as well as additional support from peers buddying, learning mentor and the Subject Specialist.  The BTEC specification also has a differentiated teaching and learning approach which is carefully sequenced to accommodate the those learners who need more support.

Every lesson begins with a ‘Lesson Starter or a Do Now Task to check or recall knowledge from previous lesson, prior reading task given or preparing for new learning.  Learning activities and resources are planned according to how best to achieve the learning objective of the lesson and to evidence their progress in achieving.

Data is used to record and evidence progress and allows for quick adaptation for effective teaching at various points of learning and/or to improve learning outcomes.

Teaching and learning strategies include learning from their peers, as much as from t teachers.  Question and Answer sessions, discussions and pair/group working enable learners to share their thinking and  build on each other.  There is a highly systemic approach to homework, independent learning and reading widely to acquire knowledge and skills.

Students complete regular interim assessments and checkpoint activities each term. Regular marking and feedback are provided to enable learners to keep on track of their progress.  All of this data is collected and contributes to ensuring that learners  are working to the agreed target grade or highlights areas of learning that needs to improve to ensure better learning outcomes.

Impact: why do we teach what we teach?

It is important to know how much students have learnt and how impactful their learning experience has been.  Teachers at the Elmgreen School rely on a range of assessment tools to provide data on the knowledge learners have acquired, how much they have recalled over time and their ongoing progress. Therefore, deliberate practice and assessment strategies are embedded in all areas of learning for teachers to assess the extent to which students are learning and recalling information. 

We are also keen to ensure that students master knowledge acquisition - particularly with regard to topic-specific vocabulary and the application of theoretical concepts. In addition, we want our students to be academic literate and to facilitate this, core knowledge is set out in our Knowledge Organisers.  

For teachers to be able to adapt their teaching effectively, they rely on a range of assessment tools to provide data on the knowledge pupils have and how much more they have remembered over time. 

Data used include SIMS, SISRA and Alps.

Topics covered are assessed through a range of strategies which include, rigorous informal assessments to inform progress and knowledge acquired,   carefully created written assignment tasks, and past exam papers. 

Students on the Health and Social Care programme complete regular interim assessments and checkpoints activities to:

• Allow teacher and learner to measure progress in relation to their target grade,

• Identifiable gaps in order for teacher or learner to make the necessary adjustments.

• Ascertain how much core knowledge and skills learners have mastered at regular intervals across the year.

• In preparation for their PPEs and  final external exam preparation, 

Trackers are used to enable learners to measure progress from start to finish.