Mayfield Chestnut

 

Chestnut Drive, Brixham.

Learning for life

 

The students who attend the Mayfield Chestnut Centre exhibit a wide range of both social, emotional and mental health and educational needs, which by their nature can impinge upon their progress. We work on trauma informed principles The school provides a flexible curriculum that addresses all areas of the individual student’s needs.

The main aim of the centre is to support children to become:

  • Confident Individuals
  • Successful Learners
  • Responsible Citizens

Where possible this results in children returning to a mainstream provision or us supporting them into a specialist provision that can meet their needs.

Staff are trained to use the PACE approach supported by Thrive activities alongside a carefully tailored individual Education Provision Plan, we offer pastoral care to the children and their families. We cover the requirements of the National Curriculum, providing a stimulating, broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum, which meets pupil’s individual needs.

  • Confident Individuals – Our learners are guided by all staff on how to approach challenges every day. This could be on the playground, in a game or disagreement, or in class in a complex learning challenge. The impact should be that children don’t give up, are highly empowered to succeed, achieve at a high standard and are independent and nurturing.
  • Successful Learners – Through the curriculum at Chestnut we strive to ensure that our children’s attainment in core and foundation subjects is in line with or exceeding their potential when we consider the invariably low starting points of our children. We measure this carefully using a range of materials, but always considering age related expectations. We intend that the impact is that children will be academically and physically prepared for life in their next school stage, in Modern Britain and the wider world.
  • Responsible Citizens – We want our learners to become rounded characters with a clear understanding of complex values like equality, friendship, trust and many others. From this they will develop a character that prepares them for living in the community demonstrating tolerance and equality. We measure this not just by the work our children produce, but in the behaviours we see each and every day in all learners on the playground, in corridors, and in the many roles we give them. Our learners will be motivated by a strong personal sense of morality. They will make decisions for the right reasons and in the best interests of their community. They will be able to decide what is right and what is wrong, and will be resilient to the influence of others.

“Learning together to be the best that we can be.”

Curriculum

Curriculum Intent

  • To encourage pupils to develop their individual potential to be happy and motivated, confident and valued members of the school and the wider community.
  • To create bespoke learning and intervention for every child based on a thorough assessment of need.
  • To promote a positive attitude towards learning and acquire a solid basis for lifelong learning.
  • To teach students to maximise their skills in Oracy, increasing the breadth of pupils’ vocabulary, English, Maths and Computing.
  • To support students to be creative and develop their own thinking.
  • To provide a curriculum that is sequenced and knowledge rich.
  • To enable students to have respect for themselves and others and keep themselves safe both in the real world and online.
  • We aim to promote self-esteem and to enable children to live, socialise and work co-operatively with others.
  • To enable students to form positive, healthy relationships.
  • To support skills for emotional regulation.

Curriculum Implementation

We recognise that all children are on a learning journey and our curriculum takes into account their initial starting point, their preferred learning style and their future destination, whilst covering all areas of the National Curriculum Learning activities are personalised and planned to provide sequential skill and knowledge development. A sharp focus on the development of reading is key, all children are taught reading skills every day through synthetic phonics, whole word reading and reading for fluency, comprehension and pleasure. Knowledge and skills are taught through imaginative termly themes,

 

  • ENGAGE – A stage of learning that provides children with an inspiring and thought provoking starting point that stirs curiosity and initiates interest. Children engage in purposeful and contextualised learning experiences; in and outside the classroom to provide the stimulus to learn.
  • DEVELOP- Children develop their knowledge, understanding and subject skills in order to progress their learning and attainment through quality differentiation, focused learning tasks and high quality relevant learning experiences. Children become industrious learners making sense of information and experiences, leading to sound understanding and progress.
  • INNOVATE – A stage of learning that challenges children’s ability to work creatively, exploring possibilities and finding solutions. Using and applying previously learned skills, knowledge and understanding children work collaboratively to innovate, managing their own learning to achieve given success criteria. Teachers provide an imaginative and relevant provocation or scenario that provides opportunities to observe how successfully children can use, apply and problem solve in creative and imaginative ways.
  • EXPRESS – A stage of learning that empowers children to share, celebrate and reflect with a range of partners and audiences. Children cement their learning through shared reflection with peers and other adults and are able to suggest next steps of learning. Teachers discuss, review and support individual and group evaluations using their observations and evidence to make summative assessments.

We incorporate PSHE, SMSC, British Values and our school values into all areas of our curriculum. Embedded within all learning experiences, children are taught to be successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors.

When topics are introduced subject specific vocabulary will be explicitly taught to enable children to access all areas of the curriculum and support the development of their knowledge. Children will be given opportunities to deepen their learning by revisiting key concepts to cement their skills and knowledge and to apply these to other areas of the curriculum and life. Themes allow teachers to plan for opportunities to challenge and extend individual learning. All teachers will ensure that sensory and physical needs are be met by providing individualised sensory and movement opportunities.

Children will be given opportunities to learn on a 1:1 basis, in class groups and cross phase collaborative groups. The school environment is designed to ensure children feel safe enough to take risks in their learning and are conducive to optimising progress.

Foundation Curriculum Overview

Maths Year – R

Maths Year – 4

KS1 Literacy – Cycle 1

LKS2 Literacy – Cycle 2

RSHE and PSHE at Chestnut

KS1 Overview

Maths Year – 1

Maths Year – 5

KS1 Literacy – Cycle 2

UKS2 Literacy – Cycle 1

LSK2 Overview

Maths Year – 2

Maths Year – 6

LKS2 Literacy – Cycle 1

UKS2 Literacy – Cycle 2

UKS2 Overview

Maths Year – 3

Chestnut Curriculum Overview

 

The Impact of our Curriculum

 

Student Council

Up-to-date Minutes for 2023

Teaching Staff

Sandra Wright

Sandra Wright

Head of Centre

Sarah Grace

Sarah Grace

Assistant Head

Lisa Jordain

Lisa Jordain

Assistant Head

Maxine Willis

Maxine Willis

Teacher

Jamie Brown

Jamie Brown

Teacher

Nicky Timmins

Nicky Timmins

Teacher

Jen Williams

Jen Williams

Teacher

Paige Spencer

Paige Spencer

Teacher (UQ)

Kaydee Prince

Kaydee Prince

Teacher

Lou Dart

Lou Dart

Teacher

Feedback

A parent expressed how amazed she was by the difference in her child after just three weeks. A child that has always hated school and never attended full time before is now sad when it is Saturday because he wants to come. She feels that we are magicians.

Parent

September 2021

“The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Keeping pupils and students safe is a priority for the school. A kind and caring approach underpins practice”

OFSTED

2019

“Teachers establish calm, purposeful and positive learning environments. Pupils have appropriate support and well prepared equipment, so they learn successfully”

OFSTED

2019

‘We are just so pleased with his progress’.

Parent

July 2022

Just had a phone call from a new starter’s mum saying how wonderful Chestnut is. Mum thought the school would be bigger and that it may feel chaotic but she was thrilled to see small class sizes and children focused on their activities, sat learning or engaged in something creative. She described all adults greeting her and and her son with a smile and she noticed adults having lots of patience with pupils. Mum’s view has been turned around as a result of her visit and she is now looking forward to him starting somewhere that is nurturing, inclusive and where the teachers are all so invested in giving the best support possible to all pupils

Parent

June 2021

Contact Us

Mayfield School

Moor Lane, Watcombe
Torquay, Devon, TQ2 8NH

01803 328375

[email protected]

Mayfield College

Preston Down Road,
Paignton, Devon, TQ3 1RN

01803 554940

[email protected]

Chestnut Centre

Chestnut Drive,
Brixham, Devon, TQ5 0EQ

01803 857242

[email protected]

Mayfield School

Mayfield College

Mayfield Chestnut Centre

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