Enjoy and Achieve

We ensure that children receive a varied, stimulating and engaging learning experience within the national curriculum, the Youth Justice Board’s Learning Journey and through a wide variety of recreational activities and special events.

At Swanwick Lodge, we provide an education curriculum, timetabled from 9.00 to 15.45, providing opportunities for each young person to experience a range of subjects and activities. We follow the National Curriculum as far as possible, differentiated to meet the needs of the individual, as indicated by their sentence or remand plan and their educational assessment. Within the curriculum, we emphasise literacy, numeracy, creativity, citizenship and offending behaviour and work-related learning. We have a highly qualified and experienced staff team, motivating young people to experience a period of enjoyable and successful education and empowering them to aspire to further education and training.

We are well-equipped with networked computer facilities in the main teaching rooms, specialist technology facilities, a library and a multi-skills vocational area.

Our young people are all of school age and our primary target is to return them to mainstream education equipped to reintegrate into their educational setting at an age-appropriate point. At the same time, we recognise that many of our young people lack the skills and base knowledge of a typical teenager and that they require support and encouragement to acquire those skills and knowledge. As soon as their assessment is complete, the young person will be offered support and, where indicated, smaller group or individual tuition in literacy or other subject areas according to need and interest. All staff will be aware of the Individual Education Plan (IEP) and targets for each individual and will ensure that all tasks are presented to suit a range of learning styles and adapted to individuals where appropriate.

Many of our young people have rejected education in the past and are apprehensive about re-entering the classroom. We provide them with a calm but energised educational environment, where they feel safe to explore and learn again. We achieve this by offering small class groups, often with less than four young people. Each group will have a teacher and a member of care staff, acting as student support, at all times. Each young person has a Personal Tutor who meets with them weekly to discuss their current and prospective education and training and to review their IEP and Individual Learning Plan with them.

At the same time there may be young people who have been attending school regularly and who are potential high achievers. We engage with these young people at their level and in whichever subjects they are anticipating taking to examination and help them to maintain the momentum in their studies. Occasionally we have young people who have completed Key Stage 4 and who are starting their ‘A’ levels. Again, their tuition is adapted to their needs. Private study may be undertaken in the young people’s bedroom or quiet area, such as the library of the Unit, and very effort will be made to encourage their progression.

Flexibility is the key to our education. Although we operate to a timetable, we recognise individual needs, interests and requirements and adapt to provide whatever is best for the individual whenever possible.

Timetable

Our standard timetable currently engages young people in English, Maths, Science, ICT, Personal Development and Learning/Citizenship, PE, Art & Design, Food Technology and Resistant Materials Technology, Humanities, Music and Work-related Learning. This timetable is enlivened by Cross-curricular topics, when much of the work in all departments includes elements of the selected topic; Impact Days, which revolve around a particular subject area; Talks and Workshops, run by visitors to Swanwick Lodge; and the World of Work, a concentrated work experience timetable. Other subjects, such as modern languages, are offered as individual or small group sessions as suits the particular group of students at any time. All subject areas can be offered to GCSE where young people have begun a course or are anxious to pursue a particular subject.

View the timetable allocation

Swanwick Lodge is an examination centre for all examination boards. We expect our young people in year 9 to sit SATs or the below level 3 equivalent. We also gain accreditation through AQA Unit Awards, ASDAN, Functional Skills, AQA Adult Numeracy and Literacy tests and GCSE.

Obviously, having many short-stay pupils,’ means that good links with the Youth Offending Team, children’s services and school placements are essential, to enabling the young people to return to education.

We are embracing the new 14-19 curriculum and are part of the Eastleigh Consortium. Although the constraints of time and space (the average length of stay is currently 2.5 months), make offering full Diplomas impossible at present. In addition, we have been piloting the Functional Skills tests in English, Maths and ICT and are intending to offer the Extended Project, where young people are entering year 12. At the same time, we are working with our colleagues in the consortium in order to be able to support any young people, who have already started a diploma elsewhere, in maintaining their courses. To this end, we have adapted a workshop to be a multi-skills environment, where young people can learn bricklaying, plumbing, painting and decorating skills and more. We are keen to benefit from the Foundation Learning Tier initiative and are keeping abreast with developments as this goes into the pilot stage. We are also developing the use of the internet and e-learning within the curriculum.