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At Co-op Academy Brierley, we want to form positive and trusting relationships with our families and we know that starting a new school brings lots of new challenges and worries. Along with your child’s class teacher, we have a team of staff to support you as a family and we are available via the Class Dojo app, by phone or email, to ensure we do our Brierley Best for you. 

This starts through a home visit for all new children starting in Reception along with a personalised induction plan, including stay and play sessions in the term prior to starting school. Once children start school, we work collaboratively with families through daily communication by phone or Class Dojo, to ensure that individual needs of the children are met and pupil’s progress and ‘wow’ moments are shared.  Stay and Play sessions are also held in Foundation Pathway to involve families in their child’s learning experiences, along with celebrations at the end of each term for our ‘Fabulous Finishes’. 
 

The Foundation Pathway is the beginning of our pupil’s inspiring journeys at Co-op Academy Brierley with all children in Reception to Year 2 starting in this Pathway. Pupils with a wide range of needs access the Foundation Pathway and follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum. The curriculum is designed to settle pupils into school life whilst accessing meaningful and challenging learning experiences. In our Foundation pathway, the focus is to establish the communication strategies and learning styles which best suit the individual pupils, this supports the decisions about the most appropriate pathway for the children in their next steps. 
 

In Foundation Pathway we want our learners to: 

• Be confident around new people 
• Be supported to access different learning environments
• Finding ways to express wants and needs through the most appropriate communication strategies
• Develop play sequences and curiosity by exploring the world around them
• Develop movement and Personal, Social, Emotional Development through interactions with adults and peers in continuous provision 
• Identification of most suitable post-EYFS pathway 
• Build relationships with families 
   

Our Foundation Pathway leader has developed a three year curriculum, covering all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and giving lots of opportunities to embed new skills and make connections in knowledge through structured, adult led sessions. These sessions are very short and adults will support learners in small groups or individually to match their stage of development. 

• Communication and language development (Prime area) 
• Personal social emotional development (Prime area) 
• Physical development (Prime area) 
• Literacy; including Sound Time/ Read Write Inc phonics and TalkforWriting (Specific area) 
• Mathematics (Specific area)
• Understanding of the world (Specific area) 
• Expressive arts and design (Specific area) 
   

Learners are also supported to build ‘Characteristics of effective learning’ through continuous provision both indoors and out, where our skilled staff support their play sequences and developing communication towards personal learning goals. The Characteristics of Effective Learning outlined in the EYFS are: 

• playing and exploring - where children investigate and experience new things. 
• active learning - where children concentrate and keep on trying when they encounter difficulties. 
• creating and thinking critically - where children develop their own ideas, make links between them and develop strategies.
   

Building communication skills is integral to learning within our pathway. All pupils are treated as intentional communicators and we follow an ‘assumed competency’ meaning that we believe everyone has something to say and everyone can learn. 

The communication needs of each pupil in our pathway are observed and baselined within their first few weeks at Brierley, using SCERTs assessment framework and by our SALT team.  As a result they are supported with the most appropriate communication system/s for them to use both at home and school.  For some learners this may begin with OoR (Objects of Reference) where words are represented by real life objects. Learners may progress to visual symbols through communication boards to encourage functional communication, independence and speech.  Gesture, vocalisations, body and eye movements are additionally encouraged to express their wants and needs.  Each class team uses basic Makaton sign to support the children’s existing communication skills and Intensive Interaction is integral to supporting learners for 1:1 sessions and in spontaneous play. Daily Attention Autism, Sound Time and sensory story are planned through a total communication approach. 
 

We provide our students with a safe and nurturing learning environment where forming positive relationships and building trust with new people supports learners' mutual regulation.  The pathway uses an early years child-led approach offering pupils opportunities to make choices and develop independence skills.  

We pride ourselves in making the pupil’s first experience of school exciting and special for them and their families. In the Foundation pathway,  predictable structured routines scaffold every learning experience and support pupils self-regulation. Every learner uses either objects of reference, an individual timetable and/ or travel boards to support them in accessing new learning experiences and the different learning environments around school.  Our daily timetable gives opportunities to explore our Life skills kitchen, farm and forest school, sensory rooms, immersive suite and playgrounds. 
 

Every learner has a Pupil Passport which is reviewed termly, new targets set with parents and progress tracked using ‘Evidence for Learning.’

All families have access to Class Dojo where teachers communicate daily with parents to share photos and messages about their child's day in school. 

In Foundation Pathway we want to build our learners' communication and independence by following their interests and fascinations. Therefore provision is planned using the topic theme AND by observing learners interests and setting up learning experiences that are meaningful to them. 
 

Personal social and emotional development is integral to every session, with high adult to child ratios supporting staff to build trusting relationships and support mutual regulation. Staff support their personal learning journey through high quality interaction within areas of provision, identifying learners interests and working towards their Personal Learning Goals.

Physical development is integral to the timetable with movement sessions; indoors, outdoors and using sensory integration provision. Every class is equipped with movement areas and children access our forest school, farm, rebound and sensory rooms for targeted sessions.  All learners access daily Sensory circuits sessions.  

We use ‘Evidence for Learning’ to track pupil progress for all learners against each area of development in the EYFS at the end of each term. This attainment data is used to update individual Pupil Passports and ensure targets are appropriate and achievable. To ensure we identify our learners' successes, we have created robust progression step documents for each area of learning and teachers use these to identify next steps and plan for progression. 

Our pathway lays the foundations of  ‘what matters most’ for each individual child to create the most fitting learning path for them on their learning journey.  This is done through observing the child’s ‘communication’, ‘cognition and learning’, ‘personal social and emotional’ and ‘physical and sensory’ needs during their time in Foundation Pathway.   On-going discussions with families and professionals additionally support these decisions to ensure they are right for each child.