Sunshine Class

Hello and welcome to Sunshine's Class page. Grace Mary Primary School's Sunshine Class specialises in supporting children with ASD and complex communication and learning needs. Our dedicated and experienced staff are passionate about helping each child reach their full potential. We focus on removing barriers to learning, providing individualised care, and ensuring that every student has the opportunity to achieve their goals and enjoy a rich educational experience.

Children in Sunshine Class follow a flexible curriculum that we have devised, based our knowledge of the children and their needs. This aligns perfectly with our philosophy of celebrating every small step of progress, which is tracked by key workers. 

The curriculum emphasises essential skills like social interaction and communication and is structured around our existing learning areas: My Thinking, My Communication, My Emotions and Wellbeing, and My Independence. Additionally, your child will continue to have termly individual targets based on the outcomes specified in their EHCP and specialised sessions for areas of the wider curriculum such as music, art and PE.

Our curriculum aims to:

• Provide engaging opportunities to expand children's knowledge and understanding.
• Offer tailored learning experiences that encourage each child to think and reflect according to their individual needs.
• Enhance children's communication skills by utilizing various strategies such as PECS, Makaton, Aided Language Displays (ALDs), and Intensive Interaction, with a focus on promoting communication and language development.
• Incorporate communication books and verbal communication within a hands-on, interactive environment.
• Enhance life skills and support personal, emotional, and social development through a variety of activities, including regular shopping trips and other offsite learning experiences throughout the year.
• Equip children with the skills needed to thrive as valued members of the wider community.

In Sunshine Class, each child has a dedicated team of key workers who know them well and provide the necessary support. Depending on the child's needs or the activity, staff may work with them individually or in small groups. The Sunshine Class offers a calm, structured environment with individual workstations for focused teaching, as well as spaces for group activities, sensory experiences, social interactions, creative projects, and play-based learning.

Please remember to regularly log in to Evidence for Learning to see the activities and learning your child has been engaged in at school. You can now add your own entries as well! If you need assistance with logging in, feel free to contact us.

If you have any questions, please reach out to one of the Sunshine team or email us at our Sunshine email. We look forward to collaborating with you throughout the year.

Sunshine's Maths Curriculum 

In our Sunshine Class, we use the Orchard Maths Framework to help children progress through mathematical objectives in small, manageable steps. To tailor learning to each child’s needs, teachers also use resources from the Learning Trajectories website.
Learning trajectories outline a natural path for children’s mathematical development, showing how they progress in understanding math concepts step by step. This approach ensures that children build on each stage of understanding naturally and effectively, helping them gain a strong mathematical foundation for future learning. Please see below for the overview. 

Sunshine's Writing Curriculum 

In Sunshine Class, we follow a writing curriculum that is tailored to meet the needs of our pupils.We use the Orchard Tracker, alongside a range of strategies adapted from the Pie Corbett ‘Talk4Writing’ programme. These approaches help to break down writing objectives into smaller, more achievable steps, allowing both staff and pupils to make steady progress towards meeting the goals of the Occupational Therapy (OT) framework. This structured approach ensures that children are supported in developing their writing skills at a pace that suits their individual needs. Please see the link below for a detailed overview. 

Sunshine's Reading Curriculum 

In Sunshine Class, we use a carefully structured reading curriculum designed to support the individual learning needs of the children in our focus provision. To help break down reading objectives into smaller, more manageable steps, we use the Orchard Tracker alongside strategies from our synthetic phonics programme. Please see below for a detailed reading overview. 

Long Term Curriculum Overview

At Grace Mary Primary School, we have developed a curriculum tailored to the unique needs and strengths of our children. Rooted in our deep understanding of their learning profiles, this curriculum is designed to be dynamic and responsive, following a three-year cycle that ensures comprehensive coverage of key concepts across subjects. We are currently in the second cycle, building upon prior knowledge to deepen understanding and engagement. For a detailed overview, please refer to the link below, where you’ll find a long-term outline of the topics and themes children will explore throughout the year across various subjects.

Autumn Term 1 and 2 

In Sunshine Class, we deliver our curriculum through an engaging, topic-based approach that interconnects classroom activities, using the central theme as a foundation to enrich the overall learning experience. For Autumn 1, our topic is "All About Me." Below, you'll find our topic map, outlining what your child will be learning throughout the term, all connected to the theme. 

During Autumn 2, our topic is "Water". Below, you'll find our topic map, outlining what your child will be learning throughout the term, all connected to the theme. 

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