Specialist Resourced Provision

Ellenborough Academy is one of 16 schools in Cumberland who offer a Specialist Resourced Provision, which we have named 'The Nest'. 

This provision enables children with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) to succeed in school through extra help and support ensuring equal access to education to enable them to reach their potential. 

At Ellenborough we base our curriculum on the Semi-Formal Equals Curriculum.  This has been chosen as learners who are working consistently and over time below the start of their national curriculum need a different curriculum rather than a differentiated one, because the way such pupils learn is differently to neuro-typical, conventional developing learners for whom the national curriculum was designed.

Whilst we accept the desirability of providing a broad and balanced curriculum, it must be appropriate to the needs of each learner. Ongoing assessment may point to a need for concentration and intensity in one or two particular areas for some learners for a part, and sometimes a considerable part of their time in education.

The general principles of the Equals Curriculum are;

• Developmental in nature and open to personalisation – they start at the beginning of the individual pupil’s learning journey and aim for the highest level of independence possible;
• Cover all stages of education from 2 to 25 (and beyond) but are not directly related to either age or key stage. Learners fit into them where they will according to their individual abilities, interests and learning journey;
• Not related to the National Curriculum, though the common language of the P scales is occasionally used for ease of understanding.