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Year 8 to Year 14 Pathways

Independence and Preparation for Adulthood is embedded throughout the curriculum. All students are encouraged to develop their confidence, make good choices, become well-rounded individuals and have an understanding about what they may want for their future lives post school. We follow a broad and balanced curriculum assessed through a variety of approaches such as OCR Life and Living Skills units, Entry level 1, 2 &3 and Level qualifications for some students in English and Maths, our curriculum ladders and last but most definitely not least the students own Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP)

We also support independent travel and will provide training for suitable candidates.

This is all part of the student’s dress rehearsal for adulthood and a life after school.

A dress rehearsal as defined by the Cambridge Dictionary is ‘the last time a theatre work is practised before the real performance, when it is performed with the clothes, stage, and lighting exactly as they will be for the real performance’ and that is the clear objective for all students at Oaktree School. Young people with additional needs will have their ‘dress rehearsal’ in preparation for Adulthood here and this needs to closely mirror the ‘life outside’ that they will go onto. A café at school that reproduces the ‘feel and look’ of a café on the high street and is managed and run by the students with support from the school or institution they are at. Pathways for students are developed alongside both the student and parent/carer and prioritise eventual employment and/or future community participation.

When the young person arrives at their 19th birthday in year 14 this should not be seen as the end of their journey but the springboard for agreed and well mapped out possibilities for the future that have been discussed and developed over the previous six years. The skills and knowledge gained by the young person within their pathway framework will be invaluable in whatever career option is eventually chosen. However, the social aspect, the friendships made along the way and the opportunity to have ‘real life’ experiences, in which the young person is increasingly independent, are just as important. In short whether the outcome is an independently supported business, an agreed career pathway or supported and/or independent community participation, the ‘dress rehearsal’ will prepare our young person for a full life after school.

For those students who may not be on a pathway (including all year 3 to year 7 students) our Voyages curriculum helps support the skills they will need now and in the future and prepare them for a life after school.

"Give a person a fish, and you feed them for a day. Teach a person to fish, and you feed them for a lifetime."

Metropolitan class is the transition class for year 7 and some year 8 students into the school pathways.