Oaklands – the ‘Inside-Outside’ school

Oaklands School is a very special place; from the majestic oak tree outside the school building to the spinney at the back, it is full of nature, open spaces, and opportunities to learn. Our school building is unusual: the older part of the building is built in a square with a garden and playground at the centre whilst the new part of the building offers eight additional classes over two areas all with their own break out space.  This ‘inside-outside’ aspect of the school building perfectly reflects the ‘inside-outside‘ way of living and learning at Oaklands for every member of our community, whether staff, parent or child.

At Oaklands School, we believe that our curriculum should be rich, creative and challenging in order to engage and motivate our children. The Oaklands curriculum offer comprises all learning and other experiences that we plan for our pupils and is both explicitly taught and embedded in our practices and environment. We strive to provide the highest quality opportunities for all of our unique children to achieve meaningful progress in a broad range of skills from their own starting points.

We have four pathways; Nurture, Willow, Elm and Cherry. Children are placed into these pathways based predominantly on their communication and interaction levels and their self regulation and early learning skills.  Oaklands curriculum is broken down into eight Areas of Learning which are studied by the majority of pupils; however, those in our Nurture Pathway have a bespoke curriculum focusing on the Engagement Model's five areas of engagement. Click on the Acorn icon below for more information about the Nurture Pathway curriculum.

The majority of pupils have a diagnosis of ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) and all have communication and interaction difficulties, which can mean the wider world is a very over-stimulating, confusing and challenging place to be. Our classrooms and whole school fabric are therefore controlled and calm, a low-arousal space to enable our children to relax and become more open to learning. In order to ensure that our children have firm foundations in learning when they leave us, we have developed a rigorous approach to planning and sequencing learning, supported and informed by our own ipsative assessment system OPAL (Oaklands Progressive Assessment Ladders). 

Our Areas of Learning from Autumn 2021 and related assessment frameworks are as follows:

If you would like more information regarding our curriculum please contact our Deputy Head Ingrid Spencer: ispencer@oaklands.leicester.sch.uk