Aims of the Resource Base

At Blackhorse Primary School we are proud of our Resource Base for pupils with Autism or Social Communication Difficulties. We are the only provision for children of primary school age supporting in this area of need within South Gloucestershire.

All pupils allocated a Resource Base place have an Education Health and Care Plan (ECHP) and are referred to us via the Local Authority. Our Resource Base has a capacity of 22 children.

Our commissioned role in the Resource Base is to facilitate inclusion for our pupils and enable them to be part of a thriving school community; whilst receiving specialist resource base support. Our expectation is that by the time of the pupil’s first annual review there will be some 'inclusion' within the mainstream school taking place, for at least part of the week.

Each of our Resource Base pupils is on roll in a mainstream class as well as having a class based place within the RB. We have two classes in the resource base Cherry Class (EYFS & KS1) and Sycamore Class (KS2). We work towards including pupils, according to their needs and abilities with their mainstream peers and learning. Wherever possible our pupils participate in the full life of school during their school day and are invited to participate in trips, activities and experiences with their mainstream peers if this supports their needs and abilities at the time.

Our aim in the Resource Base is to embed a calm, structured and happy environment in which the pupils feel safe and secure and can thrive; learning and developing both their academic skills alongside their social and emotional skills, supported by an experienced staff team. We hold high expectations of all our pupils and the resource base is no exception.

The Resource Base offers an environment and skills to support social communication and life skills in context, as well as developing our pupil’s social and emotional understanding, regulation and resilience.

Each child is an individual and we aim to equip them with strategies to support them in managing day to day challenging situations with growing independence. We work towards enabling them to understand their place and identity in the world we live in to the best of their abilities and support them to become independent and thrive in their community.

We recognise that autism is a life- long condition and through a timely, well structured and planned curriculum we can support our children to develop strategies to manage some of the challenges they may face now and in the future. 

Our Resource Base Curriculum

Intent: To build champion Learners through Extensive Opportunities, Expert Tuition, Purposeful Practise and Personal Effort.

Our Resource Base curriculum is driven through the key active ingredients of extensive opportunity, expert tuition, purposeful practice, personal effort and is a hybrid of the Enquiry based Blackhorse Curriculum targeting opportunities that build ‘Champion Learners’.

The Resource Base curriculum aligns with our Blackhorse Curriculum and builds on the concepts, knowledge and skills that children need to succeed, through a bespoke three tired approach. Our intent is for all pupils to receive a high quality education that is aligned with their needs and prepares them for an independent and aspirational future.

We achieve this through explicitly teaching the school core values which underpin the schools vision of 'Building Champion Learners'.  Through our vision children are taught and experience: Respect – for themselves, their families, their communities. Pride – in their attitude and work; striving for their best effort. Bravery – to attempt things with will be hard and challenge them. Success – to aspire to be the best version of themselves. We strongly believe that when a child leaves Blackhorse they take with them the belief that they can change the world they live in for the better..

The Resource Base curriculum acknowledges the differing starting points and individual needs of the children that we teach and recognises our children’s additional SEND through a provision which is aspirational; offering opportunities to develop life skills, independence and inclusion alongside mainstream peers.

The Resource Base curriculum considers not only the formal requirements of the National Curriculum to support our children in including with their peers, but also the range of targeted and individualised learning that the school offers in order to enrich the opportunities and experiences available to the children.

Expert Tuition (embedding TEACCH principles):

Teaching – sharing autism knowledge and increasing the skill level of professionals and practitioners.

Expanding – increasing own knowledge to provide high-quality services to autistic people and their families.

Appreciating – appreciating the strengths and uniqueness of autistic culture.

Collaborating and Cooperating with colleagues, other professionals, autistic people and their families.

Holistic – adopting a holistic approach, looking at the person, their family and community.

Our provision is designated to the teaching and learning of autistic children and/or children with social communication difficulties.

We believe that every child should have the opportunity to thrive in an environment which provides:

A - Aspirational Outcomes for every child 

U - Understanding of uniqueness and self-identify

T - Targeted Teaching, Learning and Intervention

I - Inclusion opportunities with our peers and communities 

S - Skills for life

M -Modelling, recognition and teaching to support emotional regulation

You can see how our curriculum is organised by clicking on the link below: