Welcome to Aspen

Aspen Special Educational Needs Unit

Orchard Academy

Aspen is Shepherdswell Academy’s Special Educational Needs (SEN) Unit for students with Social Communication and Interaction needs, including many learners with an Autism diagnosis. We support children who find communication challenging. However, Aspen is not able to support children with severe or profound SEMH presentations.

Where appropriate, we aim to support students to access mainstream classes, either for part of the day or specific subjects. Most of our pupils are learning through the pre National Curriculum and the National Curriculum, carefully adapted to meet individual needs.

Aspen Classes and Pathways

Aspen supports students across three mixed year classes (Years 3–6). Each class follows a different learning pathway, matched to students’ developmental, sensory and communication needs.

🟠Orange Class – Sensory / Structured Pathway

• Teacher: Maria
• SEN ISPs: Farzana, Mehreen

🟣 Purple Class – Scaffolded Pathway

• Teacher: Josh
• SEN ISPs: Natasha, Wendy

🟡 Yellow Class – Sensory Pathway

• Teacher: Kasia
• SEN ISPs: Marie, Ophelia

Additional Support

• Nikki – SEN Department Lead
• Natalia – SEN ISP supporting across all classes and Forest School Teacher
   

Whole Communication Approach

Aspen uses a Whole Communication Approach to support all learners. This means we combine a range of strategies throughout the day to help children understand and express themselves, including: 

• Positive verbal communication
• Visual supports (Widgit symbols and PECs)
• Makaton signing
• Simplified and structured language

These approaches are embedded into all lessons, routines and interactions.

We strongly encourage parents and carers to learn some key signs, as this can greatly reduce communication barriers at home and school. We aim to run regular parent sessions to support families with these strategies.

If you would like more information, please contact Nikki or your child’s class teacher.

Trips and Community Outings

Aspen students regularly take part in educational trips and community outings, which might include:

• Climbing centres
• Safety Centres
• Parks Trust walks
• Farms and other local experiences

These opportunities help students develop life skills, confidence, communication and social understanding in real life contexts.

The Aspen Curriculum

All students follow Aspen’s Sensory Curriculum, which supports both academic learning and life skills development.

Core Subjects

• Literacy
• Numeracy
• Science
• Humanities
• Phonics
• PE
• Music
• Arts and Crafts

Additional Learning Opportunities

• Life skills
• Gardening
• Forest School

Our overall aim is to prepare students for adulthood by developing communication skills, independence, academic understanding and real world experiences that support their next steps in learning.

Literacy

Each term, literacy learning is built around a core topic, using a range of fiction and non fiction texts. These experiences help develop:

• Vocabulary and understandingCommunication with adults and peersSentence structure and storytelling

Lessons are delivered through:

• Short teacher-led inputs
• Supported small-group work
• 1:1 learning sessions

Reading and writing form part of our daily routine, including:

• Shared reading
• 1:1 reading with adults
• Sequencing and comprehension activities

All students are encouraged to write independently at their own level, which may include mark making. Literacy learning is always supported by our whole communication approach.

Numeracy

Numeracy is taught daily to help learners understand what numbers mean and how they are used in real life. Some of the areas of focus throughout the year include:

• Number and calculation
• Time
• Shape
• Money
• Using and applying number knowledge

Teaching follows the same structured approach:

• Short teacher input
• Supported small group work
• Individualised 1:1 task

All activities are tailored to each child’s learning level.
 

Physical Education (PE)

All Aspen students take part in PE three times a week:

• Tuesday
• Wednesday
• Thursday

Important reminders:

• Appropriate footwear must be worn
• No jewellery (including earrings)
• Long hair must be tied back

Homework

If you would like your child to receive specific homework, such as a reading book or phonics activities, please speak directly to your child’s class teacher. We strongly encourage families to:

• Read with or to your child as often as possible
• Take your child to different places and spend time with different people, to help them experience new situations and develop confidence
• Support money recognition and safety awareness, such as recognising coins or practising safe road crossing

These everyday experiences play an important role in developing communication, independence and life skills.

General Information

Please ensure that your child:

• Brings their named book bag to school every day
• Has a named water bottle (water only)
• Wears named uniform, including coats and jumpers

We ask that you check your child’s book bag daily, as messages or notes from school are often sent home this way. Please also check your Arbor account regularly for whole school communication and updates.

If you have any questions or concerns, please speak to your child’s class teacher or contact the school office, who will be happy to help.