Making friends is possibly the most important skill in life.
One of the key advantages of attending a school specially focused on your child's needs is that they have a group of young people around them all with similar ability and understanding so that each young person is equal when it comes to friendships. Finding out how to enjoy appropriate friendships and other relationships - from 'professional' to personal - is a central part of every pupil's secondary years. Some pupils with learning difficulties find it very hard to pick up understanding of personal and social rules and customs incidently as they grow up. Therefore they need to be taught these things clearly and directly - to an even greater extent than pupils in mainstream schools. Our intensive staffing ratios mean that we can give them all the support and guidance that they need to navigate these potentially difficult pathways. In lessons, pupils will also learn about different families, different communities, how people can help one another, what does it mean to grow up and how to stay healthy.
All pupils must be offered Sex and Relationship Education appropriate to their needs and school works closely with parents to ensure that our curriculum - that starts with "what is private" and who are "boys", "girls" and babies but can go up to meet all adolescent needs - is right for each pupil.