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The Chiltern School curriculum is designed to reflect the diverse learning needs, developmental stages and individual learning journeys of our pupils. It supports pupils at every stage of development, from those building early awareness and pre-intentional communication to those ready to explore, investigate and develop more complex communication, thinking and cognitive skills.
Our curriculum focuses on developing the essential foundations for learning, including communication, cognition, interaction, independence and understanding of the world. Our curriculum is carefully structured to ensure that learning is meaningful, relevant and appropriate to each pupil’s developmental stage and individual needs.
We recognise that pupils develop at different rates and require personalised pathways that reflect their strengths, needs, interests and potential. By focusing on what each pupil needs to learn, how they learn best, and how their skills can be developed and consolidated across everyday life, our flexible approach enables every pupil to build skills, make meaningful progress and prepare for adulthood.
Level 1 - Curriculum Development - Progression Framework
This visual overview illustrates how learning develops from the earliest foundations towards increasingly complex skills and, where appropriate, adapted National Curriculum content. Our curriculum is designed and delivered in line with our Teaching Guide for Meaningful Implementation, ensuring that learning is purposeful, accessible and appropriate to each pupil’s developmental stage, strengths and needs.
For example, mathematical learning may begin with Awareness of the Environment, as pupils develop attention, anticipation, exploration and an understanding of cause and effect. These foundations are built upon through Thinking Skills, leading to Early Maths Skills and, where appropriate, National Curriculum Maths. Each stage provides opportunities to consolidate previous learning and develop the skills needed for the next steps.
This helps staff identify the most appropriate curriculum pathway for each pupil, based on their individual communication, thinking and developmental needs, rather than chronological age or a single measure of attainment. It recognises that pupils may demonstrate different levels of development across areas of learning and require different levels of adaptation, support and challenge.
Our curriculum provides a continuum of learning, from the earliest developmental foundations up to pre-National Curriculum expectations, ensuring every pupil has a meaningful starting point and opportunities to progress.
Our approach to learning:
- The curriculum focuses on broad, meaningful developmental skills as foundations for learning.
- Within each band, interconnected skills develop flexibly rather than in a fixed sequence.
- We prioritise deep learning, ensuring pupils consolidate and apply skills across contexts before moving forward.
- These frameworks underpin all subjects, supporting foundational growth in literacy, numeracy, communication, problem-solving, and thinking skills tailored to each pupil’s needs.
Planning around broad learning skills enables staff to:
- Recognise small steps of progress and incidental achievements.
- Value lateral progress and skill application in new contexts.
- Provide regular practice to consolidate and generalise learning.
- Avoid teaching isolated skills out of context.
- Embed learning in motivating, relevant activities.
- Offer choices to let pupils influence their learning.
- Build communication-friendly environments that support independence.
- Assess learning holistically through observation across the whole day.
RHSE and Physical Development:
The Relationship, Health and Sex Education (RHSE) and Physical Development (PD) frameworks are organised into stages rather than developmental bands. Unlike the Communication and Thinking Skills frameworks, these stages are not intended to represent a developmental sequence. They provide a structure for planning, teaching and reviewing learning that supports pupils’ personal development, relationships, wellbeing and preparation for life.
The thinking skills framework progresses from foundational exploration to reading, writing, and maths.
Communication and thinking frameworks outline core skills alongside incremental developmental steps, drawn largely from the Small Steps EYFS.
Pupils acquire interconnected skills holistically rather than in a strict linear sequence. Small steps guide planning, but incidental learning is equally valued and recorded via Evidence for Learning. Where higher-level skills emerge, teachers assess whether they represent isolated or meaningful learning, embedding fragile skills through regular practice, fluency, and generalisation.
Communication and cognition are baseline-assessed using the narrative CATHS framework (Sawford and Miles 2021) to track both linear and lateral progress.
Thinking skills are baselined against core competencies to inform future learning steps.
The curriculum recognises both linear development through bands and lateral progress within them. Examples of linear progress include:
- When fragile skills become established, e.g. the pupil uses the skill naturally as a part of interacting in their environment.
- When the pupil starts to demonstrate skills from the next band.
Examples of lateral progress include:
- The pupil applies the skill in a broader range of situations, with a broader range of items and with a range of people.
- The pupil applies the skill more frequently.
- The pupil refines the skill’s accuracy.
While Communication assessment follows the CATHS approach using Bands 1–4, the RHSE, Thinking Skills, and PD frameworks break down skills into sequential stages that clearly indicate next steps for learning.
Classroom environments, resources, and adult interactions are intentionally structured to foster exploration, independence, and skill consolidation using agreed Chiltern pedagogies.
Learning extends beyond the classroom through outdoor, continuous, and community-based provision, enabling pupils to generalise skills across diverse, real-world contexts.
Every skill is taught purposefully and adapted individually to promote progress, independence, and long-term preparation for adulthood.