At the very centre of  The Dysart Curriculum are fundamental “essentials” for learning, these have been categorised into five areas:

• My Environment
• My Wellbeing
• My Communication
• My Engagement
• My Daily living skills

For our pupils to be successful, we know that they need to be able to communicate, regulate themselves and engage with the world around them. These essential areas are focused on ensuring that pupils are ready to learn and so that we know how best to support them in their learning.

All pupils at Dysart will have an ‘Essentials Toolkit’ which will be co-produced by everyone who knows them!  The toolkits will be informed by their EHCP and a period of inquiry (which is ongoing) this information is to ensure that the team around each pupil has a clear understanding of who they are, their strengths, what they like/dislike how they need us to be, how they learn and how we can build on this.

For new pupils who join Dysart, the ‘Essentials’ are the focus of inquiry for the first term.  The class teacher and the team around the pupil (including the pupil themselves, the pupils family, Teacher, class team, SALT, OT, nurse, MHWB team) use the Essentials assessment pack to begin to develop an understanding of the pupil within the five Essential areas.

There may be points during a pupil’s time at Dysart where it may be necessary for us to exclusively focus for a period of time on the Essential areas ie: pause pathway progression in order to identify significant changes in each of the five essential areas.