Curriculum Package

At Southway, we give hope and build healthy relationships. Our mission is simple: to ensure that students are able to see the positive opportunities that lay ahead of them, regardless of starting points, and leave us having been equipped with the academic, social and emotional skills required to make a success of their onward journey.

We offer an alternative approach to education for students who have struggled in mainstream settings, helping them re-engage, improve their attendance, and rediscover a love for learning. Through a nurturing environment, a tailored curriculum, and access to support services, we equip our students with the skills and confidence they need to thrive.

A key feature of the way that Southway works, is that student admissions occur throughout the year, as we respond to the dynamic needs of students, families and mainstream settings. This presents a different set of challenges to a more linear mainstream system.

Southway was originally set-up to offer short-term placements to students at risk of Permanent Exclusion. Over the years, as demand has grown and changed, our school has had to adapt its provision to meet additional demands.

At Southway, relationships are at the heart of everything we do. Our bespoke curriculum blends the best aspects of alternative provision, with curriculum aspects common in a mainstream school. This ensures that every student, no matter their background, can make academic progress, and achieves personal growth. Our curriculum is designed to facilitate healthy relationship development and provide access to achievement that builds hope.

We deliver a core curriculum on-site, at Key Stages 3 and 4, including Level 1 and 2 vocational qualifications, and we partner with leading local providers, including Leeds College of Building, The Hunslet Club, West Leeds Activity Centre, The Horsforth Shed, Trident Fitness, and Focus Training, to supplement that curriculum offer as well as to provide enriching experiences for our students.

We recognise that success starts with the basics: social skills, self-regulation, and resilience. By removing barriers to learning and expanding students' horizons, we empower them to be optimistic, ambitious, and ready for life beyond Southway.

Through continuous assessment and personalised support, we identify strengths, address challenges, and adapt our approach to ensure every student gets the best possible education.

At Southway, we don’t just educate, we transform futures.

“Southway has changed me. Made me into a better person, made me realise I can do anything, I’ve got a future, I’ve built courage.”

Joshua Lenane, Year 11 Leaver 2024.

Innovation and Enrichment

Cultural capital is the dominant currency in terms of social mobility and, as such, features prominently in many mainstream schools’ curriculums. Like these schools, we are committed to improving social mobility, supporting young people and their families to first overcome the barriers associated with deprivation, ill-health and disenfranchisement and, second, to expose them to experiences, knowledge and opportunities that broaden their horizons and enable them to be both optimistic and ambitious.

As such, our curriculum is forward-thinking in its design and riddled with opportunities for students to gain insights and experiences that they otherwise might not.

Furthermore, we recognise that for many students on placement at Southway, ‘cultural capital’ starts with the simple; being able to socialise and interact in a polite and mature manner, being able to self-regulate under duress, to employ coping strategies during challenging situations and to be able to present themselves in a self-promoting manner, is as valuable to them as being able to name the Lead in La Bohème.

Overview

The nature of admissions in Key Stage 3 means that classes may include a mixture of Years 7, 8 and 9 students. Whatever academic cohort they belong to, these students are likely to have had a varied exposure to the Key Stage 3 curriculum in their parent school because of issues that impact their attendance. Furthermore, admission dates and placement lengths at Southway vary.

(This inherent variability is complicated further by the legacy of the pandemic, which has affected all students but particularly those in current school Years 7, 8, and 9, who will have experienced a very fragmented end of Primary phase and little or no formal transition to Secondary).

With these factors in mind, the curriculum at Key Stage 3 has two core features:

1. It focusses as much on the development of socialisation skills and self-regulation strategies as it does on the development of academic knowledge and skills. Students in Key Stage 3 are not intended to stay with us for very long; it is critical that we help students overcome some of the social and emotional barriers that exist for them. Making students 'classroom ready' is a key feature of our work.
2. It is cyclical in so much as it needs to accommodate as far as possible, students arriving throughout the academic year and students staying for periods that potentially span more than one academic year, e.g., joining at Easter of Year 7 and staying until Summer of Year 8.