Our KS4 programme is aimed specifically, at students who are more sensitive and find the large mainstream environment too challenging to cope with, causing undue stress and anxiety.
The programme itself targets two aspects, the first being academic needs, which focus on core GCSEs needed for the future, these being:
- AQA English Language
- AQA English Literature (An inspector Calls, Romeo and Juliet, A Christmas Carol, Power and Conflict Anthology)
- AQA Mathematics
- AQA Biology
- NCFE Health and fitness*
The second aspect focuses on welfare, wellbeing and building soft skills needed for success in the future. Dedicated lessons such as: Art; Team building; Self & Others; Warm up, all help to install confidence, self esteem, and confidence, which are fundamental components to health and wellbeing. Students will also focus on an ‘area’ each term with relation to how certain conditions impact their ability to perform: how does their breathing change if put on the spot; do they notice muscle tension when answering questions they are not sure of? By doing this students are opened up to themselves and can start to understand and deal with obstacles in different situations.
Our classes are small to cater for the needs of our students and help maximise success, both teachers and teaching assistants are available and we practise a soft, caring environment away from the large classroom environment where some students can be lost or become left behind in. Being a small scale provision, we cannot afford disruption and chaos, which is why this programme is not for your typical ‘naughty’ students who don’t want to learn, or go out of their way to gain attention.
As part of this programme, we have a mandatory 5 sessions of counselling when students start to make sure that everything is where it should be emotionally, after the mandatory sessions, there may be an option to continue if nessessary. Irrespective of the counselling, we can still offer somebody experienced for students to talk to if needed throughout the course, and we have a trained counsellor as one of our teachers.
We have partnered up with GCSEPod to ensure students are continuing to get the best support for lessons, both in and out of programme time. GCSEPod, ensure students have various learning options and also allow teachers to regulate own learning.*Health and fitness is a work in progress, and will be implemented onto the course as soon as possible.
Online and distanced learning
We are currently working on implementing full online GCSE courses for our core subjects which will allow students to work towards GCSE’s remotely and at their own pace.
In the wake of the 2019 COVID pandemic, a need was identified for education to be accessible away from a traditional setting. During this period Walk Tall used a mixture of Canvas learning management system and Zoom video conferencing to ensure our students were able to continue with their education with minimal impact.
Walk Tall hope to soon build on the success of this type of education experienced by putting together a package that will allow learners to towards GCSE’s independently, at their own pace, using online resources and tests, but with weekly guidance from an experienced tutor. By the end of the course students should be ready to sit a GCSE in their chosen subject.
Because we realise that the social skills and experiences are just as important as the academic side of learning, Walk Tall will also be offering afternoons of ‘face-to-face’ contact with other students undertaking the course, where social and soft skills can continue to be developed.