A BESPOKE CREATIVE CURRICULUM

At Riverside, every student has the opportunity to engage with a comprehensive arts education program led by experienced and qualified staff.

All our young people get a well rounded education that is tailored to their needs beginning with their EHCP, the wide range of ability of our student co-hort demands a creative and student centred approach.

Teams 1 & 2, consisting of students with autism, GLD, SLD, and MLD, focus on skill development and conceptual understanding across various art forms. Beginning in Key Stage 3, pupils explore the fundamentals of art, music, dance, and drama, gaining confidence through learning, performing, and sharing their work.

They are encouraged to develop their preferences and research skills. As they progress to Key Stage 4, students are encouraged to cultivate independence and develop skills applicable to adult life. Throughout all key stages, students are encouraged to explore the arts through visits to venues, performing, exhibiting their work, and pursuing personal interests, culminating in accreditation from bodies like NCFE, Arts Award, or ASDAN.

Teams 3 & 4 (Autism, SLD, PMLD) focus on learning through the sensory and interactive qualities the Arts can offer Pupils in KS3 access the Arts through specially devised sessions led by practitioners experienced in facilitating creative work with these groups of students. This capitalises on the potential to create immersive environments that draw on practices involved in Art, Music, Dance & Drama - in which students can interact with stimuli; whether through creative movement, play, mark making or sound and rhythm.

In KS4, students have individualised learning goals based around their special interests, motivators and areas highlighted for development. These might include: learning independence skills through arts activities accessed in the community; learning about their bodies through dance/movement; engaging with art materials and art making; developing their focus, engagement and interaction skills through music making and immersive, multi-sensory experiences.

In Team 5, art is offered as an optional lesson aligned with a student-centred curriculum. Exceptional art students have dedicated time with qualified teachers to nurture their talents throughout the week.

All students are encouraged to pursue their interests and projects.

Progress in creative arts, as with other subjects at Riverside, is tracked and assessed regularly using a tiered system on the online platform "Solar." Teachers document progress through various means, including photos, film, examples of work, and observations. Students are involved in assessing their progress through plenaries or one-on-one feedback sessions. Annual reports issued at the end of the summer term include summaries of topics covered, progress made, and anticipated next steps. Additionally, parent evenings are held twice a year to facilitate face-to-face meetings between families and staff.

Ryan McClelland

We are Proud to be an Artsmark School
Through being part of this QA network, we adhere to the Arts Councils 7 Quality Principles in the work that we do;

STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE & INNOVATION.

At Riverside we realise that success is subjective, our cohort of students is complex, even in the context of other SEND schools. We welcome children and young people of all have an EHCP, our learners have varying needs both physically and cognitively.

Our main school site is divided into four teams to enable us to create the right leaning environments and conditions to meet each pupil needs, Team 1 & 2 which caters for Students who are either Autistic or have GLD/MLD/SLD. In teams 3 & 4 we have more sensory students who have less verbal language and whose needs include Autistic students and SLD/PMLD learners. All of our staff work hard and creatively to ensure we provide a high calibre student centred approach for every young person.

We believe a good education is a well-rounded, ambitious and creative one, this is demonstrated by our commitment to specialist lessons and staff, we as other similar SEND secondary schools have moved into a more primary generalist staffing structure as a cost cutting measure in recent times.

As a community we consistently support each other to experiment, try new approach and not be afraid to fail when things don’t go to plan.
Our Creative and Expressive Arts staff come from varied back grounds and bring this to their work. Our staff are all engaged in the arts outside of the school be it as Practicing Artists, Performers and Musicians. We develop lessons and projects that draw from our passions and often work in a cross disciplinary manor.

We approach and have been approached by numerous external Arts organisations to collaborate and we feel that this is testament to our drive and expertise. We are an out wood looking school and always open to new partnerships, as well as sharing our practice and experience, In recent years this as seen staff developing projects with other schools and universities, us supporting research and helping train the next generation of creative teachers.

BEING AUTHENTIC

Authenticity a Riverside looks very different across the teams at Riverside, we celebrate all out students’ achievement’s, be it a PMLD student making gestural marks with support to use a paintbrush or an MLD students playing an instrument as part of one of our school performances.
Our student-centred approach focusses upon getting to know the student their interests/motivations and abilities, creative activities are then built around the young person. Setting pertinent objectives that results in progress.
Many of our students have little or no language, are staff are experts at getting to know them and in turn advocating for them. Students in teams 1 & 2 are much more direct communicators, we engage with student voice through lessons enabling them to guide their own learning as they gain more independence through the school. More formal structure such as student council also ensure as an organisation we are promoting an authentic experience based on our young peoples need.

BEING EXCITING, INSPIRING & ENGAGING.

One of the fantastic things about Riverside is the Community we have built, no day is ever the same our students are lively energetic, inspiring and sometimes challenging. Our staff relish the challenge of meeting the needs of such a diverse cohort.
We reflect the unique and diverse nature of our borough Haringey is the 5th most ethnically diverse borough in the country. Over 65% of residents come from non-White British communities, compared to 20% in England, 55% for London and nearly 81% of our school children. 190 different languages are spoken in Haringey schools.
We see this as an exciting and inspiring place from which to work as educators, the Arts being and exceptionally engaging place in which such a melting pot of cultures can be celebrated.
All are lessons are planned and paced to be engaging and inspiring to students, we believe good SEN practice is just good teaching practice. Creating learning that can be Sensory, Skill or Conceptually based.
Many of the staff are practitioners of the Arts in addition to there work here, we have staff who record and perform their own music, create art and curate exhibitions, run dance and theatre companies. This passion for the Arts has brought together a passionate team who all engage and inspire our pupils on a daily basis.

ENSURING A POSITIVE & INCLUSIVE EXPERIANCE.

Is at the heart of our ethos at Riverside, every student here comes to us with an EHCP. We believe in a fairer more inclusive society as do our students. We celebrate the diversity of our borough through many forms, this can be taking students to galleries to see the art created by artists of colour for Black History Month, Organising theatre trips for students to see plays that celebrate neuro/physical difference such as the curious incident of the dog or ….
We create displays that celebrate diversity, design learning projects that expose our students to other cultures and assemblies that celebrate LGBTQ history on Valentines day, our pedestrian crossing in front of the school is a pride flag.
Inclusivity begins with us our students learn through supporting each other and seeing their differences as a positive, we explore and engage with our local community through regular trips out. We see this as a crucial part of what we do raising the visibility of children with SEN as well as empowering our students to access the wider world as confident young people.

ENSURING A POSITIVE & INCLUSIVE EXPERIANCE.

ENABLING PERSONAL PROGRESSION.

ENABLING PERSONAL PROGRESSION.
We pride ourselves on being a nurturing school, developing students’ abilities through their time with us. This could be cognitively, their skillset, emotionally or behaviourally. Preparing them for life after Riverside.
All students at Riverside receive a student-centred approach based upon their starting point joining us and progress they make through their time here. We have high expectations of all our students and celebrate their attainment in many ways both formally and informally.
KS4is our main exit point for pupils who move onto a variety of Post 16 provisions including FE colleges and Social Care settings, In the Arts we are proud that many of our learners leave with accreditation including awards from Art Award, ASDAN and NCFE.
We also have an excellent and ever evolving careers program that give students the opportunity to experience real life working environment’s.

DEVLOPING BELONGING & OWNERSHIP.

We are all unique and Riverside prides its self on producing confident, happy individuals who celebrate their difference. No day at Riverside is ever the same and our staff and students work together to find solutions for complex problems in a creative way.
In the creative and expressive arts both our staff and students come together from diverse backgrounds, to create a rich tapestry of a school that is a genuinely positive place to work and learn, we are proud of each other and this environment is something that visitors often comment on.

ARTS AT RIVERSIDE

A BESPOKE CREATIVE CURRICULUM

We are Proud to be an Artsmark School Through being part of this QA network, we adhere to the Arts Councils 7 Quality Principles in the work that we do;

We are Proud to be an Artsmark School
Through being part of this QA network, we adhere to the Arts Councils 7 Quality Principles in the work that we do;