At Oakley, we have developed our own curriculum identifying the key skills and progression of steps that all our pupils need in order to successfully transition into the next stage of their lives. The curriculum has been developed using the Early Years Framework, National Curriculum and our Accreditation Frameworks and we have called this the Oakley Learning Journey (OLJ).  The OLJ enables us to track pupils’ progress from when pupil's join Oakley School until they leave. It also allows us to personalise the learning for each individual child or young person.  Our Creative Curriculum, is a thematic approach and we teach the key skills and knowledge by engaging, exploring and discovering. Our topics are rotated and reviewed on a 3 year cycle to ensure pupils have a broad and rich curriculum.

Our school ethos of “work hard, be kind, have fun and stay safe” is embedded across our Creative Curriculum.

Oakley School is organised into 4 Phases and as the pupils progress through each Phase they learn to practice, generalise and embed their skills and knowledge in order to develop skills for life and independence. The Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) outcomes and termly targets identify areas of focus for each individual child and young person to work on at school, at home and in their local community. Learning, progress and successes are evidenced on Evidence for Learning (and where appropriate in work books). Progress is shared with families through Class Dojo, Progress Meetings, Annual Reviews and in Progress Reports.  Within the Phases the pupils are grouped into Learning Pathways which ensures pupils have the most appropriate and interventions that best suits individual's needs.

Pupils are supported to access their learning through a Total Communication Approach: Spoken Language, Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) which includes, visuals, Voice Output Communication Aids (VOCA), Makaton (signing), Picture Exchange Communication System (PECs).  Staff tailor the communication to the needs of the pupils. We also ensure that pupils sensory needs are met within the classroom (see Universal Offer).

The school has adopted the THRIVE approach across the school to support the pupils’ social, emotional and mental health needs. THRIVE helps pupils to begin to recognise their feelings and find ways to manage their different emotions.  This works in conjunction with Zones of Regulation and Interoception help pupils to develop strategies to self soothe and regulate in readiness for learning.

All subjects encourage communication, collaboration and problem solving. The rich and varied learning at Oakley has been recognised by the school achieving Gold in the SMSC National Quality Mark (October 2018 and again in October 2022): ‘The curriculum is an all-encompassing example of how SMSC can be the driver of teaching and learning rather than merely relying on opportunities to occur’ and in our Challenge Partner Report (June 2022): ‘The curriculum provides relevant, interesting activities that lead towards independence from the very beginning’.