Engagement

At Manor School, we pride ourselves on creating highly engaging opportunities to learn in order to inspire all our pupils throughout their time with us. A strong focus on communication skills is essential, as is the use of highly engaging approaches such as Attention Autism, Irresistible Storytelling, The Power of Reading, Numicon, and ABC Boom! These, along with many others, help us to bring the curriculum to life.

The Engagement Model
For pupils who are at the earliest stages of their learning and not yet ready for the subject-specific curriculum, we use The Engagement Model to support their progress. We provide opportunities for pupils to develop within the five lenses of engagement:

By monitoring pupils’ relative strengths and areas of need across these five lenses, we are able to provide structured support and enticing opportunities to help pupils increase their engagement and readiness to learn.

Self-Regulation and Executive Function
Self-regulation and executive function are outlined in Development Matters as part of the Seven Characteristics of Effective Learning.
At Manor School, supporting the development of these skills is a priority for all our pupils, at all stages, but particularly for those working towards being able to access subject-specific learning. Multi-disciplinary collaboration between teachers, therapists, and behaviour practitioners helps to ensure that strong foundations are laid.
Pupils at Manor School are supported to develop their regulation skills and to find strategies that are appropriate to help them when they are dysregulated. Our school Inclusion Practitioners, Occupational Therapists, and Thrive Practitioners are available to support pupils in learning how to access these strategies effectively.
Executive function includes the ability to hold information in mind, focus attention, think flexibly, and inhibit impulsive behaviour. Executive functioning is crucial for both learning and well-being. It involves skills that can be very challenging for many of our pupils and, therefore, forms an essential part of learning within the classroom and beyond.