PREPARING FOR ADULTHOOD

Core Skills

At Gesher, we have our students’ future in mind from day one, and we strive to provide a holistic education that suitably prepares our students for their future. We want our students to acquire the appropriate tools and skills to be an active part of the communities they wish to join, as well as be confident and passionate advocates who are able to express their strengths, desires and needs in order to be successful adults in the workplace and the wider world.

Literacy Skills

We have a rigorous programme to help our students become effective readers. To recognise individual needs, we use an adaptation of the Read, Write Inc program using synthetic phonics that connects reading, writing and comprehension. Some students will learn to read using alternative methods, such as sightword reading or other phonics strategies beneficial for dyslexic students and those with significant reading difficulties. To ensure our students also access challenging material, we use online tools like Immersive Reader and Voice-toText software.

Numeracy Skills

Securing maths skills is vital and our Maths Mastery approach focuses on exploration, clarification, practice and application over time. It focuses on small steps to learning with an emphasis on depth of knowledge where students can represent concepts or skills in multiple ways, develop their mathematical language and apply learnt concepts to real-life situations and problem-solving. Students get rich opportunities to use concrete and pictorial resources at all levels to help with consolidation and application.

ICT Skills

In a digital age, it is important that our students become proficient in the use of technology and acquire digital skills. All students will have access to a range of technology, with Chromebooks and iPads in all classrooms, and with students in KS3 onwards having their own individual laptops. Students will be supported to use technology creatively and safely with the opportunity to use a variety of devices and software to enhance communication, and research, discover, problem-solve, create and innovate.

Student Outcomes

By the end of their Gesher journey, our aim is that all students will be:

Independent Learners

Confident in their sense of self

Skilled for the future workplace

Qualified for their next stage

Builders of meaningful relationships

Ethical and responsible citizens

Life Skills

Gesher has created a bespoke life skills scheme, ‘Bridges,’ so our students can acquire the skills and strategies to successfully navigate their daily lives. The scheme is based on students achieving a wide range of life skills badges grouped within different themes that relate to preparing for adulthood. We recognise that the pathway to adulthood is not a linear one and students are encouraged to navigate their own winding path to achieving greater independence.

Qualifications

A range of qualifications open to our students include:

• GSCE

• BTEC - Levels 1 and 2

• Entry level Qualifications

• Functional Skills Qualification

• HPQ (Higher project Qualification)

• Accredited Life Skills Programme

• City and Guilds Youth Leaders Award

• ASDAN