Our curriculum is a practical and creative approach to learning life skills.
It has 8 strands:
Arts & Crafts
Music
Theatre Craft
Cooking
Enterprise
Nature & Wellbeing:
Outdoor Adventures
Activity Days
Our learners are empowered to make choices around their learning.
This encourages creative thinking and the motivation to work towards achieving their personal outcomes.
This approach will equip our learners with some of the crucial knowledge and skills they need for the next stage in their journey and beyond…
These sessions have a theme that runs over 2 weeks. This enables our learners to explore the theme and to evaluate and adapt their creations using newly acquired knowledge and skills, as they see fit. Most of our themes have real world applications for careers or leisure time.

This strand of our curriculum appeals to everyone’s inner rock or pop star! Who hasn’t dreamed of being in a band?! We give our learners to try different instruments – guitar, bass, keyboards and drums. They can learn individually, with the end goal of playing music together as a band! Our staff are either classically trained or experienced rock musicians and bring a fun approach to the sessions.

These sessions allow our learners to explore all aspects of the theatre! Acting, music, dance, directing, making props and running the lights or sound. All this in our dedicated performing arts space. Our staff have vast experience of performing and working in theatres in both a voluntary and professional capacity and are enthusiastic to pass on their knowledge.

This strand explores different ways of cooking. The aim is to equip our learners with the skills to make simple snacks for themselves to being more creative and planning and cooking a more complex meal. They learn about food hygiene, health and safety in the kitchen and how to plan, budget for and where they can buy different ingredients.

These sessions are based around enabling our learners to feel comfortable in thinking about their futures. The projects are hands on and can be individual or group based, depending on what the learners decide to do! Typical skills involved will be around planning the project, sourcing resources, budgeting and marketing their final product.

Being in nature has a positive effect on both our physical and mental wellbeing. Our Forest School Lead has extensive experience of working in the outdoors with children and young people with SEND and is a member of The Therapeutic Forest Approved Practitioner Network. These sessions are therapeutic in nature and are delivered at a slower pace, allowing for conversation while focusing on the skills based practical element.


These sessions are designed to promote engagement with others. Our learners are presented with a challenge or problem to solve. They must use their knowledge and communication skills to achieve the desired outcomes.

Planned into the curriculum are 3 activity days within every 12-week cycle. These take place off site. These are designed to consolidate and build on some of the skills and knowledge learned prior at Shape House. The activities are adventurous in nature and are planned and led by our staff who have a wealth of experience and nationally recognised qualifications in this field.
