Pathway Intent:
“Through meaningful sensory experiences and consistent, caring interactions, our learners begin their journey by engaging with the world around them. This pathway nurtures trust, anticipation, and responsiveness, laying the foundations for real-life encounters and communication through connection. Every small moment of awareness is celebrated as a vital step toward greater autonomy and presence.
We recognise that the earliest forms of advocacy begin with the ability to express preferences, make choices, and influence one’s environment. By embedding the principles of the Engagement Model - exploration, realisation, anticipation, persistence, and initiation – we track and celebrate each learner’s unique way of engaging, ensuring that their voice is seen, heard, and valued. The Engage and Discover pathway empowers learners to become active participants in their own lives, however they communicate, and to build the confidence to advocate for their needs and experiences through relational, sensory, and purposeful learning.”
Our learners following the Engage and Discover pathway are supported to successfully access learning by:
- A highly structured and predictable routines: daily routines are visually represented through a visual timetable and reinforced consistently to build anticipation and reduce anxiety
- Intensive use of sensory strategies: multiple, accessible sensory integration opportunities throughout the day to promote regulation and connection
- High staff vigilance for co-regulation: staff to provide constant modelling and co-regulation support as per pupils Personal Support Passports
- Communication through sensory and relational cues: implementation of objects of reference/ sensory cues/ intensive interaction strategies, on body signing TASSELS
- Minimal cognitive load: tasks are simple, sensory-rich, and focus on engagement, awareness, and connection
- High-frequency transition support: visuals and transition objects are used consistently at every movement point to include on-body signing/ TASSELS
- Immediate access to calm spaces: calm/sensory spaces are central, not peripheral, and always accessible
- Personal care support: immediate responses to personal and intimate care needs