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Care Cove Alternative Provision
Our curriculum

RESET: the Care Cove curriculum

Five daily habits, one goal. RESET sits on top of qualified teaching in English, maths, science and IT, and every learner has an hour of therapy each week.

The aim is simple: young people who are calm enough to learn, ready to go back to school, and able to manage their own focus, sleep and phones for life.

Choose a letter to explore each pillar.

The goalBack to school, calm, focused and ready for what comes next
  1. Respect
  2. Energy
  3. Stillness
  4. Effort
  5. Tech mastery
Future thread: careers, money and independence run through every pillar
  • Qualified teachingEnglish, maths, science and IT, planned and led by teachers with QTS
  • Therapy every weekOne hour a week with a counsellor for every learner
  • Warm, strict adultsTrauma-informed relationships: warm and firm at once
Personal development

Five pillars, and a thread through all of them

Half of every day is RESET personal development. Each pillar has daily routines learners can name, and the Future thread runs through them all. Together they cover careers, social and emotional learning and behaviour, independence and financial wellbeing, and PE.

Pillar 1 of 5

Respect

Respect for yourself, for everyone here and for this place.

Daily routines learners can name

  • Respect Code
  • Repair the harm
  • Space Keepers

What learners learn

  • Managing anger and conflict
  • How the body reacts under threat
  • Healthy relationships, consent and boundaries
  • Misogyny and gender stereotypes
  • Discrimination and the law
  • Rights, the police and the courts
  • What community means

How they practise it

  • A Respect Circle every week
  • Restorative conversations
  • Space Keeper jobs
  • A community project each year

What it covers

  • Social and emotional learning and behaviour
  • Relationships and sex education
  • Citizenship and British values
Read the Respect Code
A day at Care Cove

RESET lives inside the timetable

Short routines are built into every part of the day, so no teaching time is lost. Choose a part of the day to see what happens.

in the school day, 09:15 to 15:45
6.5hoursin the school day, 09:15 to 15:45
of curriculum
5.5hoursof curriculum
of core subjects with qualified teachers
3hoursof core subjects with qualified teachers

  1. Doors open at 08:45, before the school day starts at 09:15. Phones go into the dock at reception. Breakfast. A check-in where each learner scores their mood, their energy and last night's sleep from 1 to 5. Then a two-minute breathing "land" before the first lesson.

    RESET in this part of the day

    • Tech mastery
    • Energy
    • Stillness

    Try the morning check-in

    Score each one from 1 (low) to 5 (great). Nothing is saved.

    Mood
    Energy
    Last night's sleep

The core blocks rotate, so every learner gets equal maths and English, and equal science and IT, across a fortnight, whether they come two or three days a week.

Core subjects

English, maths, science and IT, with a reason to learn them

Core subjects follow the National Curriculum, are planned and led by teachers with QTS, and start from each learner's baseline, so the work fills gaps rather than repeating what failed. RESET gives the content a reason: learners study their own brains, sleep, food and phones.

English: A real question to argue

Should energy drinks be sold to under 16s?

What we cover

National Curriculum, Key Stage 3

  • Reading a wide range of fiction and non-fiction, poetry and drama, including Shakespeare
  • Writing for different purposes and audiences
  • Grammar and vocabulary
  • Spoken English: speeches, debate and discussion

How RESET makes it real

Learning about their own lives

  • "My story so far": personal writing that feeds each learner's plan for the future
  • Persuasive writing and speeches on real questions
  • Spoken word and lyric writing
  • Macbeth or Romeo and Juliet through performance: loyalty, conflict and consequences
  • Journalism for a Care Cove newsletter

Where it leads

Qualifications at Key Stage 4

  • Functional Skills English, Entry 3 to Level 2
  • GCSE English Language, where it is right for the learner

How we teach, in every subject

  • Trauma-informed practice
  • Talk for Writing in English
  • Now and Next boards
  • SCERTS for communication needs
  • Skills Builder
  • Outdoor education
  • Managed laptops with filtering and monitoring

Qualifications learners can work towards

  • Functional Skills

    Recognised by colleges and employers

    • English, Entry 3 to Level 2
    • Maths, Entry 3 to Level 2

  • GCSEs

    Where it is right for the learner

    • English Language
    • Maths (Foundation)
    • Combined Science (Foundation)
    • Computer Science

  • Science and digital

    • Entry Level Certificate in science
    • Essential Digital Skills

  • Life skills

    • Working towards Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene
    • A Move Plan and dishes they can cook alone

Core planning maps to the current National Curriculum programmes of study. A revised National Curriculum is due to be published in 2027, and we will re-check every scheme of work when it arrives.

Six rolling themes

One theme each half term. Join at any stop.

Each theme links the core subjects to a pillar and ends in a real project. The cycle rolls, so a learner can join at any point, and a two-term placement covers four themes. Year 11 GCSE and Functional Skills work runs alongside.

After theme 6, round again to theme 1

Half term theme 1

Reset

  • Respect
  • Stillness

In the core subjects

English
Personal narrative, and introducing yourself out loud
Maths
Number fluency, and a 24-hour day as fractions and pie charts: sleep, school and screens
Science
The brain and nervous system
IT
How a phone and a computer work

RESET lessons

  • The Respect Code
  • Restorative circles
  • First breathing practices
  • Space Keeper training

End project

My Reset Plan

A poster plan of where I want to get to

Our standards

Warm but strict

We hold high standards because we believe in these young people, and we hold them calmly. That is why there are no exclusions, no public telling off, and repair rather than punishment.

On the wall in every room

The Respect Code

Three promises, learned on day one and said back together at the end of each week.

  1. I respect myself

    I turn up and I try. I look after my body: breakfast, water, sleep, and no energy drinks or vapes on site. I speak about myself without putting myself down.

  2. I respect everyone here

    I listen when someone is speaking. No put-downs, no swearing at anyone, no filming or sharing anyone. I use people's names. I give everyone a fresh start each morning, and I get one too.

  3. I respect this place

    I leave every room better than I found it. I wash up what I use. I look after equipment, plants and other people's things. If I damage something, I help put it right.

When the Code is broken: the four Rs

Strict here means clear, consistent and predictable. Never loud, public or humiliating.

  1. Reminder

    A quiet, private word that names the promise.

    “That's not respecting this place. Fix it, please.”

  2. Reset

    Time out of the room with an adult, in the regulation space, until the learner is calm enough to talk.

  3. Repair

    A restorative conversation the same day. Harm to a person is put right with that person. Damage to the building is put right with effort: cleaning, fixing, helping replace.

  4. Review

    A pattern goes to the weekly team meeting, the child plan and, where needed, the Team Around the Family. It never leads to exclusion.

Phones: off, docked, all day

Every phone goes into the learner’s own locker at reception when they arrive, and comes back at the door when they leave. That covers lessons, breaks and lunch. It is the routine mainstream schools now follow under the Department for Education’s mobile phones guidance, so a learner who masters it here is practising the routine they will go back to.

  • Exceptions are planned: a medical need such as a glucose monitor, a disability adjustment or a young carer’s circumstances is written into the child plan, with limited use in a set place.
  • Staff do it too: no personal phone use in front of learners.
  • We never fight over a phone. If a learner will not dock it, their key mentor has a private conversation first. If that does not work, staff hold the phone at reception, we call home the same day and agree a plan with the family. A phone is never taken by force.

Space Keepers

Every learner holds a Space Keeper job each day they attend, on a rota. Looking after the building is part of respecting this place.

  • HostWelcomes visitors and signs them in with staff
  • Kitchen Crew
  • Green TeamLooks after the plants and outdoor space
  • Tech StewardMakes sure laptops are charged and stored
  • Librarian

Leave it better. The last five minutes of every day: the whole group puts the building right before anyone goes home.

Move well, eat well

Energy you can feel

Many of our learners have stopped doing PE altogether. So we teach movement and food as fuel for the brain and the body, and we feed learners well every day, starting with breakfast on arrival.

Physical literacy

“Our relationship with movement and physical activity throughout life.”
Physical Literacy Consensus Statement for England

The aim is not sporting talent. Every young person should leave with the confidence, skills and motivation to keep moving, and one activity they actually enjoy.

PE follows the National Curriculum: tactics in team and individual games, technique and personal bests, outdoor and adventurous activities such as bouldering and orienteering on city routes, movement to music when learners choose it, evaluating their own performance, and links to community sports clubs.

Every learner leaves with

A Move Plan

One activity
Something they actually enjoy
A named place or club
For example a local basketball club, a boxing gym or a weekly park run
How to get there
Worked out together before they leave

  • MovePhysical

    Running, jumping, throwing, catching, balance, strength and coordination

    How we build it: A daily Move session, boxing fitness pad work, basketball skills with community coaches, bouldering at Pound's Park, circuits and stretching

  • ConnectSocial

    Playing fair, teamwork, trusting others, respecting coaches and opponents

    How we build it: Team games, partner pad work, and coaching and refereeing younger players

  • ThinkCognitive

    Tactics and rules, how training changes the body, planning their own session

    How we build it: Comparing performance with last time, designing a 20-minute workout, and science links to the heart, lungs and muscles

  • FeelEmotional

    Confidence, enjoyment and motivation, and using movement to manage mood

    How we build it: Personal bests, not rankings. A choice of activity. Movement used to regulate, never as a punishment

A coach and young people doing basketball drills in a large sports hall

Nutrition and cooking

Breakfast on arrival, and a hot meal cooked fresh on site every day to the School Food Standards. Lessons follow the cooking and nutrition part of the Key Stage 3 National Curriculum and link to science on diet and digestion.

Food is taught safely

We never talk with learners about weight, calories, dieting or “good” and “bad” foods, and nobody is weighed or measured. If a learner shows signs of disordered eating, our clinical adviser is involved before any approach is agreed. Cultural, religious, vegetarian, vegan and medical diets and allergies are catered for as standard.

Young people sharing food and talking around a table

On the menu

Food and nutrition

  • The Eatwell Guide

    The main food groups, and what a balanced day of eating looks like

    Building a balanced plate at Family Table, and helping plan the menu each half term

  • Food for focus

    Why breakfast, water and steady energy help concentration, and what sugary and high-caffeine drinks do

    Sleep Lab and Focus Sprint data, and the energy drinks debate

  • Reading labels

    Traffic-light labels, sugar, salt and caffeine, portion sizes and marketing tricks

    Maths lessons with real packaging, and supermarket price and label comparisons

  • Fuel for sport

    Protein, carbohydrates and water for training, growth and recovery

    Linked to the boxing and basketball sessions

  • Cooking from scratch

    Mostly savoury dishes they can cook for themselves and others: knife skills, safe use of heat, seasoning, adapting recipes

    Weekly cooking in our kitchen, and the Care Cove Cookbook

  • Shopping and budgeting

    Planning a week of meals on a set budget, comparing prices and cutting waste

    Real shopping trips, and money lessons

  • Food safety

    Hygiene, allergens, and storing and reheating food safely

    Working towards Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene

  • Food and culture

    Dishes from learners' own families and cultures

    Learner-led recipes, and a family showcase meal

Stillness, taught safely

Short, practical and always chosen

Many of our learners have lived through trauma, and silence or closed eyes can feel unsafe. So mindfulness at Care Cove is short and practical, and nobody is ever made to do it.

  1. Practices last 60 to 90 seconds at first, and are never longer than 5 minutes.
  2. Eyes open is always fine. Learners choose their anchor: breath, feet on the floor, a sound or an object.
  3. Breathing comes before "meditation": a long out-breath, box breathing, five senses grounding.
  4. Nobody is made to take part, and stillness is never used as a punishment.
  5. Our counsellors review the practices, and any learner who becomes distressed is followed up the same day.
  6. After a few weeks, learners lead the Reset Minute themselves.

Something real to take back to school

The Calm Kit

Each learner builds a small personal kit to use in a mainstream classroom on a hard day.

  • A breathing card

    A long out-breath, box breathing or five senses grounding, on a card that fits in a pocket.

  • A grounding object

    Something small to hold that brings attention back to the room.

  • A playlist on paper

    The songs that settle them, written down, so it works without a phone.

  • A trusted adult

    The name of the person to go to on a hard day.

A breathing card. Trace the square with a finger: breathe in for four, hold for four, breathe out for four, hold for four. Eyes open is fine.

Signature routines

What you notice within an hour of walking in

Care Cove

RESET Passport

Badges earned by showing it

  • Respect
  • Energy
  • Stillness
  • Effort
  • Tech mastery

The RESET Passport. Each learner earns a badge for every pillar by showing it, not just by turning up: five nights of 8 hours’ sleep logged, for example, or leading a Reset Minute. The passport goes with them to their next school, as a ready-made list of what works for them.

All 8 routines

  • Sleep Lab

    Energy

    A two-week sleep diary at the start of a placement and again later. Learners chart their own data in maths, explain it in science, and test one change: the phone out of the bedroom, or an earlier wake-up.

    Why it matters: Turns sleep advice into an experiment the learner owns.

  • Digital Detox Challenge

    Tech mastery

    An opt-in weekend challenge, set with the family: the phone charges outside the bedroom, and no screens for the hour before bed. Reported at the next check-in, and celebrated.

    Why it matters: The school day is already phone-free. This carries the habit home, where most screen time happens.

  • Unplugged Club

    Tech masteryRespect

    Chess, cards, board games, drawing and music at breaks and lunch.

    Why it matters: Gives hands something to do when the phone is gone, and builds conversation.

  • Walk and Talk

    StillnessRespect

    Mentoring conversations on a walk to Devonshire Green, rather than across a desk.

    Why it matters: Many young people talk more easily side by side.

  • Boxing fitness and basketball

    EnergyRespect

    Non-contact pad work with our boxing coach, and basketball with community coaches.

    Why it matters: Discipline, respect for the coach and the opponent, and a fitness routine they can keep.

  • Respect Circle

    Respect

    Once a week the group sits in a circle: what respect looked like this week, one shout-out each, and anything to repair.

    Why it matters: Makes the Respect Code a shared habit rather than a poster.

  • Teach It Back

    EffortStillnessEnergy

    Learners teach a breathing technique, a sleep fact or a recipe to a parent, a visitor or a new learner.

    Why it matters: Teaching something is the strongest proof you have learned it, and it builds pride.

  • Focus Sprints

    Effort

    Timed blocks of single-tasking with an analogue timer, starting at 10 minutes and building to 25.

    Why it matters: Attention is something you can train, and the teacher records each learner's longest sprint, so they can see it grow.

Working with families

RESET works at home too

Most phone use and almost all sleep happen at home, so RESET only works if families are in on it. We work with families as partners, never to tell anyone off.

Agreed at the welcome meeting

The Family Tech Plan

  • Phones charge overnight outside the bedroom, as the NHS sleep service advises
  • A wake-up time that stays within two hours on school days and weekends
  • No screens in the hour before bed

Families choose the details, and we help them stick to them.

Learner
Parent or carer
Key mentor

The weekly RESET postcard

“This week your child led the Reset Minute for the whole group.”

An example. Every week we name one specific thing your child did well against the Respect Code or a pillar.

  • Sleep and Screens workshop

    Once a half term, over breakfast: how teenage body clocks work, and setting up screen time controls on the family's own phones.

  • Showcases

    Families are invited to the end-of-theme projects: the cookbook meal, the spoken word showcase and Pitch Day.

  • No judgement

    Parents struggle with their own phones too. Workshops are practical and friendly, and the Family Tech Plan can apply to the adults at home if the family wants it to.

Measuring impact

How we know it is working

Alongside the standard measures, RESET adds simple ones of its own: sleep, screen time, focus, respect, mood, movement and food. That way we can show whether the approach works, and drop what does not.

  • Social, emotional and behavioural progress

    Boxall Profile, and the SDQ completed by the learner and a parent

    Boxall each half term, SDQ each term

  • Mood and energy

    Stillness

    The morning check-in scores

    Daily

  • Respect

    Respect

    Respect moments and repairs, and Space Keeper jobs done

    Daily

  • Focus

    Effort

    The longest Focus Sprint completed, recorded by the teacher

    Every core lesson

  • Screen time

    Tech mastery

    Weekly screen time from the learner's own phone settings, shared at the first check-in of the week

    Weekly

  • Sleep

    Energy

    The learner's own sleep diary: hours and wake-up time

    Two weeks at entry, then each half term

  • Physical literacy

    Energy

    The learner's own rating of confidence, enjoyment and motivation to move, and personal bests

    At entry, then each half term

  • Food and cooking

    Energy

    Breakfast taken, dishes the learner can cook alone, and food safety progress

    Daily, and each term

  • Voice

    Surveys of learners, parents and schools

    Each half term, and when a learner leaves

We will review RESET itself at the end of its first full term, at Easter 2027: which routines learners rate, which measures moved, and what to change.

What the evidence says, and how we designed around it

Two of the big ideas behind RESET, mindfulness and phone bans, have weaker evidence than most people assume. So we built the curriculum to avoid the known traps rather than ignore them.

Sources include the MYRIAD trial, the University of Birmingham SMART Schools study, the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS sleep service, the Education Endowment Foundation and the Skills Builder Partnership.

Mindfulness in schools

What the research found

The MYRIAD trial gave about 7,250 pupils aged 11 to 13 in 85 UK schools either ten mindfulness lessons or their usual teaching. It found no benefit over usual social and emotional teaching, little practice at home, and signs that pupils already at risk of mental health problems did worse.

How RESET responds

No long, one-size mindfulness course. Short, optional, eyes-open breathing and grounding, chosen by the learner, reviewed by our counsellors, led by learners over time, and measured.

Phone bans

What the research found

The SMART Schools study from the University of Birmingham (1,227 pupils in 30 English schools) found restrictive school phone policies on their own made no difference to wellbeing, sleep, attainment or behaviour. But pupils averaged 4 to 6 hours a day on phones, and more phone and social media time went with worse mental health, sleep, attainment and behaviour.

How RESET responds

The phone-free day is the start, not the whole answer. Tech mastery lessons, the Family Tech Plan and the Digital Detox Challenge target total use, including evenings.

Sleep

What the research found

Teenagers aged 13 to 18 need 8 to 10 hours. Screens before bed, too little daylight and afternoon caffeine all push sleep later (Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS sleep service).

How RESET responds

The Sleep Lab, time outdoors every day, no energy drinks on site, and devices charged outside bedrooms in the Family Tech Plan.

Teaching learners to manage their own learning

What the research found

Metacognition and self-regulation adds about eight months' progress, with strong evidence, and disadvantaged pupils are less likely to use these strategies unless they are taught them directly (Education Endowment Foundation).

How RESET responds

Focus Gym teaches plan, monitor and review step by step, inside every core lesson.

Essential skills

What the research found

The Skills Builder Universal Framework breaks eight essential skills into steps that learners can see themselves climb.

How RESET responds

Skills Builder steps sit in each learner's child plan.

Questions

Curriculum questions

RESET is the Care Cove curriculum. It is built on five daily habits, Respect, Energy, Stillness, Effort and Tech mastery, with a Future thread of careers, money and independence running through them. It sits on top of English, maths, science and IT taught by qualified teachers, and every learner has an hour of therapy a week.
Ready when you are

Every learner's plan is their own.

Talk to us about a young person's needs, and we will show you how RESET and the core curriculum can work for them.

Make a referral Contact our team