Curriculum principles

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Our curriculum in each of our schools is designed to:

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• Provide a broad and balanced education for all students that is coherently planned and sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge for skills and future learning and employment

• Enable students to develop knowledge, understand concepts and acquire skills, and be able to choose and apply these in relevant situations

• Support students’ spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development

• Support students’ physical development and responsibility for their own health, and enable them to be active

• Promote a positive attitude towards learning

• Ensure equal access to learning for all students, with high expectations for every student and appropriate levels of challenge and support

• Have high aspirations for all students

• Equip students with the knowledge and cultural capital, character traits and the the values they need to succeed in life

 

Curriculum Intent:

 

 

Knowledge is taught to be remembered, not merely just encountered

Tom Sherrington

 

Our curriculum intent is focused on the development of students’ knowledge and skills across all subjects, with the aim of ensuring students are ready for the next stage of their learning and beyond. Our schools, place an emphasis on cultivating proficient reading skills among our students. We strive to enhance fluency and comprehension but also to instill a genuine love for reading as we understand that reading for pleasure is fundamental to academic success and personal growth. Moreover, our commitment extends to fostering a robust vocabulary among students. Through targeted instruction and exposure to Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary, our students significantly strengthen their linguistic abilities, equipping them for success in school and beyond.

 

Our schools are committed to fostering the character and values of our students. Character education is seamlessly integrated throughout our curriculum, enabling students to develop as independent, confident and successful learners with high aspirations, who know how to make a positive contribution to their diverse community and wider society.

 

We encompass not only the formal requirements of the National Curriculum, but also go beyond the classroom to ensure knowledge is gained through enriching experiences such as careers events, school speakers, extra-curricular activities, access to sporting facilities and school trips. We believe all of these opportunities are important to develop students' understanding of the world around them and to consider their place within it. 

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We believe that a good education is essential for our students to achieve the following goals:

 

• Personal empowerment to take greater control of their own lives.

• Preparation for citizenship, so they can make informed decisions about their contributions to society.

• Preparation for the world of work, to lead happy and fulfilling lives well into the future.

• The transmission of knowledge, skills, and values from one generation to the next.

 

 

 

What you already know is the key to learning new things

 

Our curriculums across our schools are knowledge-rich and cover a breadth of information in many forms, as we believe that the more students know, the more they can learn.  At primary level there is an emphasis on mathematical fluency and essential literacy skills, as well as creativity, physical and mental wellbeing and problem solving. These foundations are further built on in our secondary curriculum phase.  We sequence the knowledge we teach to ensure a coherent flow that allows students to accumulate it over time and build upon what they already know.  

 

We believe that deliberate planning of what students need to learn is essential for them to develop rich and extensive schema. Links are made to prior learning in the students learning, both within and across different subjects. As humans, we integrate new incoming information in relation to our pre-existing knowledge about the world. It is therefore essential to teach new concepts, ideas, and skills in context because students need to flexibly adapt their knowledge and skills to all manner of new problems and settings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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