We have a curriculum that meets the needs of the children in our academy and local area. Our intention is that children leave Year 6 with a body of knowledge in a wide range of subject areas that they can draw upon throughout secondary school, further education and in their working life. Therefore, we intend to embed their learning into long term memory and ensure it will not be forgotten.

An emphasis is placed upon the systematic teaching of vocabulary across the curriculum. We recognise that some of our children enter school having been exposed to a wide range of vocabulary but this is not always the case. We therefore intend to equip ALL children with vocabulary possessed by the most successful members of society.

We also intend to teach children the life skills that are necessary for them to be valuable members of society and ensure that our core values of respect, honesty and perseverance are weaved into what we teach along with the Christian values that underpin them such as tolerance and friendship.

Our curriculum is also designed and sequenced with the intention of children being able to apply their knowledge using skills appropriate to the subject areas including during a range of real life experiences that they may not otherwise be exposed to e.g. playing a musical instrument and learning to ride a bike safely on the road.

We have identified that our curriculum must contribute to children’s aspirations and broadening their view of the world beyond the immediate locality. Subjects in our academy such as our geography curriculum help to achieve this by progressively zooming out from our locality so children understand where the UK
fits into the wider world and they have a broad understanding of a range of cultures, trades and economic activities around the globe.

We have systematically planned learning across each subject area to ensure that vocabulary is revisited on numerous occasions across different year groups in different contexts. For example, the term Empire is taught across a range of history topics, worship in R.E. and human features in geography. This will contribute
to the more depth of understanding and remembering of knowledge and vocabulary.

As a staff, we have studied a range of theories around cognitive science and how children learn which are applied in the way we question pupils, the way we review learning and structure lessons.  We have recently begun to use knowledge organisers for curriculum subjects to support children’s learning and to help this be stored in their long term memory. These is also used to assess children’s
understanding.

Hand in hand with the above, we have a progression in skills mapped across each subject and, as can be seen on our long term plans, we offer a range of learning experiences outside of the classroom to apply them and to bring topics to life.

The impact of our curriculum can be seen in the knowledge the children have gained, this may be seen by looking at their work, by talking to them about their learning and by the results and outcomes they achieve. If you have any further questions please contact the curriculum coordinator – Mr J Rock (Deputy Head)