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Curriculum Overview

“Providing students with the best possible education is arguably our greatest lever for improving the life chances of students in our care (Hattie, 2015), particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds (Wiliam, 2016).”

Curriculum Intent

Our mission is to teach students knowledge that enables students to understand the world around them. We aspire to develop every aspect of our students, to ensure they leave us as well-rounded citizens that contribute positively to society.

We believe that all students should experience the breadth and depth of our National Curriculum and beyond. As such, we teach students both substantive and disciplinary knowledge to enable all students to develop their intellectual abilities and academic stamina; thinking deeply and critically whilst providing opportunities to apply this knowledge through independent practice.

Our intent is that our curriculum:
  • Provides a broad and balanced curriculum that is truly comprehensive and accessible to all pupils. This is crucial for the life chances of the students we serve.
  • Delivers opportunities for students to learn to be successful, to gain useful, transferable skills whilst also acquiring relevant knowledge.
  • Enables high standards of academic achievement where outcomes empower students to progress to Higher Education and career choice.
  • Affords opportunities for all pupils to develop a high level of literacy and numeracy required for success in the wider curriculum and in adult life.
  • Expands students’ perspectives through a range of spiritual, moral, social and cultural opportunities to promote their sense of moral and social responsibility.

Implementation

Our curriculum is designed to supports students in developing knowledge over time. We define learning and progress as knowing more, understanding more and being able to remember more. Our teaching principles ensures that, with their newly acquired knowledge, students apply skills and retain knowledge into their long-term memory.

Our teachers provide clear, concise explanations, check for understanding, model approaches to develop moments of, and create opportunities for, independent practice and provide feedback.

As a school, we have developed a set of teaching principles through a Playbook, to help us ensure all lessons have a consistent delivery, regardless of teacher experience. Our Playbook is research informed from Rosenshine’s Principles and selected strategies from Teach like a Champion (Lemov).

Teachers are provided with the following lesson framework when delivering lessons:

  • Phase 1 – Students complete a memory starter.
  • Phase 2 – Teacher explain new content, in bite size chunks.
  • Phase 3 – Teacher models through guided practice.
  • Phase 4 – Students complete independent practice using their new knowledge.
  • Phase 5 – Teachers celebrate learning along with an orderly dismissal.

Impact

Since September 2023, the positive impact of our curriculum development* can be seen throughout the school. Teachers intellectually prepare lessons with quality resources and our students have built the stamina to complete independent, challenging work in every lesson. As a result, our teaching principles have ensured our lessons are consistent and both teachers and students have high expectations of the work completed in lessons.

*Our Teaching and Curriculum project development began in September 2023 and will continue beyond. This is available under as a separate document (2023-2024 Curriculum Project Plan - please request a copy of this document).

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