Curriculum Information

Intent

Our aim is to provide an excellent education for all our pupils; an education which brings out the best in all of them and prepares them for success in life. Our curriculum is designed to provide children with the core knowledge they need for success in education and later life, to maximise their cognitive development, to develop the whole person and the talents of the individual and to allow all children to become active and economically self-sufficient citizens.

By teaching our curriculum well we develop pupils’ cultural capital: “the essential knowledge that pupils need to be educated citizens, introducing them to the best that has been thought and said and helping to engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement.” (DfE National Curriculum, 2014)

We draw on Michael Young’s distinction between ‘the knowledge of the powerful’ and ‘powerful knowledge’: “Powerful knowledge ensures that people are not trapped by the limits of their experiences.” Yet we also want all pupils to be able to see themselves in our curriculum. Our 2020-21 review into the Diversity and Inclusion of our curriculum included a commitment to this dual function of curriculum: that all pupils see themselves in our curriculum, and our curriculum takes all pupils beyond their immediate experience. This, and the other guiding principles for our curriculum, are stated here:

• Entitlement: All pupils have the right to learn what is in the United Learning curriculum, and schools have a duty to ensure that all pupils are taught the whole of it.
• Coherence: Taking the National Curriculum as its starting point, our curriculum is carefully sequenced so that powerful knowledge builds term by term and year by year. We make meaningful connections within subjects and between subjects.
• Mastery: We ensure that foundational knowledge, skills and concepts are secure before moving on. Pupils revisit prior learning and apply their understanding in new contexts.
• Adaptability: The core content – the ‘what’ – of the curriculum is stable, but schools will bring it to life in their own local context, and teachers will adapt lessons – the ‘how’ – to meet the needs of their own classes.
• Representation: All pupils see themselves in our curriculum, and our curriculum takes all pupils beyond their immediate experience.
• Education with character: Our curriculum - which includes the taught subject timetable as well as spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, our co-curricular provision and the ethos and ‘hidden curriculum’ of the school – is intended to spark curiosity and to nourish both the head and the heart.

Implementation

All lessons are crafted around Barak Rosenshine’s ten Principles of Instruction:

1. “Begin a lesson with a short review of previous learning.” Every lesson begins with a review of prior knowledge (usually prior knowledge from the unit, and/or knowledge from elsewhere in the curriculum that is required to access the new learning).
2. “Present new material in small steps with student practice after each step.” The EYFS-KS2 curriculum has been sequenced so that pupils encounter new knowledge and concepts in small steps, and revisit them frequently to review and deepen their learning. Pre-learning quizzes check that pupils have prerequisite knowledge before beginning a new unit, ensuring that new content is only one small step. Each lesson is also broken down into small steps, with teacher input and explicit practice in each one.
3. “Ask a large number of questions and check the responses of all students.” Every lesson includes questions that allows teachers to check the understanding of pupils and deepen pupils’ understanding.
4. “Provide models.” In every lesson, teachers model processes and tasks, thinking aloud to support pupils’ learning.
5. “Guide student practice.” Pupils are given time to process new information with opportunities for discussion and speaking (e.g. ‘Timed Pair Share’ and ‘Take It In Turns To’) or short recall questions. Scaffolding is provided as appropriate to support and guide pupils.
6. “Check for student understanding.” Each lesson is divided into steps, and teachers check understanding of all pupils of each step before moving on.
7. “Obtain a high success rate.” By presenting material in small steps and providing models and ample guided practice, pupils master content and achieve a high success rate. Concepts are developed further for higher attainers by increasing the depth of challenge, not the breadth of new content.
8. “Provide scaffolds for difficult tasks.” Teachers develop and use scaffolds purposefully; they provide specific support for specific pupils for specific tasks – and are only used as required.
9. “Require and monitor independent practice.” Pupils are given opportunities to practise independently in every lesson, after teacher modelling and explanation and guided practice.
10. “Engage students in weekly and monthly review.” The curriculum is designed so that pupils regularly review learning within and across subjects repeatedly.

The curriculum provides opportunities for pupils to practise reading, writing and oracy across the curriculum.

• Pupils implicitly and explicitly review age-related writing objectives when writing across the curriculum.
• Opportunities for extended, scholarly writing across the curriculum give pupils meaningful opportunities to apply their subject knowledge and writing skills.
• An oracy framework provides a progression from EYFS to Year 6 and beyond, and lessons use strategies like ‘Timed Pair Share’, ‘Take It In Turns To’, sentence stems and ‘Prep Talk’ to ensure that pupils have opportunities for both exploratory and presentational talk.

Impact

The careful sequencing of the curriculum – and how concepts are gradually built over time – is the progression model. If pupils are keeping up with the curriculum, they are making progress. The most important assessment in most subjects is formative assessment.

In general, this is done through:

• Questioning within lessons. Teachers check understanding and fill gaps and address misconceptions as required.
• Pupil conferencing with books. Subject leads and SLT talk to pupils about what they have learnt – both substantive and disciplinary knowledge – and how this connects to the vertical concepts that they have been developing in previous years and other subjects.
• Post-learning quizzes at the end of each unit. These give teachers an understanding of the knowledge that pupils can recall at the end of the unit, and are used to identify any remaining gaps to be filled.
• Pre-learning quizzes at the start of each unit. These assess pupils’ understanding of the prior knowledge that is required to access the new content in the unit. These are used to identify gaps to be filled prior to teaching the new unit.
• Summative assessments take place in Reading, Writing and Mathematics, and results are shared across United Learning to help us understand the progress of our pupils compared to others. In the wider curriculum, post-learning quizzes and extended scholarly writing opportunities are used summatively as well as formatively.

Impact:  

Following Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction, retrieval practices are embedded across the curriculum as a teaching tool to ensure children know and remember more. We also use this teaching tool as a method of assessment. 

Daily/Weekly retrieval practices are used every lesson to review prior learning. This may be used at the start of the lesson in the form of a quadrant, cherry picking or Fast 5. It might also be done through a paired/Kagan discussion. Reviews are also be used throughout the lesson as a mini plenary or as an exit task. This is embedded practice throughout school and demonstrates how well children can remember and recall key knowledge. It also enables teachers to identify gaps in knowledge and/or address misconceptions with in the moment feedback. 

Spaced retrieval is used in a similar way to the daily and weekly tasks however a longer period of time is left before asking children to recall knowledge. Progress is demonstrated by children knowing and remembering more  and by them being able to keep up with the demands of the curriculum.

Post Learning quizzes are used at the end of the unit. The purpose of these quizzes is to assess how much key knowledge the children have remembered. The questions focus on the knowledge children can remember and not the activities completed. Post learning quizzes allow teachers to identify any gaps in knowledge and ensure appropriate children are targeted for support. 

SEND children are assessed in the same way however their barriers are removed. For example, if a child’s specific needs relate to writing, they may have a scribe/multiple choice to help them answer the same questions as the other children.  Additional time may be given; breaks and smaller.

Children working 2 years or more below their chronological age are tracked using our BSquared progress tracker and next steps planned for bespoke provision or small group sessions on the child’s Individual Learning Plan (ILP). This helps SEND pupils achieve in line with their personalised trajectory from their starting points.  Our curriculum is ambitious and challenging for all children. 

Formative assessments are used as ongoing assessment tool. These opportunities throughout the lesson allow teachers to identify gaps in knowledge, misconceptions and where knowledge may not be embedded. Teachers use in the moment feedback and adaptations to planning to address these as they arise. 

Our curriculum is both ambitious and challenging. If children are able to keep up with the demands of their lessons, they will make progress.