Curriculum Intent
Overall curriculum enquiries can be directed to the curriculum lead, Ms Hodges.
The intent of our curriculum is a simple one: we want every pupil to become the best version of themselves that they can be, valuing themselves as learners, striving for progress not perfection and ultimately equipping them with the knowledge and skills necessary to have the life choices they deserve to be effective members of society.
Glade will be a safe and inclusive academy of excellence; empowering and encouraging every member of its community to discover and celebrate their talents, strengths and interests.
Our children will be articulate, respectful, adaptable to a range of situations, and resilient; they will have a positive ‘Can Do’ attitude in school and beyond.
There is also a Curriculum, Learning and Teaching policy which can be found in the policy section here.
What we plan to teach:
At Glade Academy we design our curriculum based on the Core Knowledge Curriculum. Our timetable is divided into different subjects, and we explicitly teach in subject areas. To enable our children to make the best progress possible we have explicitly identified what children should learn in each academic year.
This ensures the curriculum develops cumulative knowledge with an emphasis on vocabulary which is essential in:
- Understanding the content taught;
- Articulating that knowledge
- Developing successful, confident children who grow into adults able to reason with and evaluate the knowledge in the modern world.
Intent: Why we teach it
Our curriculum is planned to build pupils’ resilience in their behaviours for learning, sequenced from strong foundations in Early Years, through both Key stages, developing their understanding of language and vocabulary with an emphasis on the acquisition of the knowledge and skills needed for future success.
Our rationale for teaching a knowledge-based curriculum is it empowers children: language opens doors. The focus on vocabulary in our curriculum reduces the word gap which in turn widens their ability to comprehend new ideas and communicate their own existing ideas. It also enables grown-ups in the modern era to assess information critically. A quick example of this could be knowing how scams use language to mislead an audience or fake news builds upon historic inaccuracies.
The rationale for putting our learning into discreet subjects means that there is a stronger focus on the knowledge we feel is integral to their understanding and that learning is the key to every lesson and does not get lost in the choice of activity.
Our curriculum is all underpinned by Glade’s core values of teamwork, resilience and respect which seek to:
- Develop children, who take responsibility for their own learning - enabling all to make excellent progress, achieve highly and experience success;
- Respect children’s individuality, nurturing them to have the skills and attributes needed to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives;
- Prepare children thoroughly, enabling them to be confident and resilient in taking the next steps in their educational journey.
These themes are also addressed in assemblies.
Finally, it is because of our strong ambition and belief in our children, who are destined for great futures, that we want to ensure they have the knowledge that will mean they can enter an arena as a grown up and feel confident they have the strength of knowledge to hold true to their convictions and use this for the betterment of themselves and those around them. We believe that by giving our children a wider vocabulary and deeper understanding of wider curricula they will have more opportunities to achieve their high ambitions.
Implementation: When we teach it and Who we teach it to:
Our English and maths lessons are taught daily. Big Read sessions teach the reading skills, both conscious and subconscious, and these take place in the form of one Main mission and two mini missions over the course of the week. In EYFS and Ks1, phonics is also taught daily. These are mostly taught in the mornings.
Our foundation subjects are mostly taught in the afternoons on a weekly basis with the intention that this helps to embed learning over a longer time. It gives children an opportunity to recapture the learning and this consolidates the learning as something which can be remembered. On occasions, teachers make a choice to block certain subjects.
A timetable is displayed in each classroom in order to support all learners; although some may use now and next boards to help them access the timetable.
We believe that all children can succeed, and we plan to remove ‘glass ceilings’ on the achievement of all children. As a result, all children are exposed to the same core knowledge and vocabulary, but tasks may be differentiated for the children to demonstrate their understanding whilst developing more independence.
In order to ‘close the gaps,’ our teams work together to plan precision teaching and Achievement teams to give specific children a boost with their learning. As a staff, we reflect on the success of these in regular meetings.
As a result, children leave Glade Academy able to hold their heads high in a variety of arenas and situations, confident in the knowledge and skills they have acquired, and ready to achieve their potential - leading successful and fulfilling lives.
Impact:
Children will leave Glade Academy as independent learners with high levels of self-confidence, they will be tolerant and understanding of the needs and beliefs of those around them and they will have the skills and attitudes necessary to build successful and fulfilling relationships; to play valued roles within their future families and communities, with the courage and commitment to strive to achieve their dreams.
Subject leaders check how well the children have learnt the knowledge of their curriculum.
They do this by conducting pupil perception interviews (pupil voice); lesson observations and book looks to help formulate judgements about the provision within their subject fields. They also use in school data to compare the achievement of the pupils and compare how specific interest groups achieve.
In addition to this, lesson plans are monitored and the knowledge organisers are also reviewed to ensure that pupils are aware of the key learning and that this is built upon within and across units.