Curriculum Intent Statement

At Ackton Pastures we provide a broad academic curriculum that is underpinned by five core aims designed to support our children to become successful members of society.

We have identified three key statements of intent:

Statement 1: To further develop a reading-rich curriculum which developed learning and results in the acquisition of knowledge which is retained, ensuring that all pupils know more, remember more and understand more.

• Children acquire the full range of knowledge, skills and understanding that enables them to lead fulfilling and successful lives.
• Children access a wide range of enriching experiences that support them to gain first-hand knowledge and develop a varied vocabulary.

Statement 2: To enrich the curriculum so that it celebrates difference, develops an understanding of right from wrong, and which ensures pupils develop a strong moral core as they move into each new phase of learning.

• Children are well equipped to manage their feelings and behaviour, to understand the feelings and behaviours of others and are emotionally resilient.
• Children develop a deep respect for themselves and others, understand the importance of equality and make a positive contribution to society.

Statement 3: To design a challenging curriculum which builds progressively upon acquired language and skills, which nurtures learning behaviours, develops inquisitive minds and resilient attitudes in order to ensure all of our pupils reach and exceed their potential.

• Children are emotionally and physically healthy, socially confident and understand how to have positive relationships with others.
• Children are resilient when challenged by learning and are confident to take risks.

The curriculum is designed in a sequential and coherent way so that children build skills, knowledge and understanding towards defined outcomes in each area at the end of Y6. Individual subject information can be accessed that shows leaders intent and implementation of each area through the school’s website. Also, on the website is a growing range of exemplar materials that demonstrate the outcomes of the curriculum.

The school teaches all individual subjects in the national curriculum. These are organised into blocks of learning of varying lengths, planned around a theme. Each individual subject is organised through a progression model that maps out the knowledge, skills and vocabulary to be taught towards specific end goals. Teachers use the subject specific progression for each area to formulate their long term plans. Teachers make clear the subject specific skills and knowledge being taught so that children have a clear understanding of each subject area. The themes allow teachers to link together subject areas so that they make sense to children. Learning is regularly revisited over the course of a school year or key stage so that children’s understanding is built on and deepened over time. The curriculum is planned so that children access the above aims throughout their time in school, with each being woven into the core learning across each term.

All learning will start by revisiting prior knowledge. This will be scaffolded to support children to recall previous learning and make connections. Staff will model explicitly the subject-specific vocabulary, knowledge and skills relevant to the learning to allow pupils to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts.

Teachers support children to practice new learning, questioning for understanding, checking for misconceptions and giving clear and appropriate feedback. This moves children from supported practice to independence at the correct pace for them, ensuring all children are challenged.

Learning will be supported through the use of knowledge organisers that provide children with scaffolding that supports them to retain new facts and vocabulary in their long-term memory. Knowledge organisers are used for pre-teaching, to support home learning and also as a part of daily review.

Consistent learning walls in every classroom provide constant scaffolding for children. Tier three subject specific vocabulary, based on the research by Alex Quigley, is displayed on the learning wall along with key facts and questions, and model exemplars of the work being taught.

Frequent curriculum quizzes are used to review learning and check that children know more and remember more. These are based on the Kagan research and require children to think deeply. Learning is reviewed also on a termly basis, after a period of forgetting, so that teachers can check whether information has been retained.

Assessment is ongoing throughout the relevant cross-curricular themes to inform teachers with their planning, lesson activities and differentiation. Summative assessment is completed at the end of each topic where objectives have been covered; the progression grids in each subject are used to support assessment. Teachers record assessments in each subject on the school’s tracking system which leaders use to identify areas for school improvement or skills that need to be further enhanced.

Our children will be given a variety of experiences both in and out of the classroom, where appropriate, to create memorable learning opportunities and to further support and develop their understanding and language acquisition.

We believe that, although the learning environment, website and pupils’ work may demonstrate how our pupils are exposed to our curriculum, the true impact of this can only be seen when children show that they know more and can remember more about what they have learned. We ensure that pupils have opportunities to meet concepts and learning in a variety of ways and over an extended period so that knowledge and understanding is embedded. We use work scrutiny to demonstrate that the curriculum has been taught in a well-sequenced and coherent way that allows children to experience and embed the relevant learning that meets the end of unit objectives.

We use pupil voice to check that pupils are retaining knowledge from across the curriculum and making the appropriate connections across units of learning.