Hackness and Wykeham Church of England Schools’ Federation Curriculum intent 2022 – 2024.

Our curriculum intent is firmly rooted in our federation vision which is underpinned by our

Christian vision of John 10:10 ‘ I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.’ 

We want our children to be well prepared for the rigours of modern life and have the knowledge, skills and understanding necessary for them to flourish in a multi-cultural and diverse society. 

We have also acknowledged that the academic curriculum is only one aspect to our vision, and our curriculum has many more opportunities for children to enjoy success and achievement through enriched wider curriculum opportunities both in and out of school.

PREPARE - Preparation for the next stage in life

We aim to prepare our pupils with the social, moral, cultural and academic knowledge and skills to move forward into Secondary school and later life, and to be kind, respectful, curious and motivated citizens of the future, through an engaging and challenging curriculum based on evidence-based research.

PROVIDE - Provision of opportunities and experiences

We wish to provide our pupils with a wide range of opportunities and experiences to enhance their learning, to inspire them to find out their passions and abilities, to develop their aspirations and to engage their sense of awe and wonder about the world around them.

REFLECT - Reflective of our community.

Our curriculum reflects the wonderfully diverse community which we serve, through identifying key role models, events and cultural values which will enable all learners to better understand our local and global communities.

Implementation

We wish to ensure that all our children develop a love of learning that will continue into their adult lives. Our teachers are skilled at developing confident, resilient and independent learners who are reflective and supportive.

 Leaders within the federation work hard to ensure that each child has access to the very best quality teaching. Subject leaders support their colleagues in ensuring that our curriculum is taught progressively and provides the children with the necessary skills, knowledge and vocabulary that they need. This includes planning focuses for spaced retrieval practice which start every lesson. Lessons are engaging, inspiring, stimulating and exciting and use high quality resources to bring learning alive. 

Knowledge acquisition

The primary aim of our curriculum is to ensure that, over time, children know more and remember more. Learning is a change to long-term memory and everything in long-term memory becomes knowledge.

Through our curriculum, children will acquire different types of knowledge:

Substantive knowledge: the content that is taught as established facts. In Science, for example, this might include the parts of a plant.

Disciplinary knowledge: the understanding of the methods that establish the facts. In History, for example, this includes the use of artefacts and sources.

Conceptual knowledge: facts, rules and principles and the relationships between them. In Maths, this could be the understanding of the relationship between the 2x table, halving, doubling and further relationships with other times tables.

Procedural knowledge: how to do something. In reading, it is the process of using phonics to decode. The aim with procedural knowledge is to become fluent and develop automatic recall to reduce cognitive load for children and the adults they will become.

SEND

Our teaching will always be inclusive and have a relentless determination that all children can achieve and that no child is left behind. If your child needs additional support, we will be there to provide this. For information about how we support children with SEND, please refer to the Federation SEND Policy and the SEN Information Report.

Communication

Information about core subjects and foundation subjects is available via the school website, alongside more detailed long term plans for each curriculum area. The lead teacher for each subject is also named on the website.

Termly parents meetings will be held to ensure that you are kept abreast of your child’s progress as well termly summary reports that are issued at the end of each term. Subject leaders will use the assessment information to ensure that the curriculum is tailored to meet the needs of our children.

Class teachers produce half termly booklets detailing what they are teaching in their classes to ensure that you are well informed and can support your child’s learning at home.

Impact

Class teachers monitor the impact of the curriculum through:

• Ongoing formative, summative and diagnostic assessment

Subject leaders monitor the impact of their subject curriculum regularly by:

• Visiting lessons
• Reviewing books
• Meeting children
• Reviewing assessment data

Senior leaders monitor the impact of the curriculum by:

• Working alongside subject leaders to review the fidelity to the curriculum and its impact on pupils’ learning
• Joint monitoring between subject leaders and Head/Deputy
• Analysis of assessment data

Governors hold leaders to account through:

• Completing link governor visits for their allocated subject(s)
• School improvement committee meetings
• Full Governing Body meetings