Curriculum Intent Statement

Our curriculum provides a broad range of experiences for our pupils

Our pupils’ backgrounds, our culture and our climate for learning provide the following drivers that underpin all areas of our curriculum:

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INSPIRED

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• Independence –pupils are encouraged to grow as independent learners, not dependant on adults to learn

• Nurturing –pupils are encouraged to build relationships that are secure and safe

• Successful – pupils are encouraged to set themselves challenges and are able to progress from their starting points through a challenging, balanced curriculum

• Positive- pupils are encouraged to think positively when challenges are in front of them

• Imaginative- pupils are encouraged to be imaginative in their ideas and are encouraged to be creative in their learning

• Resilient- pupils are encouraged to be ready for challenges and know how to overcome barriers in their learning in order to be successful

• Enjoyment – pupils are encouraged to have fun in everything they do and engage in all opportunities in their learning

• Determined – pupils are encouraged to keep going when challenges are in front of them.

Our curriculum provides appropriate balance

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We believe that all children should feel successful and experience the feeling of accomplishment in a wide range of areas. Our curriculum therefore gives pupils an excellent mix of academic and personal development; it gives equal importance to core and foundation subjects; physical wellbeing and mental wellbeing are both valued, understood and prioritised by our careful consideration of curriculum design.

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Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, along with a well-planned and structured programme of personal development underpins all of our work and is monitored as closely as academic subjects.

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We carefully balance the requirement for pupils to achieve the best they can possible be in core subjects with our wider curriculum aims of providing full spectrum of thoughtful and enriching experiences. As much as we value the progress and fulfilment of our pupils academically, we strive to offer them a rich and varied arts curriculum too. Alongside offering our children a carefully mapped progression of skills within art/D&T, PE and music, we try to enable the children to practice and incorporate these skills across all subjects; giving them the opportunity to express their learning in a variety of ways. As a result of this, our pupils thrive.

Our curriculum is carefully organised for depth

We define progress as:

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The widening and deepening of essential knowledge, skills, understanding and behaviours.

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To do this ensures pupils don’t merely cover the curriculum but repeat it over and over

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• each time they return to areas they gain a deeper and more insightful understanding of the matters, skills and processes within subjects.

We refer to the ‘cognitive domains’ of Basic, Advancing and Deep learning to describe the nature of progression. This involves changing the nature of thinking rather than just acquiring new knowledge.

At our school the children in our care are at the heart of everything we do. We believe that all children are unique and must be celebrated for the special gifts and talents that they possess. Each day we encourage our children to work hard, have a positive mind-set, have the confidence to make mistakes, persevere and not give up – in order to succeed, and to feel good about themselves.

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Intent

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At Bushbury Lane Academy we want our children to experience:

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• A curriculum that has knowledge and vocabulary at the heart of their learning

• A rich curriculum that enables pupils to see the world from a wide range of perspectives

• A curriculum where knowledge underpins and enables the application of skills

• Opportunities to embed BASIC skills and express knowledge in a variety of ways before moving on

• Developing INSPIRED attitudes so they have the confidence to aim high and aspire to more

• Opportunities to delve deeper into their learning, building on skills progressively each year

• A curriculum that responds to findings from pupil feedback and school data to ensure it is bespoke to their needs and reflects the ever changing world, locally and globally

• A curriculum that helps children to know how to live healthy lifestyles – both physically and mentally

• Spiritual, moral, social and cultural experiences threaded through all we do which will facilitate them with all they need to face the any and all futures

• Strong ethos permeating through daily life which gives the children a safe and nurturing environment

Implementation

At Bushbury Lane Academy, we plan learning in a thematic approach to the curriculum with quality texts to inspire discussion, support the development of reading and provide writing opportunities within each theme. Themes have been organised across each year group to ensure that there are a variety of curriculum drivers that cover the content of the national curriculum. This thematic approach leads to a more flexible delivery of the curriculum meaning that some weeks children may not study Art, instead they will have a focus on Geography. During other weeks, the opposite may be true, and some weeks there may be a balance across the subjects.

Organising the learning in this way ensures teachers have the flexibility to deliver the curriculum in the way that they feel will have most impact for learners. R.E, PE, Music and MFL in KS2 are planned weekly and follow whole school progression frameworks.

At times learning will be directed and other times more open-ended enquiry based approach through big questions posed by the teacher. With a mix of both practical and written work embedded.

We see the local community as so valuable to our children’s learning so we thread these links into the curriculum throughout each year group.

Using the outdoors as a classroom is fundamental to our values and this can be school based or with enrichment visits to other locations. Trips/activities and experts are all vital to the enhancement of the learning opportunities we offer our children.

Impact

First and foremost we want to instil in our children a love of learning and an understanding that the learning is part of a journey they are on. We want them to feel safe, to express and celebrate their learning achievements and recognise their own personal and academic growth.

How we know we are successful in this is through:

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• Teacher assessment – formative – through ongoing questioning, dialogue, verbal and written feedback, informal quizzes, practical tasks, day to day work, reasoning. Summative – end of period of learning tests, Golden writing task.

• Learner Voice – pupil questionnaires, self and peer assessment, school council, learning dialogue in the classroom that encourages self-evaluation.

• Parental Feedback – parent questionnaires, parent café, fabulous finish afternoons, parent/teacher meetings, Facebook group polls, survey monkey, informal meetings before and after school, PTA

• Data Analysis – internal with SLT, subject leadership, pupil progress meetings, governors, School Progress Meeting, external data (SATS) 

• Quality Assurance – lesson observations, drop ins, learning walks, book looks

• Positive Attitudes to Learning – children engaged and inspired by their learning,

• Respect – visibly demonstrated through their school environment, their work, interactions, moral responsibility, spirituality

• Participating in Community –School Council, intergenerational events, sports tournaments, 11 B4 11, community events, invited guests

• Case Studies – to measure the academic, personal, social and emotional progress of our most vulnerable children through case studies.

The impact of what we do and what the children achieve cannot always be measured in data sets and numbers so we always try to look holistically at the whole child. We consider our children as individuals who are facing future challenges and ultimately leave us high school ready having enjoyed and embraced their learning experiences along the way.

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For further information regarding our school's curriculum, please click here.

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Parents or other members of the public can find out more about the curriculum by contacting the school or Headteacher.

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We also have a number of extracurricular activities outside of our school timetable. For further information click here.