DISCOVERY MULTI-ACADEMY TRUST
CURRICULUM STATEMENT
CURRICULUM AIMS
High quality teaching and rigorous assessment enables all children to access the breadth of the curriculum. The curriculum is inspiring, challenging, deep and broad.
So that all children:
- Develop and remember transformational knowledge and skills that take them beyond their experience.
- Strengthen their academic knowledge and cultural capital through the acquisition of a broad and rich vocabulary.
- Shape their knowledge and character to prepare them for their future adult life, so that they can make a positive impact upon society.
- Achieve outcomes that show progress, whatever their starting points.
INTENT
At Discovery Multi Academy Trust the curriculum is designed to provide wide-ranging experiences and contexts which allow our children to develop the skills and knowledge to allow them to become resilient, reflective and creative thinkers. The curriculum is underpinned by our trust values; Democratic, Inclusive, Excelling and Collaborative. Through an engaging approach to learning, our children will collaborate and be able to fulfil their wider role in their community. They will have the skills to make connections in what they have learnt, self-evaluate and develop a desire to learn as they go to their next stage of learning.
IMPLEMENTATION
Our curriculum has been designed to create a balance between the National Curriculum statutory requirements and a range of rich experiences which allow our pupils the opportunities to broaden their life and cultural experiences.
Our curriculum provides our pupils with experiences and opportunities which best meet their learning and developmental needs. Through clear strategic planning, our curriculum provides not only memorable experiences but is rich in opportunities from which the children can learn, remember and develop transferrable skills and knowledge. The acquisition of knowledge and the development of skills is carefully planned to create a purposeful and exciting learning journey for every child, ensuring that milestones are met at key stages throughout their primary education. We use clearly sequenced, balanced and informed planning to deliver learning opportunities that develop a context and culturally rich learning environment, developing links to other subjects. Teachers plan and tailor units of work and lessons to address the specific individual needs of pupils, with support from experienced staff members and external agencies so that all pupils are able to reach their full potential regardless of their starting point.
We deliver our curriculum through Quality First Teaching, where:
- Staff have high expectations of themselves and all of the children.
- Teachers are expected to impart knowledge accurately and with enthusiasm.
- Teachers are expected to consider prior knowledge, skills and experiences and to build upon this in a systematic way, so that pupils are able to know more, able to do more and remember more.
- Highly focused lesson design with sharp objectives.
- High demands of child engagement with their learning.
- High levels of interaction for all children.
- Appropriate use of teacher questioning, modelling and explaining.
- Emphasis on learning through dialogue.
- An expectation that children will develop resilience and accept responsibility for their own learning and work independently.
- Regular use of encouragement and praise to motivate children.
Each of the schools individually enhance the curriculum to suit the needs of their pupils and school communities.
IMPACT
Pupil voice is used to inform curriculum planning and teaching and learning progress, and for all subjects is tracked through continuous AfL assessment on our online assessment system. This includes key knowledge, skills and concepts. There are also summative data points throughout the year to prepare children for the formal SATs tests at Y2 and Y6. Termly Gap analysis and regular data reviews are held with each of the school’s leadership team, Local Advisory Board and external visitors to evaluate the school improvement plans. Parents are invited to termly updates about their children’s progress and attainment and SATs data and phonics outcomes are shared at the end of the year.