Curriculum Principles

Our schools pride themselves on being at the heart of their communities, putting excellence in teaching and learning at the heart of what they do. We choose not to mandate a particular curriculum approach across all of our schools as we are mindful that the individual context of each school is unique.

Instead, we are united by our focus on delivering the very best learning experiences for all of our children through our inclusive practice. Therefore, we have developed a set of guiding principles with the aim that all our school staff will use them in their exchanges with children, families, colleagues and Trustees.

• To deliver an inspiring, enriching curriculum that challenges all children, extends and broadens their learning experiences and goes beyond the National Curriculum.
• To ensure our curricula deliver a relentless focus on vocabulary and language.
• To ensure that all children have the knowledge, cultural capital and rich vocabulary they require to progress to the next stage of their education and to succeed in Modern Britain.
• To ensure all of our children understand the key knowledge they are learning and the skills they are developing in order to know more, remember more and do more.
• To ensure the curriculum design is research led, well-planned, cohesive and effectively implemented so that learning sequences are clear.
• To ensure that the learning environment focuses on the children’s needs (reduce cognitive load) and supports the delivery of the whole curriculum.

Teaching Principles

Excellence in teaching and learning is fundamental to our mission. We deliver an ambitious programme of CPD and networks, using internal and external expertise. We choose not to mandate a particular teaching approach across all of our schools as we are mindful that the individual context of each school is unique. Instead, we have developed a set of guiding principles:

• Provide effective conditions for learning behaviours to develop and children to flourish.
• To meet the needs of all children and enable their independence.
• To provide clear sequences of learning that build on prior knowledge, give children an opportunity to reflect, value their mistakes and celebrate their work.
• To embed ‘Rosenshine’s Ten Principles of Instruction’ within daily practice in order to have the greatest impact on teaching and learning.
• To relentlessly focus on language and use quality, purposeful dialogue and vocabulary