Primary Curriculum
Our primary academies provide a broad and balanced curriculum through creative and innovative approaches to teaching and learning. Across all subjects our curriculum frameworks promote high standards through progression in both the acquisition of knowledge and skills.
An Outstanding Early Years Curriculum
Our Early Years settings are welcoming and engaging and support our youngest learners in discovering and developing the early building blocks for successful learning. Through a balance of teacher-directed and child-initiated learning, children engage in enquiry, discovery and reflection in order to become confident in expressing their ideas, happy to make independent choices, proficient in ICT and keen to explore the world around them. The stimulating and challenging indoor and outdoor learning environments provide an exciting context for developing an early love of learning.
Innovative Approaches to English and Mathematics
Daily teaching of English and Mathematics both as discreet lessons and across the wider curriculum enable our children to reach high standards by the end of both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. Children’s progress across our academies is high, regardless of starting point.
The whole school progressive framework for English provides children with real-life and engaging purposes and audiences for reading, writing, speaking and listening. Daily teaching of phonics and spelling is highly interactive and enables children to secure at least age-related expectations in these core basics. Children read widely and often across the curriculum supported by our use of innovative ICT based systems which track children’s developing fluency and depth of comprehension.
Learning from international practice, our approach to mathematics involves two short mathematics lessons each day. Using our ‘same day intervention approach’ children’s learning is personalised at the point of need to ensure that they are challenged and supported to acquire new skills and knowledge each day. Children develop fluency and depth within the curriculum and as a result they grow as confident mathematicians.
A Collaborative and Creative Approach
The primary academic curriculum is progressive, ambitious and has been carefully designed to unlock pupils’ potential to enable them to succeed.The academic curriculum follows a knowledge engaged approach (knowledge underpins the application of skills). Our aim is that pupils will know more and therefore remember more by committing knowledge to their long-term memory. Connections between topics are identified and opportunities for repeat exposure to concepts and knowledge are reinforced and revisited in the subsequent years to build increasingly sophisticated schemas in our pupils’ minds, allowing them to think more coherently, critically and creatively.
The academic curriculum is delivered in an integrated and discrete approach built on a continued collaboration between all of our academies. Underpinning the curriculum is a strong research based into effective teaching and learning strategies. Our academic curriculum is aligned across all academies so that subject expertise, training and networking can be utilised on an ongoing basis to further strengthen the quality of education for all pupils in all subjects.
Developing the Whole Child
The Outwood learning model ensures that children develop the characteristics of good learners and the vital skills required for the next phase of education and work. We have 3 expectations which underpin our work:
Be safe;
Be respectful;
Be responsible.
