Curriculum Intent
‘Only Our Best Will Do’
At Albrighton Primary School & Nursery, we believe that a broad, rich and creative curriculum is essential to the education of all our children. We believe in celebrating the whole child so that they are:
• Happy, confident individuals who believe in themselves and respect others.
• Inspired to fulfil their maximum potential academically, personally, socially and emotionally ensuring they are prepared for the next stage in the education and life beyond.
To fulfil our vision, we are committed to providing a high quality curriculum that: engages and enthuses our children; develops a deeper understanding by acquiring new skills and knowledge; innovates children to think creatively; and allows them to express their learning and share in their successes.
As a school, we are very lucky to have such a varied and interesting locality, and use our strong community links to enhance our curriculum and encourage a true love and curiosity for the world and everything in it.
Our curriculum offer is driven by:
General principles:
Our curriculum will give children the opportunity to:
• Explore the breadth and depth of the national curriculum.
• Develop a rich and deep subject knowledge and new skills through a variety of interesting contexts.
• Develop and demonstrate their creativity.
• Experience the challenge and enjoyment of learning.
• Make links and transfer skills to different aspects of learning.
• Develop learning as a life-long skill.
Well-being
Our curriculum will give children the opportunity to:
• Work in a range of groups and settings.
• Build respectful relationships.
• Recognise that people are good at different things.
• Develop self-esteem and confidence in their own abilities.
• Reflect and think mindfully about their learning.
Pupil Voice
Our curriculum will give children the opportunity to:
• Make a positive contribution to the school and local community.
• Take part in democratic activities across the curriculum.
• Express their opinions on a range of different topics and issues.
Pedagogy
Our curriculum will be taught through a pedagogy that:
• Enables and fosters children’s natural curiosity.
• Excites, promotes and sustains children’s interest.
• Promotes problem solving, creativity and communication.
• Enables children to reflect on and evaluate their learning.
• Offers all children memorable experiences to support children to know more and remember more.
Enrichment
We will enrich our curriculum by:
• Welcoming parents and carers to take part in children’s learning and experiences.
• Providing on and off site subject or topic related learning opportunities.
• Offering opportunities for children to learn outdoors.
• Holding specialist curriculum days and weeks.
• Responding spontaneously to national and world events.
Curriculum Implementation
‘It doesn’t matter what your starting point is, it’s where you finish that counts.’
At Albrighton, we believe in ensuring we maximise every child’s learning by using adaptive teaching techniques in lessons.
What is adaptive teaching?
Every individual child learns differently, and this is affected by a range of factors, including prior knowledge, ability and motivation. Children are very diverse and all learn at different rates and require different levels of support from teachers to succeed and reach their full potential.
Adaptive teaching means that teachers make adaptions to their teaching to make it appropriate for everyone in their classroom, rather than create distinct tasks for different groups. Adaptive teaching therefore focuses on making learning accessible to the whole class. It is important that our children learn from experienced teachers through what is referred to as ‘Quality First Teaching’ who use a range of different techniques outlined below to respond to children’s differing needs.
What adaptive teaching techniques are used to maximise progress?
• Breaking down content into smaller chunks or steps
• Scaffolding, modelling with thinking out loud technique
• Pre teaching or pre reading about a subject
• Varying levels of support, including effective support from TAs as well as the teacher
• Removing unnecessary expositions i.e. keeping your spoken language at an amount and level that will enable maximum access
• Use of concrete resources such as word mats, number lines, counters etc.
• Pictures and diagrams
• Reframing questions
• Intervening appropriately, i.e. in the classroom/lesson wherever possible, to minimise the need for out-of class interventions (though these will still be appropriate and necessary for some pupils)
• Flexible groups
• Make connections to previous learning and supporting children to remember more through various strategies such as, quizzes, knowledge dumps, mind maps
• Thinking time to process information
Adaptive teaching is more successful when it focusses on:
• Targeted, tailored support
• Additional practice
• Breaking down components into smaller parts
• Acting on information from formative assessment
• Teaching carefully selected groups
• Well-chosen resources
Seeking to understand children’s differences, including their different levels of prior knowledge and potential barriers to learning, is an essential part of teaching. Adapting teaching in a responsive way, including by providing targeted support to children who are struggling, is proven to increase success.
Please see the individual subject pages for more details on the curriculum offered here at Albrighton Primary School & Nursery.
Curriculum Impact
Children at Albrighton Primary School & Nursery are happy, well-rounded individuals. They are resilient learners who have a thirst for knowledge and the confidence to take risks, helping them to acquire essential knowledge and skills so they can achieve their best possible outcomes, ensuring they are best prepared for their transition into Secondary School and for their life ahead.