Curriculum

| Education | Curriculum
What drives our curriculum?

At our school, the curriculum drivers are:

  • Educational excellence
  • Character development
  • Service to communities

These are underpinned by our STAR values of Service, Teamwork, Ambition and Respect, and supported by our overarching leadership specialism, which permeate everything that we do.

In line with the Star Quality Standards, the curriculum actively promotes equality for all through both its content and delivery. Full details can be found in the Annual Equalities Statement.

We aim to ensure that all pupils have access to the curriculum and are not disadvantaged by any disabilities or special educational needs. Our approach is set out in the SEND Information Report, Policy and Guidance.

What do we want our children to learn?

We want our children to excel academically across all National Curriculum subjects, to become curious learners and responsible members of the local, national and global community. We want to provide a solid foundation for our children, so that they become confident, articulate and knowledgeable leaders of the future.

Key features of our curriculum are:

  • We are proud to be a multicultural school and we want our children to recognise, accept and celebrate different cultures, backgrounds and beliefs, preparing them for life in modern Britain.
  • We provide a curriculum that encourages our children to become responsible, well-rounded, socially aware and confident citizens. We promote both good physical and good mental health, emphasising the need for our children to become self-motivated, self-directed and resilient learners.
  • Leadership development is central to our curriculum and is designed to nurture character and citizenship, so that our children can confidently contribute to society. Our leadership programme ensures that we develop well-rounded, ethical and accomplished role models and leaders of tomorrow. Our STAR values of Service, Teamwork, Ambition and Respect are at the heart of our provision.
  • The curriculum is designed to foster thought, curiosity and a desire for learning in all our children, regardless of their starting points. By providing a relevant and personalised curriculum that reflects the local area, all children – including disadvantaged children and those with special needs – will succeed within our intellectually challenging environment.
  • Reading is fundamental to all learning. We want all our children to be excited about reading. We build reading skills from the Early Years upwards, securing phonic knowledge rapidly and then developing essential comprehension skills.
  • We develop a love for reading. Our texts are ambitious and motivating, supported by our Star Readers initiative.
  • We are highly ambitious for our children and emphasise academic success. We carefully design our curriculum to be broad, balanced and knowledge-rich, so that our children know more and remember more. We plan for progression in knowledge, skills and understanding to prepare children for future success in their education and careers.
  • Our learning is coherent, with knowledge building on knowledge. We identify what we want our children to learn (the Key Stage end points of learning) and break this down into building blocks (component parts), with robust assessment ensuring that children know more and remember more.
  • Our children learn through a traditional, discrete subject model and acquire subject-specific knowledge, with literacy underpinning everything we teach. We believe that this is the best way to prepare children for future learning.
  • We emphasise strong connections across subjects because we want our curriculum to be real and meaningful. Problem solving and application in the real world, including working with the local community to create enriching learning experiences, play a key part in our curriculum offer.
  • Our extra-curricular offer centres on the five leadership foundations of sport, creativity, performing arts, enterprise and social action.
Early Years Curriculum Offer

For children in the Early Years Foundation Stage, we adopt a rigorous approach towards individualised teaching and learning. The statutory Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum is the basis of the Early Years curriculum.

There are seven areas of learning and development that shape educational provision in our Early Years setting. All areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected.

Three ‘Prime’ areas are particularly crucial for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning and building their capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive:

  • Personal and Emotional Development
  • Communication and Language
  • Physical Development

Our school also supports children in four ‘Specific’ areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied:

  • Literacy
  • Mathematics
  • Understanding the World
  • Expressive Arts and Design

We deliver learning for all seven areas through purposeful play and whole-class learning experiences, with a balance of adult-led instruction and child-initiated activities. Through play, our children explore and develop learning experiences which help them make sense of the world. They practise and build ideas, learning how to control themselves and understand the need for rules. We provide the opportunity for our pupils to think creatively and work and communicate with others as they investigate and solve problems.

Phonics Teaching

The school follows a rigorous and systematic approach to the teaching of synthetic phonics following Ruth Miskin’s ‘Read Write Inc.’ phonics scheme of work in the Early Years and Year 1. Our school phonics policy establishes consistent practice, continuity and progression in the teaching and learning of phonics.

Key Stages 1 and 2

At Key Stages 1 and 2, subjects are taught in discrete, timetabled lessons which cover:

The whole-school curriculum overview lists the topics we teach, and the order we teach them in, for each year group.

We passionately believe in the power of providing a range of enriching experiences to complement our pupils’ learning. Our enrichment offer includes a range of approaches and learning opportunities.

For more information about the curriculum, please speak to your child’s teacher or email the school info@olivesmallheath.staracademies.org