Curriculum Overview

Curriculum Intent

The reading-enhanced curriculum: where reading excites children to ask questions and learn new knowledge and skills. The book-led curriculum has reading for purpose at its very core. Each unit of work has a high-quality, age appropriate driving text assigned. These texts engage, inspire and deepen understanding. Supplementary texts and knowledge organisers support pupils to enrich their knowledge, vocabulary and curriculum skills. Every curriculum session begins with reading for purpose, from either the driving book or a supplementary text. Pupils use this to discuss new knowledge, deepen their enquiry skills and form links in their learning, making use of their oracy skills.

There are clear subject links in the long term plan so that pupils make connections in their learning. The subject strands also link. For example, the skills within similarities and differences in history link to making comparisons in geography. Curriculum units are placed to give background knowledge for the reading strategy texts. This gives pupils another opportunity to show knowledge in a different context, build schema and reinforce retention of facts. All learning is mastery of skills, which are progressive through the year and key stage. In the reading-enhanced curriculum, these are called take-aways and relate to different strands of each subject. To foster enquiry, all units have an overarching question and each session has a threaded question. The questions and take-aways are used to assess pupil progress.

Oracy is key to our work in our academy as pupils develop effective communication skills with increasing skill and confidence.

Influential people are also paramount to the curriculum, and feature in all subjects. They span different eras and link to the unit of work pupils are learning. By incorporating a range of people (e.g. historians, scientists, entrepreneurs), new learning is put into a real-world context. Developments within a subject are evident and pupils gain an insight into how their learning impacts on the world around them and inspires them for future careers.


To find out more about our curriculum offer, contact Mr M Rollin.