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Curriculum

Co-op Academy Bebington Curriculum Principles 

Curriculum aims

We want students to:

  • be knowledgeable about the subjects they have been taught but also have a love of learning so they are able to find out more and learn more

  • have the skills to ‘hold their own’ in conversations with peers and adults because they have ‘powerful knowledge’ and the confidence to use it

  • be equipped with the vocabulary knowledge required to access a range of subjects and contexts in order to communicate their knowledge effectively through writing and speaking

  • have the interpersonal skills that make them good leaders and good members of society

  • be politically and democratically aware

  • understand and respect diversity in all its forms

  • be knowledgeable about the world and our shared history

  • be financially literate

  • think for themselves, make informed decisions and be resilient learners.

……and if this is what we want, then our curriculum must reflect this.

Our School’s Curriculum Intention

Our aim is to provide an ambitious and relevant education for all our students so that we are ‘Shaping Exceptional Futures’.  We will do this by ensuring our curriculum:

  • Is appropriate for all students, catering for the diverse needs of all our learners.

  • teaches students to be effective communicators, literate and numerate

  • equips students with the skills for the next stage in their education or employment

  • teaches the knowledge and skills, through our curriculum or personal development schemes of learning, to enable students to be active and engaged participants in society.

  • offers a wide range of subjects and provides quality time for students to participate in extracurricular opportunities, so as to enrich their personal development and broaden the quality of education.

  • encourages students to have high aspirations and be excited about learning.

 

Implementation: Principles of learning.

We ensure that curriculum leaders have carefully sequenced their curriculum and have considered content choice. Teachers structure learning so that students acquire knowledge and understanding. We do this by:

 

  • sharing with students, where the lesson or ‘episode’ sits within the whole (the bigger picture), so students know what has come before and where the learning is going –knowledge is power

  • ensuring that all long term plans incorporate reference to literacy, numeracy, PSCHE and careers links.

  • we use a common approach to teaching and learning to ensure consistency across the school.

  • activating prior knowledge –prior to a new topic or a review of previous lesson/learning

  • using retrieval practice –to check if students understand and can recall prior learning

  • using effective questioning

  • utilising the teacher as ‘expert’ –modelling the writing, practical, experiment and use talk for learning practices

  • encouraging active learning rather than passive learning

  • scaffolding learning –providing models, worked answers, using visualisers to undertake collaborative construction of work, writing frames and thinking frames

  • Use regular low stakes quizzes and testing via  formative assessment to check learning and ensure students ‘succeed’ regularly to build confidence and self-esteem as learners

 

Developing Literacy and Numeracy:

A high proportion of our students are significantly below age related expectations on entry therefore we place a premium on English and Maths to support our literacy and numeracy policies and to ensure that students have the necessary knowledge and ability to access the secondary curriculum. Our Literacy and Numeracy Policies can be found here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FO9zZ5thF1d6rShUdcV3ncKXO69KpvYB/edit

Developing Reading:

Our whole school strategy for developing reading can be found here. We recognise that many of our students are significantly below national average in reading on entry, so we have established a rigorous approach, based on specific research and training to address this issue.