Curriculum Vision and Principles

"Trust leaders are determined to value each school's individuality.  As a result, they have worked closely with school leaders to co-produce a set of overarching curriculum principles, while also protecting the uniqueness of each school's context." 

Ofsted (MAT Summary Evaluation) 2023

In line with the Church of England’s “Vision for Education – Deeply Christian, Serving the Common Good” - our Trust’s curriculum vision promotes the spiritual, physical, intellectual, emotional, moral and social development of children and young people, which embraces excellence and academic rigour, but sets them in a wider framework.

Our Trust aims to be at the forefront of curriculum and pedagogical development and, through innovation and excellent teaching and learning, overcome barriers to learning so that our pupils are prepared for their next stages of education and training. 

We recognise that for some children, especially the most disadvantaged, school is often the only place where they have the opportunity to gain knowledge of the concepts and vocabulary that will enable them to learn effectively alongside their peers and succeed in the long term. Therefore, our curriculum intent is ambitious and aspires to overcome disadvantage and advance equality, promoting high standards for all our pupils.

Knowledge empowers and Learn, Love and Achieve, Together with Jesus is the stimulus for our knowledge rich curriculum. We support our schools in  designing and implementing a curriculum that will enable our children to develop and build on a  deep body of knowledge and grow in understanding. This will ensure children know more and  remember more through careful sequencing of knowledge, well-taught content and thoughtfully designed assessment practice.

Knowledge provides the capacity to apply skills and deepen understanding. Thus ,a curriculum that builds vocabulary  and concepts over time, allowing children to learn new knowledge by making connections with prior learning, is fundamental to our curriculum intent;  and this will ensure our children can then apply the key skills of analysis, evaluation, problem-solving, creativity and independence drawing on what they know.

Reading is at the core of our curriculum intent, as we recognise that through reading complex and varied texts, children can  develop the vocabulary they need to achieve academic success, therefore overcoming disadvantage and reducing economic inequality. Furthermore, embedding the foundations in mathematics, through carefully  planned sequence of concepts, will  enable children to recall what they have learned with fluency and draw upon previous understanding  of facts, concepts and procedures and use them to develop new learning.

We ensure our schools offer children access to a wide range of enriching activities (the arts, music) in order that they can live life in all its fullness. In order to achieve this, schools plan experiences and opportunities so that develop children:

• Spiritually – for example through visits to places of worship, opportunities for awe and wonder (mountain, sea)
• With a social conscience - charity involvement, voluntary work in residential homes or animal sanctuaries, debating
• Culturally – theatre trip, sports events, literary events, public speaking, playing an instrument, city break
• As future citizens - for example through visits to Industry, careers fairs, cooking

All our schools share our Trust’s curriculum vision and principles and have  developed their own curriculum intent that reflects that of our Trust, yet takes into account local context and pupil needs.  The content and structure of knowledge and how this is delivered is for school leaders to decide on and this should depend on factors relevant to a school’s context.

"School leaders champion the autonomy that they have to design their own curriculums.  The CEO and executive leaders are fiercely passionate about the curriculum being accessible and equitable for all pupils.  Executive leaders have supported school leaders extensively to ensure the school curriculums are increasingly knowledge-rich, well organised and ambitious for all pupils, including those pupils with SEND."

Ofsted (MAT  Summary Evaluation) 2023

In order to facilitate this and support implementation of our knowledge rich curriculum, best practice is shared across our Trust and professionals engage in action research :

• school leaders and Trust Education Officers work together as Challenge Partners to ensure the intent curriculum and implementation will have the desired impact on pupil outcomes
• Curriculum leaders, facilitated by the Trust Curriculum Lead, collaborate in networks and through school visits to ensure implementation matches intent
• Reading Leaders across schools work in partnership to ensure children have access to increasingly complex tests that will develop vocabulary and close the word gap
• SENCOs, supported by the Trust SEND lead, ensure that provision is appropriate for the most vulnerable pupils, enabling them to reach their potential
• EYFS Leads share best practice to close the CLL gap and develop rich vocabulary from an early age 
• LDST reviews identify the best practice worthy of wider dissemination, whilst addressing any gaps needing to be addressed

Learn, Love and Achieve, Together with Jesus