About Our Curriculum | Reffley Academy

Background information

Pupils at Reffley join our school with a significant variance of life experiences. Some pupils have limited general knowledge (cultural capital). While others are exposed to a wider life experience by their parents/guardians: typically, this is dictated by their immediate locality. There is an active local community that provides a wealth of local activities that are well attended by the families that live here. There is an element of self-sufficiently with lots of activities for pupils in the immediate locality. Typically, parental engagement is high with parents supporting events and homework activities.

Intent

To meet the needs of our community, our relevant knowledge and skills based curriculum has been designed to do the following:

Provide a broad breadth of content. Areas of study have been chosen using the National Curriculum alongside further studies to provide the pupils with as much exposure to concepts and ideas as possible.
To undertake a mixture of in-depth and broad-brush studies to ensure the curriculum remains as broad as possible.
Provide well-chosen trips/experiences that are outside of the locality as much as possible or offer experiences our parents would not usually expose their pupils to.
To link areas of study by concepts that run throughout curriculum areas – the concepts are reinforced to pupils and referred back to when new areas of study are presented.
To build up knowledge webs/organisers to help pupils to visualise the collation of knowledge and make links between areas of study taught.
To build in curriculum days where the whole school focusses on a theme or area of study that develops pupils’ understanding of their role and responsibilities within society at a local, national and international.
New learning builds on previous knowledge – there is a progression in the delivery of new concepts, so that pupils are able to make links and build up a long term arc of knowledge. Teachers refer back to previous learning to enable children to build on what they already know.

We place a high priority on developing competence in reading and the use of vocabulary – both are taught explicitly as well as being interweaved across all subjects. Confidence and fluency in reading coupled with a rich spoken vocabulary underpins the development of acquiring subject knowledge over time.

Pupils are taught how to access learning and undertake independent inquire and problem solve – we call these behaviours for learning. These skills are essential for learning both in the classroom and life outside of the academy. Our Core Values, as well as British Values are interwoven throughout everyday learning.

Inclusion

Our curriculum has been designed to meet the needs of all learners, including disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND - all pupils have the opportunity to learn in a creative and encouraging learning environment.

When pupils are identified as having special educational needs, we will do all we can to ensure that the needs of these pupils are met. In most instances, class teachers will be able to provide the resources and support required to enable these pupils to access the curriculum at a level that is appropriate to them.

If class teachers feel that it is necessary to modify the curriculum in order to meet the needs of pupils with more severe special educational needs, then this will be done in consultation with the SENCO.

Leaders promote equality of opportunity and diversity when planning for inclusion in the curriculum at Reffley Academy, so that there is no direct or indirect discriminatory behaviour.

Leaders, staff, and pupils promote tolerance, understanding and acceptance.