Curriculum Intent

Passion

All children should feel passionate about their learning.  We place great emphasis on children having a go at new challenges and we nurture a ‘You Can Do It!’ philosophy for all pupils. Our goal is to develop individuals that are empowered to communicate confidently and effectively as well as think deeply.

Creativity

Our broad and balanced curriculum allows pupils to develop curiosity, express themselves in unique ways, and acquire a range of disciplinary skills to a high standard. Our lessons are designed to encourage pupils to ask questions, investigate and to find answers through their learning journey. We are passionate about providing opportunities for children to create and innovate and to gain confidence in expressing their ideas.

Community

Our curriculum helps children to see they belong in our school community and to see the benefits of working in collaboration with others, including parents and families. We aim to make the best use of local resources and experiences available to pupils in our local area, and in London more widely, to contribute to the development of our pupils’ cultural capital. At Sir William Burrough, we celebrate diversity of all forms: equality and inclusion are at the heart of our curriculum.

Improvement and Motivation

Through our carefully planned curriculum and our enrichment offer, we want children to see the world as full of opportunities that are accessible to them. We believe that all children should experience a curriculum that broadens their horizons and gives them new experiences, knowledge, skills, interests and ideas. Our curriculum ensures our children are well-prepared with the knowledge and skills required to ensure they succeed in their next stages of education, and to support them to want to engage in life-long learning.

Growth

We strive to go beyond the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage framework and the National Curriculum, delivering a rich and varied education that motivates and inspires. Through a carefully planned curriculum we aim to ensure the sequential and layered skill and knowledge acquisition for all learners, with a clear, progressive framework that’s built on sequentially, year-on-year.

Rosenshine’s Principles 

Our pedagogical approach is based on Rosenshine’s Principles of Direct Instruction. 

This systematic and structured approach, which is applied in all lessons, creates a supportive learning environment where all students have the opportunity to succeed.

Rooted in research on cognitive science, the application of the principles means that our teachers are continually engaging with academic research about how children learn best. The clarity in structure within this approach also helps with the effective induction of new staff.

The Principles of Direct Instruction

1. Daily review (retrieval practice)
2. Present new materials using small steps
3. Ask questions
4. Provide models
5. Guide student practice
6. Check for student understanding
7. Obtain a high success rate
8. Provide scaffold for difficult tasks
9. Independent practice
10. Weekly and monthly review

Supporting our pupils to know more and remember more over time

Our curriculum has been carefully sequenced to support the effective development of our pupils’ schemata from EYFS through to year 6.

To ensure the continued improvement and growth of our pupils, learning in each subject progresses carefully, with teachers having a clear understanding of both pre-requisite knowledge that children need to succeed in each lesson, as well as future learning that will, in time, build upon what is currently being taught. Our curriculum is designed to ensure that knowledge and skill acquisition is layered and built on over time, supporting our pupils to make meaningful connections in their learning also. This sequencing allows for children to recognise links between prior learning and the knowledge and skills learned in the current lesson, ensuring deep learning and a secure conceptual understanding.

Our teachers understand that the building of this schema is what allows our pupils to know more and remember more over time. Our teachers and curriculum leaders receive professional development opportunities to continue to develop their own knowledge of generative learning and how to deepen understanding.

Each topic and skill have been thoughtfully planned into our curriculum mapping to ensure that teachers, curriculum leaders and phase leaders understand the journey of learning from EYFS through to year 6, and can encourage children to make connections between and across subjects, due to being well informed of the pupils’ prior learning.

As per our pedagogical approach, teachers use retrieval tasks at the beginning of every lesson, including the use of knowledge organisers, to support children to recall and make connections in their learning.

Our retrieval practice routines draw on the principles of spaced learning and interleaving to support the improvement of our pupils’ retention capacities, as well as strengthening problem-solving skills as learners are supported to understand and identify connections and differences between concepts.

Our SWB ‘Units of Work’ ensure that there are regular and effective opportunities to review and retrieve knowledge learned previously, as well as ensuring that tasks given to children are of an appropriate level of challenge for children and allow children the opportunities to apply their subject-specific knowledge and skills.

Oracy, reading and vocabulary are at the heart of our curriculum

Through our curriculum, we ensure children develop their oracy skills and acquire a wide vocabulary, supporting them to be articulate and confident in sharing their learning with others.

Supporting our pupils to be confident and effective communicators, key vocabulary to be taught in each unit is planned for too, ensuring all children are supported to acquire new Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary effectively.

High-quality core texts in English further drive learning in other subject areas such as history, geography and science.

Representing our community, and diverse world that we live in, our core texts have been carefully chosen to reflect this, so to provide our learners with accurate and relatable narratives to contribute to the effective building of their schemas. Curriculum resources are thoughtfully considered, quality assured and selected to effectively support children’s progress through each subject discipline.

Our teachers carefully plan for children’s progress and help children to identify their next steps.

Progression of knowledge and skills

In KS1 and KS2, subjects are studied as discrete lessons although topics have been placed in a sequence that encourages children to make strong links across subject areas. These topics integrate knowledge across subjects where meaningful connections enhance children’s understanding of broader concepts.

The knowledge, skills and concepts that will be taught in each subject are mapped out in our subject progression grids.

The purpose of our progression grids is to support teachers to understand how each skill, area of knowledge and/or concept is built on over time in each subject, including the knowledge and skills acquired in the Early Years Foundation Stage. They allow the reader to see the skills and knowledge that have been taught ‘before’ and the skills and knowledge that will be taught ‘next’, further ensuring that learning is sequential and layered.

Our progression grids also ensure that our pupils are taught the appropriate skills and knowledge in each year group, ready to make progress as they move through the school and into Key Stage 3. In addition, they also support our staff in assessing children’s depth of knowledge/skills at the end of each unit/year, where age-related/end-of-year expectations are clearly defined for all within our mixed-age structure.