Design note 4 - what do we mean?
In addition to the similarities between our new icon and the real Northern Lights, we particularly liked some of the themes the Northern Lights icon represented, namely:
Our Curriculum Principles
Our curriculum intent
- Our main intent is to teach all of the children and young people in our care to be independent and self-actualised
- The knowledge that we teach should allow students the ability to reach their full academic and social potential, to acquire knowledge that will liberate them and take them ‘beyond their everyday experiences’
- Our knowledge-rich curriculum incorporates diverse types of knowledge ‘knowing how as well as knowing that’
- At different stages of development and curriculum progression, there may be more focus on either knowing how or knowing that, with the aim of young people being able to progress to access higher education where in many subjects the shift is to knowing that
- Despite the diversity of our phases and the different contexts of our schools, we are united in our knowledge-rich intention
- As educators, we know that how we teach is intrinsically linked to what we teach and that we are constantly making decisions about what knowledge we choose to teach, how we link to previous and future learning, how we sequence it and how we consolidate it (see more on this in our teaching principles)
- We understand that curriculum planning is an ethical pursuit and is about mission-alignment; ‘creating remarkable schools where no child is left behind’
We are influenced by curriculum theory and define knowledge as procedural (knowing how) and declarative (knowing that). We believe in the importance of disciplinary knowledge and that subject specialists should have the power to lead. One size does not fit all and appropriate subject pedagogy that reflects whole school pedagogy is an expectation.
We talk about ‘deferring to the brilliance of others’ and we are always looking to learn from the rich diversity of our trust. Our two outstanding special schools have influenced us in how we consider child development, executive functioning and knowledge acquisition.
From Reception upwards (and in our special schools) we teach the national curriculum as a default so that our children and young people are advantaged and can acquire a shared body of knowledge. We encourage teachers to reflect on epistemology – whose knowledge and to increasingly encourage critical thinking in older students through ‘always contesting’ what is the best that has been thought or said.’
From inception this trust has been built on strong principles of inclusion and a commitment to the development of the whole child. All our schools are committed to opportunities to widen the cultural experience of our young people so that they can enjoy, learn and succeed. We are proud of how carefully we have considered the concept of cultural capital – we are all here to learn.
Culture capital and wider experiences
- We are wholly committed to opportunities to widen the cultural experience of our young people so that they can enjoy, learn and succeed
- We want our curriculum to be as broad as possible for as long as possible and that includes extra-curricular opportunities and educational visits
- We do whatever it takes to ensure our extra-curricular is as inclusive as possible and we take steps to promote to and encourage those who will benefit most
- Educational visits both enhance, reinforce and broaden our formal curriculum
- We will never offer an educational visit during the taught day that would preclude children and young people on financial or cultural grounds
- Our students all have their own cultural literacy, and we celebrate this and embrace diversity
- Our educational visits and extra-curricular seeks to offer all studentsexperiences that are ‘beyond their everyday experiences’ with the aim ofbuilding cultural capital
- Through building cultural capital, our children and young people will be able to‘code switch’ so that their interactions are suitable to a ‘time and a place’
- Cultural capital may build on experiences beyond the classroom although just as important is the explicit teaching of norms of behaviour in relation to time and place, so for example, manners and speaking in full sentences in a place of work
- We build cultural capital in order to support our young people in being able to ‘sit at the top table’, we do though respect the heritage, language and traditions of groups that may be less dominant in society
- We are always conscious of ethnocentricity and teaching our students that the more knowledge they have, the more they can express their ‘authentic selves’ and ‘code switch’ between cultures
How we work together on curriculum
Whilst we have very clear principles of curriculum as expressed in our One Trust Contract, as a trust that is diverse in composition, we have been careful in the how and what of curriculum prescription. We are also entirely pragmatic and conscious of teacher workload . Where we do align, we do so through collective efficacy as we believe that this is how all have self-determination and the power to lead.
Over the past 3 years, we have invested significant time into collective efficacy and as a result, we have increasingly aligned how we teach and what we teach whilst always working with leaders in a consideration of the readiness and capacity to implement change
Our primary schools have chosen to adopt a default curriculum and aligned systems of assessment.
Our special schools have been working hard on an all through special curriculum with an aligned system for assessment.
Our secondary schools have a default English, Maths and Science curriculum and we have aligned end of year assessments that are agreed upon by Heads of Faculty and is informed by the work of the highest performing trusts to ensure challenge.