Our Curriculum

At the heart of our curriculum lie three core values: the pursuit of academic excellence; the explicit development of metacognition; and crucially, character education.

Academic Excellence is fundamental within our curriculum model. The children’s acquisition of a deep body of knowledge within subject disciplines will enable them to express their learning to the highest standard. When children achieve excellence, this gives them the confidence to challenge themselves further. Through this process of experiencing success, they will develop character, for example grit, determination, self-efficacy, and courage.

Character Education

Whilst academic success remains a core priority, developing character is also an essential element of our curriculum model. Our curriculum gives children opportunities to make a positive impact on society. We want them to grasp the possibilities and opportunities of life beyond the classroom, to enable them to thrive at each and every challenge they face in life and make a difference to themselves and those around them.

Metacognition

Our curriculum not only focuses on achieving character whilst pursuing academic excellence but also emphasises deep learning through developing the skills of metacognition. We use an enquiry approach to drive our learning experiences, making the reflective learning process explicit. In addition to this, tools for thinking will be taught to support children’s higher-order thinking, synthesis of knowledge, and creating of new thinking. However, metacognition can only be developed within a knowledge-rich curriculum.

Our Outcomes

Our vision for success is measured against six outcomes, each one reflecting our core values. We want all our pupils to be: Successful Learners, Knowledgeable participants, Confident Individuals, Caring citizens, Healthy thinkers and Curious explorers

Within ACE, we define the curriculum as “every planned learning experience.” To that end our curriculum model takes into account:
• Curriculum Scope
• Curriculum Concepts
• Curriculum Composites
• Curriculum Components
• Curriculum Rigour

Scope of the curriculum

Our curriculum scope is designed to reflect a wide range of planned experiences. These experiences are not limited to curriculum subjects alone. Instead they reflect the ACE core beliefs for learning, and as such, extend from lessons into breaktimes, assemblies, clubs, homework etc. Throughout our curriculum scope the focus is to ensure the Trust mission lies at the heart of all we do, achieving excellence, through cultivating character, sharing talents and pursuing innovation. With this in mind our scope enables us to ensure our values are always central to any planned experience (Learning Journeys).

Curriculum Concepts

Our curriculum is carefully sequenced to ensure that pupils are able to build on prior learning. We do this by using concepts to frame subject areas. This helps develop pupils' long term memory in three distinct ways:

• Supports them in gaining increasingly sophisticated
understanding of key themes that run through
subject disciplines
• Providing opportunities for them to revisit and recall
previous learning in a structured and carefully
planned manner
• Avoiding the confusion of a mass of unrelated subject knowledge by replacing this with an accumulation of knowledge based around big ideas that flow sequentially throughout the school.

Curriculum Composites
The curriculum composites are the subject experiences that are planned across the year and phase. These are the experiences that allow the concepts to be reinforced and remembered. For example, Studying “Movies and Effects,” ( Computing in Y5) is a composite that enables teachers to develop pupils' greater understanding of Computing Concepts ( Safety, Information, Computer Science).

Curriculum Components
The components are the detailed skills and knowledge that need to be taught in any planned learning
experience. Components are broken down into small progressive steps for learning and used to inform
teachers' planning. There are two different types of components. The substantive ( key knowledge about an aspect of a subject. E.g. I know how to mix paint) and the disciplinary( key skill related to an aspect of a subject. E.g. I can capture the play of light on water).