Curriculum

Intent

The Orchard Meadow School curriculum is designed to support all our pupils to achieve their academic best. In order to do this, we have ensured that our curriculum both motivates and inspires them to challenge themselves as learners. We want our learners to have high aspirations of themselves and be ready and equipped for each next stage of their
academic career. Our school values, along with the opportunities for children to learn through cooperation, teamwork and resilience, promote the development of the ‘whole’ child. Respect for themselves, each other and those around them is of great importance to our school community.

We recognise that in order for children to learn at a deeper level, build on prior learning and retrieve information confidently at a later stage they need to have opportunities to use both short- and long-term memory skills.  By the time learners have left Orchard Meadow School, they will have mastered subject specific substantive (key knowledge - the ‘what’) and disciplinary knowledge (key skills – the ‘how’) through opportunities for deliberate practice and careful planning for progression and depth.

Our ultimate aim is to achieve ‘The Best in Everyone’. In working closely with our local community and equipping our children with the necessary skills to be confident and
successful learners, our aim is that they in turn will confidently contribute to the modern world.

 “How we expose our pupils to powerful knowledge and provide education with character” (Implementation) Teaching and Learning at Orchard Meadow aims to develop our young people into confident and knowledgeable pupils who draw on their experiences, and those of others, to build a well-informed understanding of the world around them. It is underpinned by research into metacognition (the awareness or analysis of one's own learning or thinking processes).

Our Teaching and Learning Policy outlines the following implementation:

1. Getting our brains into Executive Mode so that the children are able to activate their
   prefrontal lobe (the part of the brain needed to think and learn).
2. Make sure that new learning ‘sticks’. For new learning to ‘stick’, children must have prior knowledge or schema to attach it to. In order to ensure that our pupils can access new learning, teachers ensure that their children have experiences to draw upon (this might include a sensory experience, sharing a related story, a visit or visitor, for example).
3. How we teach: Learning Questions, Dual Coding, Rosenshine’s Principles of Instructions
4. Interference to: Cognitive Load, Learning Environment, Emotional Response

Our wider ‘Big Questions’ curriculum is underpinned with six wellbeing concepts:

• Self-Belief
• CourageFairness
• Empathy
• Honesty
• Gratitude

Across the year the children will think deeply and reflect on each of the well-being concepts in conjunction with their foundation subject learning. Over their school career, they revisit prior learning taught in each concept and subject. They acquire powerful knowledge whilst broadening their experiences to build culture capital so that in time children engage positively with their communities as productive citizens.

“How we measure and secure continuous improvement for all” (Impact)

At Orchard Meadow, when you walk into a classroom you will see:

• Enthusiastic children who are focussed on their learning   
• Children asking questions with confidence and determination   
• Children making connections between current learning and existing knowledge
• Children actively using their prior learning to enable them to complete open ended; tasks
• Books that show a clear journey to an intended outcome
• Focused and purposeful input from teachers, followed by carefully planned tasks to practice the taught skill
• Learning broken down into small steps with children demonstrating a high success rate in their books   
• A purposeful environment where distractions are minimised
• Adults being proactive in their provision of scaffolds and reactive to constant assessment of children’s needs during the lesson

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes
• Pupil discussions about their learning   
• Regular learning walks with leaders at all levels
• Moderation of a sample of pupils’ learning across the school demonstrating mastery and greater depth of understanding   
• The annual tracking of standards across the curriculum
• High quality written outcome for each study block completed.

The impact of this is that Orchard Meadow children:

• Leave us with a broad, rich and deep knowledge of our curriculum being able to retain knowledge and make strong connections in their learning   
• Are ready and well-prepared for the next stage of their education. 
• Leave our school at the end of Key Stage 2 as excited, aspirational young citizens, keen to make a positive contribution to their future modern world

The teaching of phonics across the school is delivered using the Read Write Inc programme. Parents can find out more about the programme by asking teachers in school.