Nothing has been taught until it has been learnt.
John Wooden
At Witham St Hughs Academy we strive to provide the best education possible and to ensure happiness and achievement for all. We work in partnership with parents, the Trust and the wider community to help our pupils become confident, responsible adults. We firmly believe that our curriculum defines the journey we want our pupils to take throughout their primary education and is rightly ambitious for all.
Our curriculum intent is clearly set out through a comprehensive series of subject frameworks, long and medium term planning and with an awareness of both the powerful knowledge and cultural capital we want our children to gain through our teaching. We understand that children need powerful knowledge to live in an increasingly complex world, but that they do not live by knowledge but by beliefs and values. As such, our Character Education and Life Skills curriculums are absolutely central to our curriculum in order to send confident, kind and informed young people on to the next stage of their education. Our curriculum is clearly intended to enable pupils to acquire knowledge that takes them beyond their own experience.
Through constant professional development, our highly skilled staff team develop a reasoned and varied approach to the implementation of our curriculum. Learning is crafted thoughtfully to deliver both the highest expectations of all pupils alongside the understanding that different learners will require different approaches to maximise their potential. Teachers regularly check pupil understanding and adapt teaching accordingly to maximise progress.
The impact of our curriculum is one of confident learners leaving our Academy ready for the next stage of their education having achieved highly across the curriculum.
Our Academy values of:
- Respect
- Unity
- Enjoyment
- Resilience
- Ambition
are constantly embedded and reinforced throughout the delivery of our ambitious curriculum. It is our intention that children leave our Academy both academically and socially able and confident.
Nothing ever becomes real until it is experienced
John Keats
Intent, Implementation & Impact
At Witham St Hughs Academy, we believe that the greatest impact of an effective curriculum is achieved when educators establish a positive learning environment and synergy between the curriculum and its assessment, combined with skilled teaching.
“I receive information about what my child will learn during the year.” – 100% parents agree or strongly agree.
Parent/Carer Questionnaire – October 2023
Intent
Our curriculum is delivered through the discrete teaching of subjects within an overarching ‘topic’. This will have a history, geography or science focus. Our subject curriculum follows the National Curriculum and is tailored to meet the needs of our pupils. Our individual subject frameworks are progressive and sequential, developing pupils’ knowledge and skills in tandem. Children must know ‘what’ and ‘how’ in order to develop a deep body of knowledge that takes them beyond their own experiences into the best of what has been thought and said.
Nothing has been taught until it has been learnt.
John Wooden
Implementation
At Witham St Hughs Academy, we understand that ‘nothing has been taught until it has been learnt’. To this end, subject specific pedagogy is vital to the exemplary delivery of all curriculum subjects. Our approach to teaching art differs greatly to that of teaching maths, for example. Throughout the implementation of our curriculum, there is a focus on moving learning into the long term memory and developing ‘hard thinking’. We know that ‘memory is the residue of thought’ and that children will learn what they are thinking about most. Therefore, children’s thinking must be on the learning and not dominated by task-driven pedagogy. Regular low-stakes quizzing and firmly embedded recap time within lessons ensure our focus is sharply on children knowing more and remembering more.
Impact
At Witham St Hughs Academy, we recognise that ‘successes’ will look different for all pupils and that this should not solely be measured in relation to English and Maths outcomes at the end of KS1 and KS2. If the intent and implementation elements of the curriculum have been successfully achieved, pupils will not only be ready for the next stage of their education, but will also be well-rounded, articulate, interesting, caring and tolerant individuals. Although many of these characteristics cannot be specifically measured, assessed or quantified, we do assess the impact of our curriculum in a wide variety of ways including: pupil attainment data; pupil progress data; regular low-stakes quizzing; monitoring of pupil books; regular pupil discussions; pupil contribution and attitudes; termly L.E.A.D. QA visits; bi-annual parental questionnaires at parents evenings; pupil behaviour and attitudes when learning beyond the school building; pupil engagement in wider community charities; observations of children’s play and many more.
“I receive valuable information from school about my child’s progress.” – 99% parents agree or strongly agree.
Parent/Carer Questionnaire – October 2023
Whole School Curriculum Overview 2023-24
If you have any further questions about our curriculum, please contact us at: [email protected]