Windsor Academy Trust - Aspire 2020 Curriculum Statement - Primary

WAT Moral Purpose

‘To unlock the academic and personal potential of all our learners’

Our Aspire Curriculum Vision

Pupils’ curriculum experiences will be exceptional and memorable. They will explore

and understand the world from their classroom and beyond. Our young people will

have the knowledge, skills and attributes to be successful and aspirational learners.

Our ambitious curriculum will help them to gain an advantage, so that they can make

most of their next journey in education and in life.

Our Aspire 2020 Curriculum Journey

WAT’s Aspire Curriculum has been in place

for several years. In the spring and summer

term 2019 leaders and staff across our WAT

family worked in close collaboration to review

the impact of our Aspire curriculum and plan

to make it even better. Consequently, we have

two clear phases to developing our curriculum,

so that it can be truly exceptional for our

young people:

Phase 1

Leaders and teachers work

together to refine the Aspire

curriculum for the academic

year 2019-20. More

coherent and progressive

curriculum planning will be

implemented in the

classroom by teachers

during 2019-20.

Phase 2

During the academic year 2019-20,

leaders and staff will review the

curriculum design and subject

content in preparation for a re-

launch of the Aspire curriculum in

September 2020. Trust-wide

curriculum leads will support this

process alongside senior leaders of

curriculum. Staff will receive high-

quality subject specific CPL.

Windsor Academy Trust - Aspire 2020 Curriculum Statement - Primary

How is the Aspire curriculum designed?

All leaders and staff have worked together to refine the Aspire long-term curriculum

map (shown below).

The Aspire curriculum has different themes across the academic year. Each theme

has a lead subject with other subject foci within the same theme. Other subject links

are only made where the subject content is not diluted. We took the decision for the

following subjects to be taught discretely: Mathematics, aspects of English, Science,

RE, PSHE, MFL and Computing.

The aim of the lead subject theme is to deeply immerse pupils in subject content so

that key knowledge sticks in

their long-term memory. As

each term progresses key

knowledge and skills will be

re-visited. While the autumn

term lead subject is history,

key geography knowledge

and skills will be introduced,

so that pupils go into the

spring term theme with

some foundational

knowledge. Consideration

has been given to progression from theme to theme and within themes. This is also

something that will be further developed in phase 2 of our 2020 Aspire programme.

Medium-Term Planning

In the spring and summer term of 2019, all leaders and staff across the trust worked

collaboratively to re-design the medium term plans for the autumn term. Our medium

terms plans use the NC aims and programmes of study to guide the learning and

define end points. However, we also seek to extend and enrich the curriculum to

meet local context or to excite and challenge our young people.

The medium term plans have set out the end-point knowledge required for each

theme. This is depicted by the NC and also the key knowledge and skills that staff

have planned for each year group. Consideration has been given to the order of

when content is taught, so that there is progression in the planning.

Structure of medium term planning:

Windsor Academy Trust - Aspire 2020 Curriculum Statement - Primary

While the themes have trust-wide medium

terms plans, it is currently schools’

responsibility to ensure effective curriculum planning is in place for subjects taught

discretely.

Other trust-wide medium term plans have been produced for art and music (by our

music and art specialist Lead Practitioners) aligned to the Aspire curriculum.

Examples are shown here:

Our Knowledge

Organisers

‘The real power of knowledge organisers is that they make us think hard about what

we are going to teach.’

Mary Myatt, The Curriculum: Gallimaufry to Coherence)

Staff and leaders have worked collaboratively to produce knowledge organisers for

the Aspire themes. They give the ‘bigger picture’ of the how key knowledge links

NC

Reference

Cleary

defined

knowledge

& skills

Knowledge &

skills sequenced

across the theme

Tier 3 vocab

and CC links

mapped

Activity

ideas

Windsor Academy Trust - Aspire 2020 Curriculum Statement - Primary

together. They make knowledge and language explicit, supporting implementation

and assessment.

How will the curriculum vision be

implemented?

Our curriculum intent will be

implemented through ‘engaging,

enthusing and inspiring every lesson,

every day.’ Our WAT teaching and

learning cycle, through which our ten

teaching and learning principles are

embedded, ensures that the curriculum is

delivered effectively so that all students

make progress regardless of background

and ability.

How does the teaching of English fit with the Aspire Curriculum?

We have been clear that writing across the curriculum is vital - writing opportunities

must be exploited within the themes. Our Lead Practitioners (LPs) for English have

also matched fiction and non-fiction novels alongside themes so that the curriculum

can be connected to the teaching of reading. During the summer term, all leaders

and staff received CPL (continued professional learning) on the importance of the

different tiers of vocabulary. Medium terms plans and knowledge organisers now

explicitly plan for and teach tier 3 subject-specific vocabulary.

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Windsor Academy Trust - Aspire 2020 Curriculum Statement - Primary

urs fit into our curriculum?

Our Aspire curriculum vision can only be realised if it

is well taught and if the pupils have the right learning

behaviours to be successful. Curriculum activities

and experiences should seek to exploit the Aspire

behaviours, so that pupils build an understanding of

how to be a successful learner in a wide range of

subjects. For example, we want our young people to

be imaginative when creating historical questions or

developing their own piece of art. Equally, we want

them to be resilient and bounce back when a science

investigation doesn’t go as planned or when they find

a partner balance challenging in PE.

These behaviours will not only help our young people

to tackle ambitious subject content, but they will also

help shape them as human beings.

Our Aspire Curriculum Display

Purpose: To inspire pupils and support their learning across the theme

The Aspire display may have:

► Key questions

► Subject specifically vocabulary, which could be added to over time

► Key knowledge that needs to stick

► The journey of the theme as it progresses

► High-quality examples of pupils’ Aspire work

► Subject specific resources, e.g. maps, artefacts

► Subject text examples, e.g. non-fiction texts

Assessment

Our approaches to assessing reading, writing and mathematics are robust,

established and clear. We use mixture of summative tests and teacher assessment

to make accurate judgements of how well pupils are doing and where they need

further support.

Windsor Academy Trust - Aspire 2020 Curriculum Statement - Primary

The new Education Inspection Framework (EIF 2019) makes it clear that

assessment should support the teaching of the curriculum but not increase teacher

workload. The handbook goes on to say that inspectors will evaluate whether

collections of progress and attainment data are proportionate and sustainable.

Consequently, we must be proportionate about assessment in science and the

foundation subjects (particularly in a primary school where teachers have multiple

subjects). We will fully review this area during phase 2 of our journey to ensure that

assessment is manageable and highly effective. For example, we will explore

whether some foundation subjects could have comparative judgment in the same

way that writing does.

In the meantime, our assessment in the Aspire curriculum needs to be simplistic and

focus on impact. As we implement our intended curriculum, look at how well pupils

‘know more and remembering more’. Use learning checks in lessons, the evaluation

of pupils’ books during and after lessons, or any low stakes quizzes (or other checks)

to see if learning has ‘stuck’ for pupils. If it hasn’t and there are areas of weakness,

then consider staying on a particular area longer or revisiting through a smart start.

Be flexible and adaptable to ensure that pupils can successfully learn our intended

curriculum.