Ermine Primary Academy’s Curriculum
At Ermine Primary Academy, we strive to ensure pupils are given the opportunity to achieve their academic potential and we offer a curriculum that is rooted in knowing more and remembering more through building on prior knowledge, as well as developing their oracy to help develop their communication skills. To support this retention of information, we use quality ongoing assessment to ensure that our children are appropriately challenged so they achieve exceptionally well.
Furthermore, we strive to ensure that our pupils have the skills they need to be a successful member of our modern British society by learning about the following core values: Democracy, The rule of law, Individual liberty, Mutual respect and tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs. Developing a school culture of acceptance, respect and understanding.
We are a reading school, encouraging and promoting a love of reading through our reading curriculum, which ensures our students become life-long readers. Additionally, we ensure numeracy and literacy are included within each lesson and allow the children to develop a wide range of learning skills and depth of knowledge, build confidence, independence, resilience and become creative, critical thinkers.
We aim for all learners to enjoy their education and most make very good progress in all areas of learning. Pupils at all levels are helped to achieve their potential. Those who are most able are challenged and supported through appropriate extension activities. Those who struggle are encouraged and given targeted support to embed skills, to develop at their own pace or simply to learn in a style that best suits their individual needs.
The school’s focus on curriculum development has been carefully designed to ensure coverage and progression. It provides pupils with memorable experiences, in addition to diverse and rich opportunities from which children can learn and develop a range of transferable skills.
We believe our curriculum will develop our students spiritually, morally, socially and culturally, therefore helping to prepare them for the next challenges and opportunities in their lives.
Curriculum Aims
- Our curriculum framework ensures that all pupils access a broad and balanced, progressive, knowledge-rich curriculum based around the requirements of all subjects of the National Curriculum and EYFS framework.
- Our curriculum framework aims to allow contextual barriers to learning to be overcome, ensuring that all children are able to fulfil their potential.
- We create a happy, safe and stimulating setting where children are motivated to learn together.
- By maintaining high expectations of ourselves and each other, our children will be equipped to encounter opportunities and challenges with resilience and determination.
- We encourage a curiosity about the world and strive to ensure that our children will contribute positively to it, both now and in the future.
Curriculum Implementation
- Implementation describes the way in which we deliver our intent consistently each day. To do this we have carefully designed our knowledge engaged curriculum. This is designed to enable learners to acquire relevant subject knowledge which underpins the application of skills. Skills are carefully and progressively mapped across each key stage and subject area.
- Knowledge is consolidated and built upon to support retention and recall. This ensures that by the time children leave our school they have learned, and are able to recall and apply the key information that we feel is important in order for them to be successful in the future.
- To engage, immerse and ‘hook’ the children in their learning experiences, every classroom learning environment reflects the theme that the children are learning about. For example, if the theme is Rainforests, the classroom displays should reflect that, to try and bring learning to life. This learning environment is not only used as a tool for engagement, but also to support and deepen the learning experiences taking place in the classroom. When themes are carried across school this will then be visible and progression within those shared learning experiences highly evident. High quality literacy texts are planned to be most appropriate for the topic.
- Quality texts are integral to our curriculum approach, as we recognise that fluency in reading enables children to have access to the full curriculum entitlement. We believe it is our role to ensure children leave us being able to articulate themselves clearly, and read and write confidently and effectively. Our children need a high level of explicitly taught vocabulary as well as exposure to a variety of texts.
- We endeavour to ensure that children see a relevance and a purpose to their learning, so plan for learning to build towards a purposeful outcome at the end of the term. This is an opportunity for children to showcase their learning to a wider audience, for example through an exhibition to the school community, or through the publication of a class text or similar.
Curriculum Drivers – ERMINE
Our curriculum at Ermine Primary Academy is designed specifically for our context and has bespoke curriculum drivers that will enable our children to achieve their potential. They are:
E – Enriching – Our curriculum provides students with powerful, inspiring knowledge that they would not receive outside of their school environment. We strive to offer students opportunities, experiences and responsibilities that they may not have access to beyond our setting.
R – Remember – Teachers will be confident that their subject knowledge is strong enough to deliver a sequence of learning with precision and clarity. They will focus on developing the long-term learning of children, not just the here-and-now. With that in mind, retrieval practice will feature throughout the curriculum so that children are encouraged and supported in remembering what they have been taught. This will be supported by assessments that we ask the children to take part in. Lessons include frequent forwards and backwards referencing to link learning within subjects, across the curriculum and across year groups (3D curriculum.)
M – Mindset – At Ermine Primary, all children are taught that everyone can achieve. We know that children who have a positive attitude to learning will continue to progress and be successful. Learning never stops; with practise, effort and resilience everyone can improve.
I – Inspiring – Ermine Primary Academy students will feel inspired by the events, lessons and individuals that they study during their units of work. Students will grow ever resilient and better themselves through studying the challenges people have faced and overcome in the past and those experienced by people today.
N – Nurture – We pride ourselves on the importance we place on nurturing our children. We believe that children learn best when they are happy, cared for and when their emotional and mental well-being is at the heart of everything. At Ermine Primary Academy, we have many ways in which we support children to enable them to be in the best place to learn and to support them on their journey to adulthood.
E – Enquiry – We believe that choosing the right context to engage our children in their learning is vital in fostering a love of learning and also maintaining our high standards. Our curriculum is planned around the distinctive needs of our children, promoting curiosity and interest. Within each topic, open-ended questions to investigate are presented to the children, engaging and motivating them as learners. These questions are designed to provide the context for learning in most subject areas, enabling the children to further develop and deepen their knowledge and understanding. Children are encouraged to drive their own learning forward by questioning, investigating and solving problems.
If you want to find out more about the curriculum at Ermine Primary Academy, you could attend a Parent open classroom session, speak with a class teacher or contact the Curriculum leader Mrs Jenna Richards.
Click the images to open a pdf version of the overviews.
