Vision Academy Learning Trust values a strong curriculum that is carefully planned and structured in order that it meets the needs of all learners and supports excellent learning. The curriculum extends between the ages of 2 and 19 and includes both the formal timetabled curriculum and all the informal learning and development that occurs outside the timetable.
Our curriculum is a plan for progression based on what students need to acquire: what they know, what they can do, and what experiences they have to support success and progression to the next stage.
Our curriculum is broad, balanced and carefully planned to ensure that:
- Knowledge, skills and content is thoroughly taught and revisited.
- It prepares students for external examinations.
- Students enjoy learning and make progress.
- Students develop skills and understanding for the workplace and further study.
- Students develop knowledge and understanding of British Values and the implications for life in modern day Britain.
- Students develop spiritual, moral, social and cultural learning.
Principles of Our Curriculum
The principles of our curriculum are founded on the following:
- Students acquire subject-specific knowledge and are able to analyse texts, questions and solve complex problems.
- Students will have opportunities to practise the subject specific knowledge and skills they have learnt.
- Many opportunities will be built into lessons to secure the need to recall and retrieve prior learning.
- An increasing number of students will be entered for the English Baccalaureate.
- Literacy development will be prioritised and enhanced for those in most need to enable success.
- The fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect of those with different faiths and beliefs are taught explicitly and reinforced in the way in which the school operates.
- SMSC is embedded into pastoral and curriculum programmes.
- Students will experience a careers education based on the Gatsby benchmarks supporting their next steps.
- Some students will be offered a bespoke curriculum that supports their learning needs and progression to their next steps.
The teaching of all subjects within the curriculum is fully compliant with our duties under the Equality Act 2010 and Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014.
Within VALT, all our schools share the common principles for the curriculum. Schools develop the curriculum offer and provision at any given time to meet the needs of their students that support learning through well sequenced knowledge and skills, recall and retrieval.
Curriculum Expectations
Pupils and parents can expect the following from VALT schools:
The curriculum in every VALT school is broad and balanced, while taking into account how the curriculum may be adapted for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
All VALT pupils will have opportunities to develop skills in music, the arts, technological skills, sport and physical activity to enable pupils to develop their full potential. These opportunities are offered in both the formal and informal curriculum.
In addition to the above, at primary in VALT:
- Schools follow the full intent of the National Curriculum.
- Early years provision follows the EYFS, and the interpretation of this provides a sensitive balance of play-based learning and adult-led interaction.
- Throughout Key Stage 1 and 2, pupils receive a broad and rich curriculum, taught primarily as discrete subjects or through combining subjects when this is appropriate for reinforcing or deepening particular areas of knowledge and skills.
In addition to the above, at
secondary in VALT:
- Schools follow the full intent of the National Curriculum for Key Stage 3 over 3 years. Students will be taught in groups to study the broad curriculum. However, as stated in our principles, the curriculum may be tailored to the ability needs of students to support literacy, numeracy and a pathway to support progression.
- In the 2 year Key Stage 4, all pupils will study English Language, English literature, mathematics, science (trilogy or separate), PE, and PHSE/religious education.
- Schools are ambitious for the increase in EBacc in Key Stage 4. Schools offer pathways for success and advise pupils to study a combination of subjects that will give them the best foundation for their next stage, but do not constrain their choice or request to move pathways.
- All pupils are entitled to undertake a qualification in at least three of the following: science, a modern foreign language, history, geography, and computer science.
- Schools have the latitude to decide when to offer pupils curriculum choices, as long as these decisions take account of the need to give all pupils breadth for as long as possible. Decisions must be based on what advantages pupils, not what advantages schools
Curriculum Criteria
Our curriculum planning in VALT schools specify:
- How curriculum principles are being met.
- The component knowledge and skills that all pupils must acquire.
- Show the sequencing of knowledge and skills that supports excellent learning.
- The component techniques that all pupils must acquire.
- The recommended pedagogy.
- Any complex applications or threshold concepts.
- References to literacy and numeracy development.
- How assessment is being used, including:
- how formative assessment will be used.
- how assessment will inform whether component knowledge and techniques are being retained.
Within Vision Academy Learning, all schools share common aims for the curriculum. Schools may focus on a subset of these aims at any given time, while recognising that all are important. The core aims relate to the school, not to each pupil. Not every aspect of each strand is equally relevant in each phase of education, though all schools touch on each strand in some way.
The key foundations for the curriculum is based on:
- Learning
- Application
- Growth
Primary Curriculum
Our primary curriculum is designed to foster thought, curiosity, and a desire for learning in all pupils, regardless of their backgrounds, strengths and needs. It provides a solid foundation for future learning at every stage and is designed to deliver a broad, balanced and ambitious educational curriculum and experience that we seek for every pupil from the start.
At primary level, our ambitious curriculum is based on teaching a body of specific, lasting knowledge to allow children, regardless of background or starting point, to build progressively on what they already know. We have robust intent, planning and implementation that support active learning and extended classroom activities to ensure pupils know, can use and apply their developing knowledge.
Secondary Curriculum
Our secondary curriculum emphasises the importance of intellectual study and focuses on quality learning. We believe that this will best equip our students for the pathways that lead to employment, training and higher education university. We are determined that our students will compete on equal terms with students coming from the most privileged circumstances. We provide them with an academic, but rounded, education that gives them the best possible chance to succeed.
Academic subjects leading to the English Baccalaureate are at the core of the secondary curriculum. We also offer vocational curriculum options that complement the strong academic core. We spread the burden of studying for GCSEs over both years at KS4 (year 10 and 11) so that Year 11 does not become too pressured. This also allows us to plan effectively for each individual student in Year 11 and to timetable a programme of study that maximises their potential.