Our curriculum will cultivate a love of learning, inspire curious minds, and construct the foundations upon which children’s future knowledge may be built. Our curriculum design is based upon evidence from cognitive science and three main principles underpin it:
- Learning is most effective with spaced repetition.
- Interleaving helps pupils to create links between topics and concepts and aids long-term retention.
- Retrieval of previously learned content is frequent and regular which increases both storage and retrieval strength
We recognise that learning is invisible in the short term and sustained mastery takes time.
We have high expectations for every child regardless of background or ability. Our curriculum has been devised in the interest of our children, first and foremost, to ensure quality of provision to enable them to acquire and develop a deep body of knowledge. We are mindful that knowledge does not sit as isolated information in children’s minds and so our curriculum is progressive, with knowledge connected in schemata.
Progress means knowing more and remembering more. We know that knowledge is generative and that the greater the body of knowledge, the easier it becomes to make links between concepts and prior learning, thus paving the way to lifelong learning.
We are also acutely aware that vocabulary size relates to academic success and so our broad, deep, enriched curriculum is designed with opportunities for increasing the breadth of children’s vocabulary.
Our curriculum is bespoke to Roseberry Academy and is written with reference to our local context to meet the individual needs of children within our school family.
We recognise that the things that need to be learned do not always have to be taught in the form of a lesson and so our curriculum design incorporates continual provision in the form of daily routines and providing retrieval practice for previously learned concepts. It is a curriculum forged through a deep understanding of how children learn and the need for ongoing opportunities to develop mastery.
Aspirations, Environment, Culture and Community
Aspiration – We want our children to have ambition and possess the desire to challenge themselves, to have aspirations for the future and take pride in their own and others’ work. We want our children to grow into confident, active citizens, recognising and investing in their own personal growth. We will open their minds to the possibilities for their future lives.
Culture and Community – We want our children to have an awareness of the diversity within their community, the UK and the wider world; a sense of where they live and pride in their heritage as well as a broad knowledge of other cultures. We will give our children background knowledge of the world that they need to develop inference skills and understanding (cultural capital).
Environment – We want our children to be excited about the natural world they live in- to develop passion, curiosity and awe and wonder of the world and understand their personal responsibilities for the environment. We will use our outdoor environment creatively to develop problem solving skills and resilience.
We have parent/teacher meetings twice a year. At these meetings, you will be able to talk to your child’s teacher about how well your child is doing, what their targets are and what progress they are making to achieve them. In the summer term, you will get a written report which will tell you about the achievements your child has made and the effort they have put into their work.
The hours your child spends in school are very important to them, but perhaps something more important than this is the interest you can share with your child in what they have experienced through the day. As well as talking to your child about their daily experiences, you may wish to look at the school website together (www.roseberryacademy.org) where class blogs are regularly updated with comments and photographs. Please feel free to add comments to the blogs - the children love to read them! Through our co-operation at all times and through working together as partners in your child’s learning, we will be most able to support each other and achieve the best for your child. We very much hope that our motto: ‘Enjoy Believe Achieve Inspiring lifelong learning’ will be just as important at home as it is in school.