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Canada Hill

The Canada Hill Curriculum

INTENT

Our curriculum principles

  • It is knowledge-led

We have chosen what we call a Knowledge-led curriculum because we firmly believe that children will be better prepared for lessons if they already have knowledge about the subject they are about to study. This reduces cognitive-load in the classroom and allows teachers to plan clear and concise lessons that help pupils develop their substantive knowledge (both declarative and procedural) that deepens their experience of each subject within the school.

  • It is ambitious

we have high expectation for all our pupils and expect all pupils to be learning in class with their peers for the majority of the time

  • It is sensitive to cognitive overload

we try to minimise teacher talk so that lesson delivery is concise, allowing children more time to think and this is then supported by group work and mini-plenaries

  • Knowledge end points are carefully mapped and revisited and revised to help children retain them

we have carefully planned repetitions of key knowledge which are carried out in different ways depending on the subject (more details below)

  • Lessons focus on deepening children's understanding by using subject specific skills to evaluate, synthesise, analyse and apply their knowledge

in our lesson sequences we revisit previous end points. We then focus on adding to their schema by helping them take the next steps to develop their knowledge in the subject

  • It has to be relevant to our children and their lives in modern day Newton Abbot and Ogwell

we really value our local, national and global cultural capital and have embedded it wherever possible in our curriculum

The Three Tiers

We have developed a three tiered curriculum supported by our core school values

CORE – MATHS, ENGLISH

These subjects are taught daily and core knowledge and skills are repeated within these lessons.

Vocabulary is taught discretely every week following a whole school vocabulary progression alongside the freedom to explore vocabulary within current work.

Grammar and spelling are taught discretely as well as being woven into lesson sequences

In Maths we have Knowledge Booklets that map the new mathematical knowledge and vocabulary that children need to become accustomed to in each Year group. These are quizzed regularly in class to maintain core knowledge beyond that which we are currently studying

In English lessons we regularly revisit core sentence structures using or SVO framework

DRIVER – Geography, History, Science ( CORE DRIVER)

We follow our own detailed planning for these subjects

These are taught in discrete blocks. They have a large amount of knowledge that also acts as cultural capital and forms a large part of our British Values. The knowledge from these subjects is mapped onto detailed MTPs. The progression of knowledge and skills is mapped across the school, with key questions we would expect the children to answer after each unit – these are separated into general knowledge and substantive knowledge. These questions are regularly revisited in our fully timetabled and resources Friday Quizzes. At the end of each unit we have an assessment matrices that shows the key knowledge, skills and component outcome that we will assess the children against.

FOUNDATION – Music, PE, Art, DT, Computing, RE and PSHE

Music, RE, DT and Art are taught in discrete blocks. Computing and PE have weekly timetable slots.  Subject leaders have clearly mapped the skills progressions for these subjects and when each unit is taught. They are currently looking at teaching sequences for each unit of work across the school to look at progression in component knowledge and to ensure they are happy with the composite knowledge that is being acquired in order for children to build a strong schema in each subject over the course of their school journey.

In order to ensure that we maintain high quality provision and progression:

  • In Music we follow the Charanga Scheme of work and are moving across to the Charanga Model Music curriculum in autumn 2022
  • in PE we use the Getset4PE scheme across the school. 
  • in PSHE we use Jigsaw across the school
  • In Computing we use the Somerset Elim scheme of work and use the Common Sense Media Digital Literacy plans
  • We follow the Devon SACRE for RE

Curriculum mapping

Subject Curriculum Overviews

On our curriculum overview page, you will find documents that map key skill (procedural knowledge) progressions for each subject and show when each unit of work is being taught and which previous units of work will be revisited.

Medium Term Plans

We have developed very detailed medium term plans for our driver subjects to ensure that the component knowledge and skills are well defined in order to create igh quality composite knowledge. 

Teaching sequences

All units of work have detailed teaching sequences - these outline the component knowledge which is to be taught in that unit and the end goal or composite knowledge that should be achieved by the end of the unit.

Knowledge Organisers

We have detailed knowledge organisers which are sent home prior to each unit of work in one of the three driver subjects (History, Geography and Science). These are then referred to in class throughout the unit. 

End Points - Quizzes and question overviews

We quiz on key knowledge from History, Geography and Science every Friday. These quizzes focus on the main substantive knowledge end points of a unit of work, that we want children to carry with them through school in these subjects. We have created full overviews of the questions we expect them to be able to answer and have created all the Friday quizzes so that we have a consistent standard of quizzing across classes. On these documents we have also mapped the same substantive  knowledge we want the children to be building. 

These quizzes and question overviews form the end points that we then revisit at the start of the next relevant unit of work.

IMPLEMENTATION and IMPACT

Senior leaders and subject leaders monitor the implementation an impact of their subjects through

  • Book scrutiny
  • Lesson drop ins
  • Data
  • Pupil Voice
  • Curriculum monitoring Groups