Vision
Our vision for education reflects that of the Church of England and is one that asks for everyone to
‘Be the best they can be‘
Just as Jesus used the parable of the Good Samaritan to explain ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself’. we too have this at the heart of our ethos
The Shaftesbury School community can demonstrate ‘being the best they can be’ through our Christian values –
Belonging, Empathy, Service and Thrive
Intent
Our intention is to deliver a broad and balanced school curriculum which is dynamic and challenging for all learners and to reflect our school’s rich cultural diversity. Our curriculum is built on a strongly held belief that effective learning takes place when literacy, questioning, challenge, engagement, feedback and progress are apparent and a commitment to an intent that provides for both knowledge acquisition and the development of key skills needed for their next stage in life. This is set in a Christian context that promotes inclusivity. Every student is encouraged to be autonomous learner with high aspirations. We want our students to believe in themselves and be actively engaged in their learning, seeing the connection between the knowledge that they learn in school with the lifelong personal and academic skills that they need to fulfil what they want to become tomorrow.
IMPLEMENTATION
This intent will be achieved through delivering a curriculum, broadly in line with the National Curriculum; where the focus on Quality First Teaching ensures academic coherence, whilst at the same time supporting a student’s extracurricular interests. This will be achieved through a rich programme of activities that will inspire, ignite and fuel the interests of the students in our community.
Part of the rich curriculum offer is the delivery of several cross-curricular skills that will equip the students for their future. We value the skills of literacy as the foundation of learning, without these students are less likely to flourish once they leave school. The development of such skills will support the knowledge and understanding acquired in each subject area of our school curriculum.
Literacy
Literacy is an essential skill to enable all students to read and write as experts in every subject across the curriculum. These skills are vital to make sense of the world around us. As such, the better we are at these skills the more successful we can expect to be in life; we recognise that improving literacy can have an impact on all students’ self-esteem, motivation, behaviour and attainment.
At Shaftesbury School, we:
- Celebrate reading for enjoyment and pleasure
- Explicitly teach vocabulary appropriate to each subject area
- Use effective strategies to support comprehension and vocabulary acquisition
- Promote classroom talk to enable quality written work
- Provide intervention where needed
- We believe all teachers are teachers of Literacy
All the above provide avenues and opportunities for the development of high levels of literacy across the curriculum. Literacy also facilitates the communication and assimilation of knowledge. Not only is Literacy a major medium for learning, it is also a key tool for the communication of learning. As a school, we closely monitor the literacy of our students, and we have a Literacy Strategy which underpins all that we do.
Our knowledge-rich curriculum
- places powerful knowledge at the heart of the curriculum
- has carefully chosen content
- is organised in a coherent way, ensuring it builds from year to year
- is cumulative, constructing firm foundations from which children can build conceptual understanding and skills over time
- is an entitlement for every child, regardless of background
- enables children to develop knowledge and a love of learning
Subject specialism is at the heart of our curriculum, and you will see differences in the way that the curriculum is constructed and assessed in different subjects. Standardised written assessments, for example, play less of a role in performance subjects such as music, drama and physical education. The stability of our curriculum allows subject expertise to develop over time, and we are careful to provide sufficient time for teachers of the same subject to plan together and collaborate.
Our approach to teaching and learning supports our curriculum by ensuring that lessons build on prior learning and provide sufficient opportunity for guided and independent practice. Our carefully planned, developed and evaluated curriculum will ensure that all learners are able to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills related to their ability and aspiration. It is a curriculum that provides challenge and opportunity for all.
IMPACT
We work consistently to develop a range of formative and summative assessment in all subjects. Our formative assessments are designed to support students in achieving fluency in each subject. Teachers use questioning as a form of assessment to identify gaps in learning and misconceptions: it is imperative that these are revisited and retaught. Regular oral and written feedback inform teaching and supports student progress.
There are summative assessments which allow students to demonstrate their growing understanding of their subjects and teachers to assess the impact of their teaching. Outcomes from summative assessment are used to review teaching and learning and support all students in ‘being the best they can be’.
Students are prepared extensively for their future in terms of future careers and education pathways, as well as for public examinations. Every child has an equal right to a challenging and enlightening curriculum. By teaching this curriculum well, and developing effective habits in our students, we bring out the best in everyone. The culmination of our curriculum is that pupils leave our school with the confidence and skills to thrive. We know our pupils as individuals which enables us to provide curriculum and careers guidance throughout their time with us. We expect all pupils to leave our school having reached their full potential and be able to progress to their desired destination, and the character required to flourish once they get there.
By teaching our curriculum well, and delivering education with character, we bring out the best in everyone. Our students will be prepared to for their next steps, having developed the social, personal, and academic skills to support their progress and development with Further Education, Higher Education and beyond.
