‘Growing Excellence Together’ 

Intent 

Our carefully designed curriculum at St Newlyn East ensures that children’s knowledge, skills and understanding build over time. Our curriculum is built with reference to the National Curriculum so that subjects are planned to be purposeful and relevant, whilst also incorporating our amazing locality and the wider world.

We want every child in our school to participate fully in the curriculum and experience success in a wide range of areas. Our curriculum therefore provides our children with the appropriate balance of academic and personal development. It places the correct  importance on the core and foundation subjects, while placing high value on physical and mental wellbeing. We carefully balance the requirement for our children to reach national expectations in the core subjects, while providing a range of exciting and enriching experiences that allow our children to thrive.

Over time, we have developed ‘Three P’ curriculum drivers that shape our curriculum, encompass the aims, ethos and values of our school, and respond to the particular needs of our community. Our curriculum is driven with Passion, full Participation and Perseverance anything is possible!

‘We all Participate’  

Here we build our children’s Cultural Capital beyond St Newlyn East and Cornwall through exposing them to a rich and diverse world that is full of colour, music, creativity and celebration. Providing our children with the opportunity to see a world beyond their own that will inspire and influence their future choices.

Our curriculum is enriched with visitors, day trips and residential experiences. We are proud of our extra-curricular offer which provides our children with a wide range of opportunities to develop as athletes, musicians, artists, librarians, speakers etc.

Our curriculum and individual lesson planning allows for ALL children to flourish at St Newlyn East. No matter what your starting point in life, it is our passion that all children engage in all lessons. Therefore, we believe firmly that we are have an inclusive learning community.

Our curriculum has been built to ensure our children will explore the world around them, knowing that the experiences they gain will enhance their lives. This will teach them to open new doors to new adventures which they will then have the confidence to step through.

‘We Persevere’ 

Perseverance (coupled with our Golden Root of Working hard) is a crucial curriculum driver: we want our children to develop a growth mindset through exposure to challenging experiences. We actively encourage all our children to question and explore opportunities that will enable them to become confident and resilient in all areas of their lives.

Our curriculum is designed and pitched with aspiration and challenge in mind. We believe that (with the correctly scaffolded support), everyone can achieve success. A prime example of this is our strong reading curriculum, where the pitch and aspiration in vocabulary development is crucial to its success.

 

‘We are Passionate’  

Being passionate about developing positive relationships is a vital life skill and a key driver that runs through our school-life. We ensure that our children grow into passionate, confident citizens; able to listen, build and challenge each other’s view. This, in turn, leading to the development of positive citizens for a bright future.

Our Teaching and Learning pedagogy is based on passion and being the best we can be. We provide children with the opportunity to share ideas and learn from each other through a ‘strengthening’ oracy programme. This ensures they develop humility while celebrating and recognising the strength and skills of others.

Throughout their time at St Newlyn East Learning Academy, children and adults are provided with a wealth of leadership opportunities in and outside the classrooms. As a teaching team, we are always passionate to improve and have an honest team culture of bettering ourselves each day.

Implementation 

The curriculum begins in our Early Years Foundation Stage with practical, hands-on experience based on the Characteristics of Effective Learning. This provides the foundation for future child-centred learning which permeates throughout the school.

Embedded throughout every lesson is our Teaching Model of ‘I do, We do, You do’ and this is visible in our classroom environments. We ensure that our children effectively learn the curriculum through well-modelled teaching, rehearsal and then independent application and practice.

Furthermore, our curriculum is designed to ensure that there is effective learning with spaced repetition; this will enable our children to distinguish between topics and subjects, aiding their recall of prior knowledge retention. Informal quizzing of previous key knowledge and information is at the heart of our assessment strategy.

Each unit of learning has an identified Composite Outcome which the children aspire to work toward; they do this through a series of carefully sequenced Components. ‘Assessment Checkpoints’ have been interwoven through topics to ensure that children are building their knowledge and that any gaps in knowledge are filled.

Subject Leads are advocates for their subjects. They understand that any subject leader monitoring is conducted through the lens of our ‘North Star’ (disadvantaged) children, and those with SEND. Subject leads need to know that all children are achieving in their subjects.

Subject Leads keep up-to-date with relevant research and provide CPD to staff through training in staff meetings or INSET. Being a school in our Kernow Learning Trust and working in partnership with colleagues, has enabled further enrichment of our curriculum provision and subject specific-support for staff through high quality CPD and subject network group meetings.

Impact 

The impact of our curriculum is best evidenced through talking with our North Star and SEND pupils - who are able to enthusiastically articulate their learning - and by looking at their learning in a range of subjects. Pupils understand the reasons for their learning and are able to explain how it fits into the ‘big picture’ of our curriculum design. Our children are happy at school, and this is evidenced through pupil and parent questionnaires, our good attendance figures and the ‘feel’ of positivity around school.

Progress in the children’s knowledge and skills in each subject is assessed by class teachers within lessons through our planned ‘Assessment Checkpoints’. Our teachers provide quick feedback to pupils throughout each lesson. We also feedback on attainment and progress regularly to parents through formal reports, parent meetings and at any other time as required.

Through our clear sequencing of the curriculum and planned assessment checkpoints, staff are able to act swiftly when interventions are needed to ensure that children do not fall behind.

Governors, Senior Leaders and Subject Leads monitor the implementation of the curriculum in a range of ways which may include: observing teaching, scrutinising books, pupil conferencing etc. This information is used to identify best practice and further training needs.

To view more information about the subjects in our curriculum, please click here.

Please click here  to view the Equalities Statement, Accessibility Plan, Racial Equality Policy and the Equality and Diversity Policy.  Please also refer to the  Everyone's Included  pages  of the website where you can find an information report detailing how our school identifies, assesses, and makes provision for children with Special Educational Needs and disabilities. 

If you would like to find out more information about the curriculum at St Newlyn East Learning Academy please contact the school office.