Curriculum

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Intent

The breadth of our curriculum is designed with three goals in mind:

  1. To give pupils appropriate experiences to develop as confident, responsible citizens;
  2. To provide a rich ‘cultural capital’;
  3. To provide a coherent, structured, academic curriculum that leads to sustained mastery for all and a greater depth of understanding for those who are capable.

Appropriate experiences

We have developed three curriculum drivers that shape our curriculum, bring about the aims

and values of our school, and to respond to the particular needs of our community:

  • Real Relevant Rich – to give our children learning experiences that are pertinent to their lives both now and in the future and increase the opportunities for first-hand experience
  • Danger – children to experience things that are slightly outside their safe environment – from climbing to reading aloud on stage to cycling around our track
  • Possibilities - which helps pupils to build aspirations and know available possibilities for their future lives

Cultural capital

Cultural capital is the background knowledge of the world pupils need to infer meaning from what they read. It includes vocabulary, which, in turn, helps pupils to express themselves in a sophisticated, mature way.

A coherently planned academic curriculum

underpinned by the three drivers, our academic curriculum sets out:

  • a clear list of the breadth of topics that will be covered;
  • the ‘essential concepts’ (learning objectives) pupils should understand;
  • criteria for progression within the threshold. concepts;
  • criteria for depth of understanding.

We arrange the learning in Milestones spanning two year groups to allow time for children to work at a greater depth of understanding.

  • EYFS
  • Milestone 1 – years 1 and 2
  • Milestone 2 – years 3 and 4
  • Milestone 3 – years 5 and 6

During each milestone children will work at a range of levels. Pupils by the end of Year 1, 3 and 5 should achieve a ‘basic’ level of work as we are all apprentices when we start new things. Pupils in Year 2, 4 and 6 should achieve an ‘advancing’ level of work, they are qualified (they have met national expectations). Pupils who grasp concepts quickly will be working with greater depth, making broader connections with increased autonomy to become masterful in the subject by the end of the milestone.

A = apprentice = your child is approaching the national expectation

Q = qualified = your child has securely met the national expectation

M = masterful = your child has gone beyond the national expectation and has shown they can get to grips with deeper thinking in that area.

Sustained mastery

Nothing is learned unless it rests in pupils’ long-term memories. This does not happen, and cannot be assessed, in the short term. Assessment, therefore answers two main questions:

  • ‘How well are pupils coping with curriculum content?
  • ‘How well are they retaining previously taught content?’

Implementation

Our curriculum design is based on evidence from cognitive science and we are working on a long term plan to integrate three main principles:

  1. learning is most effective with spaced repetition.
  2. Interleaving helps pupils to discriminate between topics and aids long-term retention.
  3. Retrieval of previously learned content is frequent and regular, which increases both storage and retrieval strength.

In addition to the three principles we also understand that learning is invisible in the short-term and that sustained mastery takes time. Some of our content is subject specific, whilst other content is combined in a cross-curricular approach. Continuous provision, in the form of daily routines, replaces the teaching of some aspects of the curriculum and, in other cases, provides retrieval practise for previously learned content.

Impact

The impact of our curriculum is that by the end of each Milestone, the vast majority of pupils have sustained mastery of the content, that is, they remember it all and are fluent in it; Some pupils have a greater depth of understanding. We track carefully to ensure pupils are on track to reach the expectations of our curriculum.

Leadership

Term dates 2022-23

Holiday Dates

Term Dates

Autumn Term 1

Tuesday 6 September to Friday 21 October

Autumn Term 2

Spring Term 1

Monday 20 Feb to Friday 31 March

Wednesday 4 January to Friday 10 February

Monday 31 October to Friday 16 December

Monday 17 April to Friday 26 May

Spring Term 2

Christmas Holidays

Monday 19 December to Monday 2 January

Half Term

Monday 24 October to Friday 28 October

Half Term

Monday 13 February to Friday 17 February

Summer Term 1

Easter Holidays

Monday 3 April to Friday 14 April

Summer Term 2

Half Term

Monday 29 May to Friday 2 June

Summer Holidays

Wednesday 26 July to Friday 1 September

Monday 5 June to Tuesday 25 July

Our Aims & Values

Kippax North Primary School aims to enable all young people to become;

Successful learners

  • Ensuring a curriculum that provides young people with the best possible learning opportunities and experiences in conjunction with the National Priorities for Education
  • Encouraging all pupils to reach their full potential, thereby raising standards and attainment at an appropriate rate
  • Promoting and recognising achievement and excellence
  • Enabling all pupils to enjoy the highest quality learning experiences by fostering a positive attitude to their learning
  • Ensuring that all pupils are encouraged to demonstrate good behaviour, self discipline and a respect for others

Confident individuals

  • Providing effective support to enable personal achievement
  • Ensuring a safe and secure environment for all pupils
  • Promoting an ethos of social inclusion and equality
  • Encouraging all pupils to be involved in and express their opinions about their education
  • Promoting a healthy lifestyle for all pupils

Responsible citizens

  • Equipping pupils with the core skills, attitudes and expectations required to prosper in a changing society
  • Encouraging creativity, curiosity, ambition and enthusiasm for lifelong learning
  • Encouraging entrepreneurial experiences which will foster development of skills and competencies in working with others
  • Encouraging tolerance of diversity
  • Involving pupils in events to support those less fortunate than themselves

Effective contributors

  • Encouraging links to organisations within and out of school
  • Promoting effective partnerships between pupils, parents, carers, and the wider community
  • Ensuring that all pupils realise that they have an important part to play in the life and work of their school
  • Creating and solving problems independently and collaboratively in a climate of mutual trust and respect for others

Application timetable

The below timetable applies to applications made to Leeds City Council. If you apply to another local authority, they may have different dates

Admissions Timetable (2023 start)
Applications Open
1 November 2022
Deadline date for applications for Reception places in September 2022
15 January 2023
Late applications
12 February 2023
National Offers Day
17 April 2023
Deadline date for parents wishing to lodge an appeal (please return appeal forms to the academy)
16 May 2023
Date on which Year Reception appeal hearings will be held
June – July 2023
Appeal decision letters to be sent
Within 5 working days from date of hearing wherever possible

We would love to hear from you.

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