Our Intent

Curriculum Statement of Intent

 

 "Preparing young people for a lifetime of learning".

 

Oasis Academy Clarksfield is situated in an area of Oldham with a high level of deprivation, our children often have very limited knowledge and experience of the world around them. The majority of our children speak English as an additional language, and many were not born in this country. The dynamics of our school have changed dramatically over time; becoming a much more multi-cultural Academy. Our children live in an ever-developing world where they require the skills and qualifications, flexibility, emotional intelligence and expertise to be leaders and to thrive as human beings and members of society. For our children, early development and retention of reading, vocabulary and communication skills are the most important factors to get right as early as possible.

 

 

Intent:

 

 

In line with Oasis’ Education Charter, the curriculum is the heart of our academy’s educational provision. Through this - and our commitment to an exceptional climate for learning and great pedagogy - we make focused learning the foundation of every lesson. We have designed our curriculum to meet the needs of all, striving for personal as well as academic and vocational excellence. Through our curriculum we will achieve outcomes that drive social mobility and give everyone freedom of choice throughout their lives.

The Oasis ethos and 9 Habits are a foundation stone to the design and delivery of our curriculum. We know that the development of character doesn’t happen by chance but with purpose and intention: it is therefore an explicit part of our curriculum. We therefore work hard at preparing our students to be the best version of themselves not just for today but for their futures too.

At Oasis Academy Clarksfield we aim to cultivate habits and attitudes that enable young people to become better learners, face difficulty and uncertainty calmly, confidently and creatively.

The Foundation of our children’s' learning is underpinned by 3 golden threads: Character, Competence and Community.

 

Reading drives our curriculum at Oasis Academy Clarksfield. Children learn through a wide range of quality texts across the curriculum, including shared reading at the start of each wider curriculum lesson. Over the course of the year, children will have access to around 36 quality texts, on top of their reading books and guided reading texts; developing good readers and opening the gateway to more knowledge and expending their vocabulary.

Our curriculum is planned to enable our pupils to be excited about their learning experiences and foster a love of learning throughout their school life and beyond. From the start of their learning journey, we focus on developing children’s basic skills and these continue to be promoted and developed at all times to ensure our pupils can access and flourish within the wider curriculum and are always prepared for their next stage of learning.

We fully believe that the more children know, the easier it is to learn, so using the breadth of study as set out in the National Curriculum, we have identified key knowledge, skills and vocabulary that the children need to learn within every subject, across each year group. Key concepts are purposely revisited and built upon to deepen children’s understanding and support retention of knowledge.

We aim to provide our children with as many first-hand experiences as possible to make learning really come to life. We begin each new topic with a WOW event, this allows us to provide a variety of experiences for our children, that they would otherwise not have, and further develops their cultural capital. A further way in which we develop children’s experiences is through themed days/weeks and assemblies, which focus on British Values, SMSC and/or current national and global issues or celebrations. Each topic is linked to quality texts (fiction, non-fiction and poetry) which allows us to provide cross curricular learning experiences which really broaden our pupil’s experiences and raise their aspirations.

We have a triple loop learning approach to our curriculum which includes teaching our children to develop knowledge skills and understanding, meta-cognition and character formation. Our curriculum provides a platform for our children to develop necessary skills and understanding but they are also taught HOW to learn and a ‘learning to learn’ culture is embedded from nursery to year 6. We believe it is vital that our children understand how they learn as well as knowing what they are learning, so through the use of Building Learning Power, children are able to develop their understanding of how to be a successful learner and make choices about how they learn best. We involve parents by sharing knowledge organisers, curriculum overviews and newsletters which will ensure parents know exactly what their child is learning about.

 

Curriculum structure

Our curriculum has been designed to ensure our young people thrive, achieve and flourish. It enables them to understand what it is to be human and equips them for life so that they become kind and model citizens. Our curriculum not only develops our young people academically but socially, emotionally, culturally, physically and spiritually.

Our curriculum is designed through a series of links to ensure that all knowledge and skills are built upon carefully to ensure children’s knowledge of all key concepts are secure.

Whilst our knowledge-rich curriculum is designed to ensure the very best academic outcomes for our young people using the latest research in how the brain and memory works, it is about so much more than simply securing great results. It is about our academy’s determination to achieve excellence with equity and integrity: where we bring advantage to the disadvantaged, where barriers to learning are successfully overcome and there are no limits to the achievement and ambition of our most able.

At Oasis Academy Clarksfield this will mean that all children, whatever their background, starting point and life experience, develop a strong grasp of the key learning skills, attitudes and knowledge they need to make an excellent start to secondary education. This will be delivered through the crafted experiences of a stimulating, broad and balanced context-based curriculum that is not restricted to just skills and knowledge for Reading, Writing and Maths.

At Oasis Academy Clarksfield, we believe everyone is on their own learning journey and we hope our broad and balanced curriculum allows for every child to:

• learn new knowledge and skills that will equip them for a lifetime of learning
• develop a growth mindset which allows them to grasp new opportunities and raise their aspirations
• identify and develop their interests and talents
• fully achieve their god given potential

 

How do we achieve this?

Our team of Subject Leaders are experts in their own curriculum area, using coaching and instructional coaching to develop staff in their teams. Support and coaching is broken down into granular steps to ensure quality teaching and learning of all subjects across school. High quality teaching and assessments contribute to a culture and environment that allows pupils to focus on learning. Subject Leaders work collaboratively with the Leadership Team to monitor, evaluate and review the curriculum and check that learning in each year group consistently matches the Academy’s ambitions and aims of the curriculum.

A further way in which we develop children’s experiences is through themed days/weeks and assemblies which focus on British Values, SMSC and/or current national and global issues or celebrations. Each topic is linked to quality texts (fiction, non-fiction and poetry) which allows us to provide cross curricular learning experiences which really broaden our pupil’s experiences and raise their aspirations.