At Ling Moor we share a common belief that we are part of ‘The Ling Moor Family’ - a thriving place of learning where children are supported and challenged to be the best that they can. We cherish the opportunity to empower children to be academically, physically and creatively successful and support them to develop a positive and happy mind-set for life.
We believe that learning should be serious fun – something that you enjoy whilst setting yourself the highest of expectations. At the heart of our curriculum is the notion that we provide a learning environment that empowers children to be ‘Ling Moor Learners’ and members of the ‘Ling Moor Family’ – children who are great people who have a passion for learning and a passion for the success of their community.
We aim for high standards in speaking, listening, reading, writing, mathematics and ICT to ensure that our pupils are equipped with the vital skills necessary to succeed in life. We aim to give our children rich experiences that answer their curiosity and develop their wisdom. In addition, our 'Values' curriculum provides opportunities to help children develop their morality and spirituality through focussed activities, assembly times and special events and visitors.
The curriculum at Ling Moor Primary Academy is aligned to the vision of the Priory Federation of Academies and driven by our passion to empower potential, in order to improve the life chances of pupils so they become citizens of the world. It is designed to encourage the development of the Priory’s values: wisdom, curiosity, generosity, courage and passion alongside meeting the specific needs of our community.
There are four clear strands to our curriculum:
- Children develop the skills to be a life-long learner enabling them to be successful in the next stages of their education and the confidence to become citizens of the world – A Ling Moor Learner. They have curiosity, courage and passion.
- Children understand what it means to contribute to the success of a community – The Ling Moor Family. Their participation in community empowers them with British values and is rooted in Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural responsibility. They are generous.
- Children develop a skills and knowledge base fitting of a broad and balanced curriculum. This empowers them with the knowledge and skills to be successful. They have curiosity and wisdom.
- Children develop a core English and Mathematical set of skills resulting in a depth and security of mathematical and linguistic concepts. They have curiosity and wisdom.
Pupils study the full curriculum as exemplified by the national curriculum. The curriculum at Ling Moor is designed to ensure that all children have the academic and social aspiration to be true citizens of the world. Key drivers of the curriculum are aspiration, academic opportunity, appreciation of diversity and understanding of their impact upon the world. We are equally ambitious for all pupils. This ensures that those children in receipt of pupil premium or have special educational needs or disability make positive progress and achieve positive outcomes.
Decisions about curriculum planning are made to meet the needs of all the pupils at Ling Moor. This means that some curriculum areas have specific methodology behind their design. Where there are exceptions to the norm, this is based on considered decisions that enable the pupils to develop a deep understanding of the concepts they learn, the mastery of key skills and security in the knowledge that becomes embedded within their long term memory.
Each area of the curriculum has a comprehensive document that outlines the Intent, Implementation and Impact.
The majority of the curriculum is underpinned by the three drivers: a clear list of the breadth of topics that will be covered; the ‘threshold concepts’ pupils should understand; criteria for progression within the threshold concepts and criteria for depth of understanding.
The curriculum is carefully planned and sequenced to ensure that children develop a secure knowledge base through opportunities to retrieve key knowledge. A simple sequence of retrieval practise: fluency (basic questions), reasoning/problem solving (advanced questions) and elaboration (deeper questions) should exist in all learning.
Reading is at the heart of learning and children acquire the skills and knowledge to read through the Read Write Inc phonics scheme and well planned reading sessions that build the knowledge to decode, read with fluency and comprehend with confidence. Vocabulary is taught explicitly.
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? and ‘How well are they retaining previously taught content?’
Our curriculum design is based on evidence from cognitive science; three main principles underpin it.
- Learning is most effective with spaced repetition.
- Interleaving helps pupils to discriminate between topics and aids long-term retention.
- 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.
Teachers are also aware of cognitive overload and ensure that the demands placed on learners enable successful acquisition of knowledge that is stored within long term memory.
The curriculum is enriched through visits, experiences, after school clubs, community events, performances and competition to increase cultural capital, knowledge, health, aspiration, diversity and community belonging.
The impact of our curriculum is that children leaving Ling Moor Primary Academy are empowered to be successful in their next phase of learning and in future life – great learners, great people and great members of our community. The pupils will also have had the opportunity to develop passion and thrive in areas where they display talent.
At 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. Knowledge becomes part of the long term memory.
References: Pierre Bourdieu, Chris Quigley, John Sweller, Herman Ebbinghaus, John Dunlosky