Our Learning Challenge Curriculum – ‘learning to learn’
Here at the Skegby Junior Academy we wanted a curriculum:
- That involved all children and required deep thinking, challenging and inspiring them to take an active role and develop a love of learning.
- To give them the ‘WOW’ factor as a starting point in order to grab their attention.
- That included our school vision; our SMART values; getting children ready to learn.
- That gives the children more writing opportunities and reasons for writing.
- That enables children to celebrate their learning, ‘a chance to shine’ and involve parents in their learning.
- To build skills and knowledge through hands on learning.
The Principles of our Learning Curriculum
The learning challenge concept is built around the principle of greater learner involvement in pupils’ work. It requires deep thinking and encourages learners to work using a question as the starting point.
In designing the curriculum, teachers and learners use a prime learning challenge, expressed as a question, as the starting point. Using the information gained from pre-learning tasks and the Academy’s context, a series of subsidiary challenges are then planned.
The important point is that the learning challenges need to make sense to the learners and be something that is within their immediate understanding.