Silvertrees Curriculum Statement
At Silvertrees Academy we provide a curriculum that is engaging, inspiring and enjoyable. We want our children to develop a love of learning and at the same time give them the key skills and opportunities to succeed in the 21st Century. Our curriculum will provide the children with a wide range of experiences to allow them to become ambitious, independent, confident and resilient learners. Our children are the heart of Silvertrees and their learning journey at the school will give them the knowledge and skills to be a good citizen. We want them to work collaboratively, showing respect for others and to develop a love of language. At Silvertrees we want to ensure that the children have the best possible start to a happy, healthy and successful future.
The Silvertrees Academy curriculum has been designed with oracy at its heart. We believe that everything starts with talk. Talk supports thinking and that means it supports learning, so, we believe that oracy is the key to all learning.
We support this through our curriculum by using high quality texts which are carefully chosen to promote a love of reading and with learning designed to link concepts across the curriculum. We encourage children to share their thoughts and ideas, the children are at the heart of their learning, they share their prior knowledge and are active participants in planning what they want to learn. At Silvertrees Academy we aim to inspire the children to ‘Be The Best You Can Be”
Implementation
At Silvertrees, the curriculum we have developed is based on an annual cycle where each curriculum year is divided into three termly or six half termly Learning Journeys. Our teaching and learning takes place within a topic-based curriculum approach, meaning that wherever possible we group the knowledge, skills and understanding the children are required to learn around a topic or theme. This topic-based approach is effective in engaging staff and pupils due to the many creative, and meaningful, opportunities for links across subject areas.
At Silvertrees, we recognise the importance of English and Maths teaching in order to open up other areas of the curriculum and therefore a large emphasis is placed on these areas. In addition to daily maths and English sessions, teachers try to make as many cross curricular links as possible in order to utilise these skills in a range of contexts. Whilst the core subjects are taught on a regular basis, the foundation subjects may sometimes be taught as blocks of work over a matter of weeks.
At Silvertrees, we seek to create opportunities for children to experience and excel in a range of activities that enhance and extend the National Curriculum. Children have opportunities both inside and outside the classroom, through curriculum enrichment days, whole school activities, and opportunities within and outside school which enrich and develop the children’s learning.
Impact
At Silvertrees we carefully balance the requirements for children to reach national expectations in the core subjects with our wider curriculum aims of providing a full spectrum of wider opportunities, experiences and possibilities. We want every child to ‘Be The Best You Can Be’. Our curriculum has been planned following a carefully mapped progression of knowledge and skills. Our curriculum is planned to provide depth as we aim to provide children with a deeper and more insightful understanding of their learning. All staff and subject leaders carefully monitor and evaluate the impact of our curriculum.
The Learning Journey