School notice:
Looking for a reception place at a GOOD school with OUTSTANDING features?
Call now to book a visit – 0121 556 0114
Limited Nursery places available for 2, 3 and 4 year olds – find out more >>
—
Our vibrant curriculum has been designed to excite our pupils; it has been carefully designed and sequenced so that pupils will want to dive in and explore our exciting cross-curricular themes.
Our values Excite, Explore, Excel drive our curriculum and the learning journey. We want pupils and staff alike to be engaged and excited by our curriculum. We then offer many high quality opportunities across the curriculum for pupils to learn and develop their skills and knowledge in different subjects. This culminates in high quality outcomes and attainment where all pupils achieve their potential and ‘Excel’.
Indeed, this is why our curriculum is called E3L – Excite, Explore, Excel Learning. Each theme starts with a memorable experience (or Excite), is followed by a series of carefully sequenced ‘Explores’ to develop skills and knowledge and includes a range of assessment opportunities (Excels).
Although themes are cross-curricular, each theme has a driving subject for each half term to allow in depth study of the foundation subjects.
All themes are supported by a family learning project which offers pupils a creative opportunity to explore key concepts and to extend or consolidate the theme with their families outside of school. This is an opportunity to further engage families and encourage parents and carers to join in through ‘explore with your family’ activities that boost pupils’ curiosity and creativity.
To view our Creepy Crawlies Family Learning Project, click here.
Each theme is also supplemented with a rich resource called ‘People, Place and Time’. This includes biographies of inspirational or significant individuals linked to the theme, maps and key information about locations or regions explored and visual timelines to support children’s understanding of chronology.
Inclusivity and diversity are very important to us at the Shireland Collegiate Academy Trust. In our pursuit to ensure we deliver an equitable and exemplary curriculum, we have texts readily available that excite and ensure our learners have a greater understanding of the culturally rich world they are part of, from having protagonists with different ethnic backgrounds, to stories that unmask historical episodes from a range of cultures and perspectives.
We aim to ensure that our learners develop a rich literary heritage which is all-embracing and continually evolving. We want our learners to see themselves in the stories and literature we share to empower and enable them to excel in all areas of the curriculum.
Within our EYFS provision, we promote the ‘Characteristics of Effective Learning’ (Playing and Exploring, Active Learning and Creative and Critical Thinking) by providing all children with a range of rich and meaningful first-hand experiences through our inspiring E3L themes such as: Let’s Pretend, Through the Window, Toy Story and Snap, Crackle and Pop.
Our children in EYFS are given opportunities to engage in “direct” learning experiences both indoors and outdoors and we encourage them to access materials independently and to have pride in their work, make sensible choices about their learning, as well as have high expectations of themselves and others.
Our themes are carefully chosen to show progression through content and knowledge across the subjects, taking account of seasons across the year and the first theme of each academic year focusing on PSHE, such as ‘Blast from the Past’ in Year 1.
A theme lasts up to half a term, and starts with an Excite experience, such as the discovery of a dinosaur nest, which the pupils use as a hook to engage them and base their learning on. Our underpinning philosophy is that they learn better in context rather than studying a single subject in isolation.
Science knowledge and skills are delivered through the E3L themes, some of which are specifically science focused such as ‘Brilliant Bodies’ and ‘Creepy Crawlies’. We also place an extra emphasis on practical science through additional practical science investigations. We ensure coverage of the science programme of study across each year group.
All of the themes have certain key characteristics: A large piece of extended writing, time for developing reading, and a number of subject specific skills that the pupils will develop. A pupil can produce a variety of outputs such as a digital dinosaur fact-files in the ‘Dinosaur Discovery’ theme in Year 1 or a recipe for a class book that will be printed in the ‘Roll Up! Roll Up!’ theme in Year 2.
Our Immersive Room provides learners with opportunities to visit and experience places and times in a way that they are unable to do in a standard primary school and will enhance the themes and the learning that takes place. Themes such as ‘Shipwreck’, ‘Dinosaur Discovery’ and ‘Worth Repeating’ will all benefit from them having carefully crafted lessons in this special learning space.
In Key Stage 2 our themes continue to offer irresistible learning opportunities through innovative and rich experiences through our E3L curriculum.
An E3L theme lasts up to half a term, which the pupils use as the context to base their learning on. The underpinning philosophy is that they learn better in context rather than in isolation.
E3L themes cover areas of the National Curriculum, but some themes might be more geography based, while others may contain more history. By writing the curriculum in this way it allows for stronger experiences and more time to produce high-quality outcomes with more learning impact. In this way there is an opportunity for in-depth learning but with the full curriculum balance across the age phases.
All of the themes have certain key activities and outcomes with many opportunities for pupils to have a real audience. For example, a large piece of extended writing, such as a piece of diary writing in the ‘Blitz’ theme, is shared with a global audience via an online blog. A recipe in ‘Merlin’ is published and ‘sold’ to families. The theme ‘Framed’ in Year 5 allows pupils to produce a ‘real’ gallery exhibition that is ‘visited’ by families and the community.
Our Immersive Room also enables learners to visit and experience places and times in a way that they are unable to do in a standard primary school and will enhance the themes and the learning that takes place. Themes such as ‘Trailblazers’, ‘Amazing Islands’, ‘Planet SOS’ and ‘The Globe’ will all benefit from them having carefully crafted lessons in this special learning space.
Want to find out more about the curriculum? Contact Mrs Shipley at principal@hpa.shirelandcat.net
Special Educational Needs
For more information on our SEN policy, please click here.
SEN co-coordinator: Mrs McMenamin please contact info@hpa.shirelandcat.net
