Curriculum design

At Ark Boulton our curriculum is designed by our subject experts to ensure that our pupils learning is carefully sequenced to meet the needs of the National Curriculum and the needs of our pupils. Clear end points for each stage of the learning ensures that learning is building on prior knowledge whilst creating learning experiences for pupils that allows them to explore a range of concepts and theories.

Our curriculum is broken down into Learning Journeys. Subject knowledge sits at the heart of our Learning Journeys and this knowledge is broken down into component pieces. These are then carefully crafted into logical, well sequenced steppingstones, which ensures all of our pupils are equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to be successful within that Learning Journey and throughout the wider curriculum.

All Learning Journeys focus on allowing all pupils the opportunity to progress, through building on prior knowledge, making links between existing component knowledge and concepts, practising the application of knowledge and development of skills, and to enjoy the process of learning through regular assessment and feedback so that they are able to feel success. For subjects that have adopted an Ark Mastery curriculum such as English, Maths and Science, these have been adapted into our own Learning Journeys, to suit the needs of our pupils.

Broad and balanced

We Achieve this by:

• Delivering a 6 period day to ensure sufficient breadth.
• Ensuring Personal Development (PSHE, RSE, Character) has a strong place in the curriculum through both key stages.
• In Key Stage 3, all pupils access the full breadth of curriculum so that they are able to meet the National Curriculum and make informed choices about Key Stage 4.

Knowledge rich

We Achieve this by:

• Our curriculum is designed by subject experts ensuring our curriculum is working towards defined end points.
• Learning Journeys are sequenced to ensure pupils build on prior knowledge and making connections between components.
• Teachers are secure in their understanding of what pupils need to know and show in order to be able to progress and build on their learning.
• Teachers have the opportunity to build on their own disciplinary knowledge through working with subject experts within our academy and across the wider MAT.

Recognise the importance of reading

We Achieve this by:

• All pupils receive 30 minutes of focused reading time a day which is delivered through our Reading programme. This is structured to ensure pupils are accessing the strategy which is designed to meet them where they are at and move them along, faster.
• Students below their chronological reading age receive targeted reading interventions, daily.
• All staff receive regular training on key signature strategies to use in lessons to remove potential barriers in the lessons.
• Through our Learning Journeys we have identified the subject specific vocabulary needed in order to develop a broad vocabulary for all pupils.

Deliberate design sequence

We Achieve this by:

• 5 Year Plans are created to provide an overview of the curriculum in each subject area, providing clarity over the sequencing across the curriculum.
• Learning Journeys are created for every subject. These are planned to ensure we are going beyond the requirements of the National Curriculum and ensuring our pupils have a well sequenced breadth of knowledge.
• Formative and summative assessments allow teachers to routinely check pupils understanding and adapt their plans accordingly. These are built into all Learning Journeys ensuring we are checking for understanding at pivotal moments within a lesson and over a sequence of lessons.

Equitable

We Achieve this by:

• Ensuring all pupils follow the same subjects and content in Key Stage 3.
• Ensuring we don’t adapt the curriculum; we adapt the lessons to meet the individual needs our pupils. Ensuring we select the best pedagogical approach to ensure equity for all.   
• Ensuring adaptation through scaffold up and challenge up.

Ever evolving

We Achieve this by:

• Weekly co-planning sessions enable our teachers the opportunity to work collaboratively digging deep into their lesson planning, explore misconceptions, discussing what pupils need to know and show to be successful and giving teachers the time to rehears their lessons and give their colleagues feedback.
• Every teacher completes Intellectual Preparation to support the planning process. This allows teachers to plan specially for the pupils in room, ensure the needs of all pupils are met and to adapt their planning based on pupil data.
• Responsive Teaching Plans in Year 11 are designed to adapt planning based on data gathered. These are designed to address gaps identified in pupils' knowledge and close them quickly.

Everyday excellence: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act but a habit.” Aristotle

Our Approach:  What does an Ark Boulton lesson look like?

Our lessons are accessible to all pupils, including those with SEND. Teaching is built on a foundation of Intellectual Preparation with a focus on component and composite knowledge.  Teachers plan their lessons considering the best pedagogical strategy to deliver the content to meet the needs of the pupils in the class.

There are a number of common features to our lessons, informed by the best research that works:

Data rich seating plan- To plan lessons that are tailored to meet the specific needs of the pupils in the classroom. Every teacher annotates their seating plans with the relevant information required to know every child.

I/We/You cycle- Teachers plan their lessons following an I/We/You model. This allows teachers to expose pupils to new learning through a structured approach of co-construction and collaboration, before allowing pupils to practise applying their knowledge independently.

Do Now Activity – this is based on recall supporting pupils in rehearsing the content knowledge needs to build on in the lesson. The DNA allows teachers to gather whole class data checking what pupils do and do not know.

Teacher exposition – Explores new learning building connections with prior and future learning, with opportunities for cold call questioning to check for understanding and to expose misconceptions so that they can be addressed in the moment.

Modelling - Our teachers walk through the learning process for themselves, thinking aloud as they go. This highlights the tricky moments, and core components needed to access the composite. It makes the thinking process explicit. This also provides worked examples which act as scaffolds for our pupils.

Independent Practice- For pupils to be able to transferer knowledge to long term memory they must practise how to apply it. The more our pupils practise applying the knowledge the more fluent and confident they become.

Intentional Monitoring- Intentional monitoring allows our teachers the opportunity to address misconceptions and trending errors in the moment and to prevent the ‘snowball’ effect from occurring. This requires our teachers to gather data in them moment based on their highest leverage component knowledge and to act on the data gathered by either, telling the pupils the error, reteaching it there and then or using pupils work to shows areas of best practise or to highlights an area for development.

Feedback and marking of pupil work- We focus on using intentional monitoring to ensure we are addressing errors in the moment. As part of this we also use live marking to ensure our pupils know how they are getting on and what they need to do to get better.

Self-Assessment- After reviewing pupils' prior knowledge all pupils have the opportunity to self-assess their work and upskill their answers.

Homework – learning is consolidated through a whole school, systematic approach to homework monitored by departments.

Our Key Stage 3 pupils journey begins when we welcome our year 7 students as they arrive from our feeder primary schools. Our Key Stage 3 curriculum intends to equip our students with the knowledge, skills and character to go on to be successful in their GCSE studies and beyond.

All Key Stage 3 pupils access our full curriculum form Year 7 to Year 9. In Year 9, as our pupils prepare to transition into Key Stage 4, they choose the subjects they want to study for their GCSE’s. Within Key Stage 3 pupils study a broad range of subjects, as listed below:

We have designed our Key Stage 4 curriculum to enable all pupils in Year 10 and Year 11 to develop their academic ability and character through Learning Journeys that allow for our pupils to build on their subject knowledge, with a focus on practise and application.  In-keeping with our broad range of subjects, we commit to equipping our students with a breadth of relevant future skills over their two-year journey in Key Stage 4 through the embodiment of Practical Wisdom.

In Year 9, as our pupils prepare to transition into Key Stage 4; they choose the subjects they want to study for their GCSE’s. We continue our commitment to offering a broad and balanced curriculum by offering a range of different subjects. As we continue to expand our curriculum offer, we are pleased to provide the following subjects and qualifications:  

Cohort 2023; All pupils will study towards 8 qualifications

Cohort 2024; All pupils will study towards 8 qualifications

Cohort 2025; All pupils will study towards 9 qualifications