Life

Our ‘Life’ curriculum, encompasses:

• RE (Religious Education)
• PSHE (Personal Social and Health Education) and;
• Relationships Education (RSE)

The teaching of these subjects, from EYFS to Year 6, prepares children for life in modern Britain.

Our academy has a distinct praise culture, which begins in EYFS and children regularly applaud one another; they are very proud of each other’s successes and encourage each other to be their best version of themselves.

As part of the ‘Life’ curriculum’s design, opportunities are carefully planned to allow children a ‘window’ into the lives of others so that they develop empathy and a sense of morality. The ‘Life’ curriculum ensures both whole school and class assemblies celebrate differences both in their immediate peer community and on a national and international scale. Students deepen their awareness of the world around them and become aspirational in their outlook.

We use SCARF (Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience, Friendship) resources to teach both PSHE and RSE. In our academy, we have created our own sequence of RSE SCARF lessons to reflect the communities we serve.

Lessons provide students with activities such as drama, circle times and discussions so that the children can develop skills and understanding that they can apply in their everyday lives. Fundamental British Values are promoted through the overarching aims and objectives of PSHE.

Our PSHE curriculum is designed under the headings:

• Me and My Relationships
• Valuing Difference
• Keeping Myself Safe
• Rights and Responsibilities
• Being My Best
• Growing and Changing

We do not accept that students should just be taught to tolerate difference in its many guises. We want children to embrace and celebrate difference. People from other cultures, backgrounds, gender identities and families are woven through our entire curriculum.

The academy has carefully considered learning materials for all curriculum areas. For example, the academy’s library stock aims to positively promote minority cultures. In the art curriculum artists have been deliberately chosen to reflect genders, different faiths, ethnicities and backgrounds.

The academy’s clear Expectations for Learning policy provides children with an early introduction to the rule of law. Based on restorative practices, the system supports all students to make good choices about their own behaviours and the relationship between good behaviour and effective learning.

Entitlement

As part of their ‘Entitlement’, our children have a strong pupil voice and are encouraged to take on positions of responsibility from Reception to Year 6, so that they develop skills in leadership and understand democracy. Children are confident to share their point of view and listen to the points of view of others. Our children plan, lead and organise assemblies and are actively involved in academy life:

Enrichment

As part of our ‘Enrichment’ offer in the Life curriculum, children meet with people from different professions to widen their future career aspirations. Visitors lead assemblies and workshops across all year groups and visits to places such as local police stations, courts, theatres and art galleries to develop cultural capital.

A wide variety of after-school activities are on offer where children participate and engage in community projects and broaden their understanding of the wider world.

Element

All pupils, from Reception class to Year 6, are encouraged to find their ‘element’: something that they are passionate about.

Some children find their ‘Element’ in the iAspire’ programme in Y5 and Y6. The iAspire challenges help build confidence and independence so students leave primary ready for the next phase of education.

Our Life curriculum can be found in the link below.

Please contact the academy to speak to our Vice Principal or your child’s teacher if you would like to know more.

An example of how are curriculum looks from Reception to Year 6

RE

At Northern Education Trust our Religious Education curriculum is rooted in the belief that it both supports and strengthens what we aim to do in every aspect of school life. Leaders have planned a curriculum sequenced from the beginning of early years through to the end of Key Stage 2 enabling pupils to be successful whilst upholding fundamental British Values.

Religious Education is taught as a discrete subject in order that the development of knowledge and understanding is taught meaningfully and explicitly. Through the teaching of RE we aim to promote the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of all pupils. The RE curriculum provides pupils with the opportunity to:

• acquire and develop knowledge and understanding of principal world faiths practised in Great Britain
• develop and understanding of the influence of beliefs, values and traditions on individual communities, societies and culture including the local community
• develop the ability to make reasoned and informed judgements regarding religious and moral issues with reference to the teachings of the principal religions and non-religious world views
• develop an awareness of the fundamental questions of life arising from human experiences, and how religious beliefs and practices can relate to them
• respond to the fundamental questions of life in the light of their experience and with references to religious beliefs and practices
• express their own personal viewpoints in a thoughtful, reasoned and considerate way
• recognise the right of people to hold different beliefs within an ethnically and diverse society

Careful consideration given to building knowledge (schema theory) and sequencing (making links over time and between themes) guarantees that children have the opportunity to build rich and detailed knowledge.

To help students and teachers with this, we use our ‘Big Ideas’ as ‘golden threads’.

The ‘Big Ideas’ for religious education are:

• making sense of beliefs
• making connections
• understanding the impact

These ‘golden threads’ allow children to explore a theme across different units of work. The ‘Big Ideas’ allow children to create a schema whilst encountering diverse religious and non-religious beliefs that flows and progresses with them throughout their time at the academy.

The introduction of key vocabulary is built into each lesson and then included in display materials and additional resources to ensure that children are allowed opportunities to repeat and revise this knowledge. We aim to, wherever possible, link work to other disciplines such as PSHE, Science, History, English and Art.