Intent
At Monks Coppenhall Academy, the curriculum has been developed to create exciting and engaging opportunities and experiences within a safe, nurturing and enabling environment where discovery, creativity and innovation flourish. We want every child to strive for excellence and be aspirational, wherever they live and whatever their background or needs. We aim to empower children to keep safe and lead lives that are physically and mentally healthy. We strive for all children to receive a 21st century education that equips them with the knowledge and character necessary for success in Modern Britain. We aim to ensure knowledge, understanding and skills are at the heart of our curriculum, which is complemented by the development of the distinctive character traits and fundamental British Values that will help children succeed. We firmly believe that the basic skills of English and Mathematics are fundamental to success and use high quality literature to inspire the love of reading and writing.
WE WANT OUR CHILDREN TO BE
- Successful learners, who enjoy learning experiences, retaining knowledge and understanding to achieve and build life skills
Confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives - Responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society
- Confident to learn spiritually, morally, socially and culturally
- children who have strategies to enable them to be more active, independent learners
- Resilience and the ability to independently transfer and interchange knowledge and skills
- Immersion in rich, engaging topics to enable practice, repetition and reinforcement of skills and knowledge to be fluent in many different, often complex concepts
Monks Coppenhall Academy & Nursery is committed to providing an outstanding curriculum that gives learning a purpose within well-planned sequences of lessons. Our school are determined to develop the children’s ‘cultural capital’ and continually strives to foster new skills, experiences, understand British Values, diversity and mental health & well-being whilst realising individual talents and potential.
Monks Coppenhall Academy & Nursery promotes continuity and coherence, allowing children to move smoothly between phases of education and schools by providing a foundation for lifelong learning.
Implementation
At Monks Coppenhall Academy, our foundation curriculum is based on the National Curriculum and is organised into a progression model that outlines the knowledge, vocabulary and skills to be taught in a sequentially coherent way in each year group. All aspects of the curriculum are carefully mapped out to ensure that pupils build on secure prior knowledge so that they can make meaningful connections, enjoy memorable experiences and develop transferable skills. Each subject taught has its own progression grid, designed by the curriculum leader.
Our English writing curriculum is taught through ‘Read to Write’. This programme empowers teachers to provide high-quality teaching of writing through children’s high-quality literature. The units of work centre on engaging, vocabulary-rich texts, with a wealth of writing opportunities. Units of work follow a common sequence: Immerse, Analyse, Plan and Write.
Reading is an integral part of our curriculum. At Monks Coppenhall Academy we teach early reading through Read, Write Inc Phonics, which aims to teach our children to read accurately and fluently with good comprehension. Once children have successfully reached age related expectations for phonics, they progress to the ‘Steps to Read’ programme. Steps to Read provides a clear teaching sequence to reading sessions that explicitly teaches reading skills and strategies in a cumulative way through evidence-based approaches. This scheme uses language-rich texts for vocabulary teaching and includes all elements of comprehension skills and strategies needed to be a proficient and confident reader. Engaging texts and innovative library areas are used to promote a life-long love of reading through immersion in poetry, non-fiction and fiction that enhances knowledge learning across the curriculum.
The Word Aware approach is used to develop and enhance a rich vocabulary throughout the curriculum. In addition, Read Write Inc spelling is used to teach spelling strategies, building on the phonetic approach used in Early Years and Key Stage One.
Our mathematics curriculum is implemented through the White Rose Scheme of Learning. This ensures coverage of all of the skills, knowledge and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum. Daily basic skills maths sessions take place in both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 to provide opportunities for children to consolidate and practice prior learning. The Mastering Number Programme is used in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 to ensure children develop fluency in calculation, alongside confidence and flexibility with number.
Our character-building curriculum (CoJo) creates the right environment for our children to develop positive behaviour traits and is linked to our Positive Behaviour Policy. This will help the children to respond positively to the challenges they face in everyday life. The curriculum, and relevant missions, also provide children with many opportunities to co-operate with their peers, whilst learning in a safe environment. The planned activities are enjoyable, relevant and should support children to make the right choices inside and outside school. Behaviour traits are linked to the specific CoJo characters for each year group with the central value of RESPECT continually being reinforced. The key traits, which are developed through our curriculum, are resilience, empathy, self-awareness, passion, excellence, communication and teamwork.
We teach Relationships and Health Education in three modules over the year: Relationships, Health and Well-being, and Living in the Wider World. These modules are supported by No Outsiders lessons which promotes an ethos of inclusion and tolerance, and aim to prepare children for life in modern Britain. Our approach to Relationships and Health Education is also supported by KIVA (an anti-bullying programme) and Education for a Connected World, a framework to equip children and young people for digital life.
Supporting the emotional health and well-being of our children and families is a high priority and our Wellbeing Mentor, Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSAs) and Family Link Workers deliver effective wellbeing interventions and activities, alongside additional support from the Mental Health Support Team. The Voice of the Child is of high importance and safeguarding is paramount. Our Children’s Council meet on a regular basis to share ideas to improve the Academy.
Through our Forest School programme, we aim to support children’s personal, social learning, risk taking and technical skills through exciting outdoor projects. The philosophy of Forest Schools is to encourage and inspire individuals of any age through an innovative, educational approach to outdoor play and learning in a woodland environment.
To enhance the curriculum further, the Academy uses the services of specialist external providers for Computing (Hi-Impact), Physical Education (Ministry 4 Sport and Premier Sport), drama (ARTIS) and Music (Love Music Trust).
A wide range of high-quality educational visits take place to enhance and consolidate the curriculum. To further develop children’s independence, confidence, social skills and life experiences we offer residential opportunities.
Visitors are invited into the Academy to further enhance the curriculum and provide exciting and meaningful opportunities for learning.
The Academy promotes regular activity through the Monks Mile, fitness zone and participation in sporting after-school clubs. We also use a Health and Fitness programme to provide bespoke activities to encourage healthy lifestyles both in and out of school.
The Speech and Language Specialist and Assistant provide bespoke programmes of support for children who have been identified as having communication difficulties.
The Art Specialist works closely with small groups of children throughout the school day, to provide emotional support through creative art activities. After school art clubs provide opportunities for children, who are gifted and talented in art, to further develop artistic talent.
The Academy offers a wide range of extra-curricular clubs both after school and during lunch times.
The Academy also provides a full core offer of school provision by running its own Nursery, Breakfast and After School Clubs offering wraparound care.
Impact
On leaving Monks Coppenhall Academy, we expect children to be independent in their learning, be inquisitive, innovative and confident individuals who have the ability, knowledge and skills to contribute effectively to society. The impact of our curriculum is shown in several ways. In core subjects, impact is shown through the progress and outcomes of pupils in national testing. In addition, pupil voice and the quality of work in children’s books demonstrates the deeper impact on their ability to remember key knowledge; children are confident and able to talk about what they have learnt using subject specific vocabulary. Children’s work demonstrates that the curriculum is taught at an age appropriate standard across each year group with opportunities planned in for children working at greater depth. Work across the curriculum is of a high quality and demonstrates that pupils are acquiring knowledge, skills and vocabulary in an appropriate sequence to enable them to know more and remember more.