Curriculum Vision - "Aspire and Achieve"

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Our core aim is to provide the students at Braunton Academy with a knowledge-rich curriculum that is cohesive, cumulative and highly sequenced, offering students a rich learning experience whilst maximising their ability to think and act independently. Developing students’ personal, social and academic skills enables them to contribute to society and have a happy and prosperous future in the modern world. We have high expectations of all our students in all aspects of their learning, whatever their background or starting point and encourage them to fulfil our school motto of "Aspire and Achieve".

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Curriculum Delivery - "21st Century Trivium"

Our formal curriculum is delivered using the three elements of the 21st Century Trivium model.  We place great emphasis on developing students' long-term memory, understanding that knowledge builds on knowledge.  Lessons will focus on the delivery of the subject grammar, by the teacher; the exploration of the new learning by the students supported by the teacher in the dialectic phase of the learning and then the independent, rhetoric, phase in which students demonstrate their knowledge, skills and understanding.  This equips our students with the ability to think about and apply their learning in a range of new and challenging contexts. 

 

We operate a mastery curriculum model at KS3 with key concepts and knowledge in each subject having been identified and carefully sequenced to ensure that mastery can be achieved in each subject.  Progress towards the mastery of these concepts is tracked through both formative and summative assessments.  The key knowledge and concepts are those that are integral to success in each subject at GCSE and beyond.  In this sense our curriculum is a five-year model with students building and refining their grasp of the key concepts year on year.

 

We encourage our students to actively be aware of the significance of developing a range of personal, learning and thinking skills.  We explicitly teach students how to reflect, set learning goals and consolidate their learning.  They are encouraged to become good team-workers, active participators, creative thinkers, self-managers, reflective learners and independent enquirers.  The last three are all key components of daily Personal Study which takes place in Period 6, and includes the development of 'Character' through our Personal Development programme.  This curriculum initiative promotes the following outcomes:-

 

• Opportunities for cognitive and meta-cognitive thinking.

• Opportunities for students to plan and manage their own learning and to complete work independently.  

• Time for reflection on the lessons of the day to identify strengths and weaknesses.

• Development of a regular reading habit, through our 'Deep Learning' sessions.

• Valuable revision and learning time.

• A time for quietness to promote well-being.

• Developing 'Character' through our Personal Development curriculum (PSHE and Citizenship).

• Opportunities for bespoke interventions to take place in the school day.  

 

Curriculum Impact

 

To ensure that all students achieve mastery in the specified knowledge and concepts outlined in our curriculum, regular formative assessment guides responsive teaching.  Summative assessment allows gaps to be closed through timely re-teaching of specific knowledge.  Our assessment data is used to evaluate the strength of the curriculum as students progress towards mastery, and allows for opportunities to enable students to catch-up through targeted interventions.  ​