The Curriculum

“Our job is to make learning irresistible, our job is to transport our children to places that they have no experience of and provide them with real experiences. By doing this we help them remember, retain and question – this can only create citizens of the future who are thoughtful, kind and creative” (Unknown)

Curriculum Implementation

Children ‘learn to read’ and then ‘read to learn’; this equips children with the skills required to seek and retain knowledge.

By consistently using the teaching strategy of ‘I do, we do, you do’, children are well rehearsed in practising newly acquired skills, which in turn enables them to become confident leaners. In ensuring teaching is modelled and delivered in this way, we believe this demonstrates our high expectations of all learners.

Feedback is purposeful, timely, ongoing and instructional and gives specific instruction of what children need to do next.

Please follow the links below to our subject pages. If you require more information, please contact Mr Tolson through the school office.

2 Statement for vision SJ

At The Academy at St James, we aim to provide ALL our children with an engaging, purposeful curriculum that inspires, motivates, challenges and excites our pupils. We believe that providing our pupils with key experiences will enhance their learning and personal development to help them become successful, confident learners. Our topics are planned using the following ideas:

All topics will start with a hook and a way to engage the pupils.
Topics will be split into 3 learning chapters and children will be producing work to support this.
Each year group has a progression in skills document which they use for there year group.
All topics will also have a visit or visitor of some kind to give children real life experiences.
All topics will have a grand finale which will showcase all their work and be linked to real life skills and an audience.

All the staff will plan a carefully structured approach to the teaching of the curriculum and work will be differentiated to support pupils needs. It is vital that we make our curriculum as relevant, exciting and engaging as possible and teach them the key skills which will support them in later life. If you require more information about how you can support your child’s learning at home, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s class teacher, either directly or through the school office 01274 777095.

Early Years Foundation Stage

In Early Years Foundation Stage, we teach the children through fun, exciting and motivating play based activities. These are based on what the children are interested in and are planned to develop their key skills and develop their knowledge of the world around them.

The EYFS curriculum is split into Prime and Specific areas. The Prime Areas (Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language and Physical Development) are the key priorities of the EYFS and these form the basis for all learning. The Specific Area (Literacy, Numeracy, Understanding the World and Creative Development) are planned through key skills and activities which promote the children’s learning and build their independence skills.

All children are observed continually. These observations form the key part in children’s learning and provide the evidence towards children meeting age related development and inform practitioners of the child’s next steps. All observations are recorded on Tapestry – an online journal which parents have secure access to. Parents can add observations into their child’s file and can comment on the observations that have been added by practitioners. By working together, parents and practitioners can build strong relationships with a solid understanding of each child and their individual learning and development.

Below are some example of the hook days we have been using!

Curriculum skills document