Ark Victoria Academy

Our Curriculum Intent

All pupils leave Ark Victoria with broad and diverse academic knowledge and skills, regardless of starting points. Our curriculum enables pupils to make connections across themes and concepts, building their vocabulary and understanding, across and within subject disciplines. It also develops pupils’ ambition and independence, as well as fostering resilience and kindness. This leads to our pupils becoming respectful, curious citizens with a strong moral purpose.

We will achieve this through the following approaches:

Our culture which enables learning and teaching to flourish and the curriculum to be effectively delivered

We adopt a warm/strict approach to establish calm, purpose and order. We achieve this through the consistency of expectations, showing care and compassion and using explicit signature strategies to secure positive behaviour.

Our Curriculum Pillars

1) Resilient Readers: our school prioritises reading as we understand that pupils need to be effective readers in order to be successful in life; all pupils will be given strategies and support as well as opportunities to read confidently and fluently, to ensure that they are able to securely access the full curriculum and read at or above chronological reading age

2) High quality teaching: teachers are passionate subject experts and experts in age-appropriate pedagogy with an excellent understanding of their subject, curriculum and the learning journey for pupils. Our teachers understand what excellence looks like for each subject, within each phase, and work together to ensure the transition from primary to secondary is secure, as a result of a shared language and approaches, as well as ensuring pupils reach the end goals

3) Knowledge rich curriculum: Our curriculum design enables pupils to make good progress in each subject discipline through the explicit teaching of core disciplinary concepts and knowledge. The curriculum is planned and sequenced so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before. Knowledge is selected for its power in developing expertise in the subject discipline. Explicit teaching of tier 2 and 3 vocabulary, as well as strategies for learning vocabulary are built into our curriculum, which has clearly defined end points.

4) High ambition: raising aspirations and outcomes: teachers’ expectations are high for every child. Curriculum adaptation and judicious interventions ensure that all pupils make good progress. Teachers work hard to scaffold and ensure access to the full curriculum, rather than narrowing the offer. Pupils understand the opportunities that school, qualifications and a university education will afford and are provided with clear guidance about careers and pathways

5) Diverse and inclusive: our curriculum is consciously inclusive and seeks to support pupils of all backgrounds, experiences, and protected characteristics to access and enjoy our aspirational curriculam. An authentic and truthful study of each subject celebrates and acknowledges that diverse bodies of people have generated and evolved the powerful knowledge in our subjects, and have made our disciplines what they are. We recognise the importance of developing and valuing our learners’ voice; our focus on oracy helps develop confidence, the ability to express views and build on the contributions of others.

6) Strong Character and enrichment: our curricula build pupils’ understanding of themselves as learners, as well as understanding the importance of values and virtues in helping to live a fulfilled and happy life. We make explicit connections between subjects and share ‘world wisdom’ to help build cultural capital, so that our learners can take part in the great conversations of humankind. Pupils develop their passions and interests through our student experience curriculum and our enrichment programme.

Curriculum Programmes at Ark Victoria

We follow the National Curriculum at all key stages; all our curriculum programmes are linked to the National Curriculum. We use Ark Complete Curriculum Programmes (CCPs) to capture the subject content, sequence of teaching, assessment, classroom delivery resources and required teacher CPD for the following subjects:

1. Maths Mastery, AC+ (All-through)
2. Read Write Inc.
3. English Mastery, AC+
4. Science Mastery, AC+ (All-through)
5. Geography Mastery, AC+
6. School Music Programme, Ark Schools

These curriculum programmes are used as a starting point for curriculum planning. Our staff use their intellectual preparation and co-planning time to adapt these curricula to ensure they meet the needs of the learners in our context, that there is sufficient rigour and challenge and that adaptations to the curriculum allow all students to access and make progress. Specific adaptations for SEND students are made, to run alongside interventions and where necessary inclass support, so that SEND students are included in the ambitious curriculum aims. EHCPs and pupil passports are used to support curriculum adaptations and staff receive training from the Inclusion team on how to effectively adapt the curriculum.

Assessment Aligned Frameworks (AAFs) are in place for the following subjects:

1. MFL
2. History
3. RS
4. Computer Science

Subjects agree on a common subject content, sequence and assessment protocols; Subject Network Leads oversee the network agreed curriculum design. Curricula developed by Ark Victoria staff The following subjects have curricula which have been developed by colleagues at Ark Victoria through consulting specifications, attending CPD and working collaboratively:

1. Drama
2. Art and design
3. Design Technology
4. PE
5. Business studies (KS4 only)
6. Creative I Media (KS4 only)
7. History (Primary only)
8. Geography (Primary only)
9. Computing (Primary only)
10. MFL (Primary only)

Our staff use their intellectual preparation and co-planning time to adapt and resource these curricula to ensuring they meet the needs of the learners in our context, that there is sufficient rigour and challenge and that adaptations to the curriculum allow all students to access and make progress.

In addition to the above curricula, there is an alternative pathway for a small number of students identified with special educational needs (this happens on a needs basis and not necessarily every year). These students follow the usual KS3 curriculum and then within the Options process, are able to follow the Prince’s Trust Award to gain important employability and life skills, alongside core GCSEs in English, maths and science, another GCSE option of their choice and functional skills English, entry level science and maths. These students will receive additional support to ensure they access an appropriate pathway post-16. and functional skills English, entry level science and maths. These students will receive additional support to ensure they access an appropriate pathway post-16.

For more information about our curriculum at Ark Victoria, please contact info@arkvictoria.org to arrange a meeting with our Curriculum Leads:

Primary School

Mrs Baker

Deputy Headteacher

Secondary School

Mrs Lee

Deputy Headteacher