Curriculum

Vision Statement

‘Faith, hope, and love abide.’ 1 Corinthians 13.13

Growing closer to God in faith;

Flourishing through the Gospel of hope;

Reaching out to our neighbours in love;

Rooted in the Christian faith, and with a love of learning in our hearts, our vision inspires us to grow into the people God is calling us to be.

A Curriculum Statement

The Principles underpinning the planning and delivery of our school curriculum

Underpinning everything we do at ACE is the idea of maximising learning through Faith, Hope and Love via the ACE Head, Heart and Hands.
The central aims of our curriculum will be high pupil standards, high equity and high enjoyment through ensuring the 3 ACE dimensions of learning enhance the children’s ability to know more, remember more and do more.

We aim to offer all pupils a great education.
We will offer an inclusive curriculum and look to overcome all barriers that prevent pupils from succeeding.
The National Curriculum will form a part of our whole school curriculum. We will take autonomy for our school curriculum and for the way we plan for and deliver the National Curriculum. Our school curriculum will be enriched by the wide variety of before- and after-school clubs on offer.

Curriculum Diet

Our curriculum is varied and stimulating. We ensure that, as the children move through school, they make progress and build upon previous experiences. The areas studied are balanced across the Key Stage ensuring that all of the children have the correct access to all curriculum areas.

Basic skills of numeracy and literacy form part of the everyday organisation of classroom activities and are part of every week’s work. Weekly spelling, handwriting, times-tables, number work, writing, reading, speaking and listening are essential activities that provide a basic structure to the week. This helps children to become fluent in the use of English, and competent in the understanding and application of Mathematics.

Within each classroom Learning Journey, activities are highly structured and planned well in advance to allow for programmes of work to be developed and well resourced.

ACE Curriculum Progressions Grids

Our curriculum is intended to be challenging, focusing on knowledge and skills for both core subjects and foundation subjects. The National Curriculum sets out what should be taught in each year group or phase in the core subjects English, maths and science. For foundation subjects, expectations are set out by Key Stage. We use progression grids to break down learning year by year - and term by term - and to highlight key performance indicators.

The progression grids have been created by subject leaders in conjunction with all the teaching staff to show the year group expectations in the wider curriculum subjects. They show the progression of learning and skills as children move through the school, from Year R to Year 6. You can find them here

Where it all began at ACE...

Like so many ideas, our ACE Curriculum wasn’t a thunderbolt moment but an accumulation of experiences, thoughts and realisations over time and the development of our ACE Vision Statement was instrumental in how we look at the purpose and value of education in today’s world.

The National Curriculum

The National Curriculum Areas of Learning are:

English
Mathematics
Science
RE
ICT and Computing
History
Geography
Art
PE
Music
DT
RHE
Modern Foreign Languages

All teachers provide a range of classroom activities for the children so that the more able can be challenged at an extended level and children experiencing difficulties are set appropriate tasks. This means that children will be working on similar Learning Journeys, but on skills/concepts to match their needs.

Maintaining Quality of Teaching and Professional Development

Teaching Staff work hard to maintain standards and keep up-to-date with good practice.

Assessment

Assessment procedures are used for a variety of purposes. They help to provide continuity and progression in learning to match the children's abilities and aptitudes. We use the feedback to help children understand what they know, can do and what they need to improve. We believe that constructive assessment can raise standards of education. Children gain confidence and motivation from knowing what they are doing and when they have achieved it.

Children completing KS2 (Year 6) currently undertake National Curriculum Tests, but other assessments take place continually for all children. We value our professional Teacher Assessments, which are confirmed, or revised, in the light of national testing.