Barrow Hill Primary Academy Vision

At Barrow Hill Primary Academy, our vision is to create a safe, nurturing, learning environment where children become curious learners, acquire deep and memorable knowledge across a range of subjects and where children, staff and the community are proud of their achievements

Our vision for the children of Barrow Hill is that they will grow up to be responsible citizens prepared for life in modern Britain showing;

• Respect
• Resilience
• Kindness

Our curriculum aims to embed this vision at the heart of all we do. 

Curriculum Intent

Learning is defined as the acquisition of knowledge or skills through study, experience, or being taught.

At Barrow Hill Primary Academy, the curriculum has been designed to equip our children with the knowledge, skills, understanding and behaviours required for deep and memorable learning. We provide a broad, balanced, ambitious, knowledge rich curriculum, which caters for children of all abilities, attempting to develop each child’s potential to the full. 

Staff at Barrow Hill Primary Academy are ambitious for the children.  It is expected that all children will succeed – some may need additional support and scaffolding but we believe that everybody can achieve!

Our curriculum is underpinned by five curriculum principles;

• Knowledge
• Vocabulary
• Reading
• Diversity
• Ambition

These principles are at the core of our curriculum intent. 

Our aim is to inspire children to be the best they can be; to #DreamBig and work hard believing that effort is linked to success.  We share our successes together, support one another and are #ProudToBeBarrowHill. 

Curriculum Implementation 

Long term plan – The Barrow Hill Curriculum

The National Curriculum has been carefully planned over a two-year cycle to ensure that our mixed age classes cover the content of the National Curriculum by the end of their Key Stage.  Each half term, there is a connecting theme across the school and a subject driver.  Where appropriate, authentic connections are made across subject areas.  Curriculum subjects are taught discretely enabling children to see themselves as historians, geographers, designers, artists, musicians, scientists, technicians, programmers, philosophers and citizens of the world.

Subject schemes of learning

Each subject has a carefully crafted scheme of learning to support teachers planning small, connected steps of learning.   These schemes aim to develop and build knowledge over time.  Teachers make connections to prior learning and add new information to existing knowledge (schema) ensuring that children experience purposeful learning over a period of time and not just a series of unrelated activities. 

Medium term plan

Learning journeys are planned to incorporate prior learning and connect learning across classes and year groups.  Staff work collaboratively to plan the intention of each learning journey and provide rich experiences for children to immerse themselves in.  Learning begins with a wow hook to engage, motivate and inspire our children through a memorable learning experience.  Towards the end of a journey, children plan to share their learning with a finale event.  This encourages the children to plan how to share their learning and communicate clearly with an audience.

S plans are used across all curriculum areas to plan small, coherent steps of learning building conceptual understanding and knowledge.  These S plans are shared and revisited with the children. 

Remembering

Staff continue to developed their understanding of how children learn and the neuroscience behind ‘remembering’.  We have used articles and studies to inform our practice: https://impact.chartered.college/article/shibli-cognitive-load-theory-classroom/ along with research evidence suggested by the Education Endowment Foundation https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/tools/guidance-reports/metacognition-and-self-regulated-learning/  which claims the use of ‘metacognitive strategies’ (getting pupils to think about their own learning) can be worth the equivalent of an additional +7 months’ progress when used well. Further training related to metacognition including 'Rosenshine's Principles' (Sherrington, 2019) and 'working memory' is planned over the next two academic years. 

Our aim is to make knowledge stick; retention of knowledge is important in order to build on knowledge in subsequent year groups.

Lesson Design

Teachers use the subject schemes of learning to plan well sequenced lessons.  The lesson design model has been developed from research informed practice and aims to support teachers planning small steps whilst paying close attention to strategies that aid long term memory.

Lesson Design Model

The Barrow Hill Standard

Our high standards and expectations are displayed and referred to in all classrooms.  Children are encouraged to ‘be the best’ they can be and to produce work at the high Barrow Hill Standard.  Scaffolds are provided for children with additional needs who require extra support to meet these standards.

Curriculum Impact

The impact of the Barrow Hill curriculum is measured by assessing if the children know more and remember more across the subjects they are taught. 

We use EAZ Mags to track attainment and progress.  Children are assessed against National Curriculum year group objectives as to whether they are:

Term	Emerging	Working Towards the expected standard	Working towards the expected standard +	Expected standard	Greater depth
End of Autumn	At an early stage of development.  Support is required to access and understand the curriculum	On track to achieve expected standard.  Demonstrates a secure understanding of the curriculum covered	Working more deeply within the aspects of the curriculum covered.  On track to achieve Greater Depth
End of Spring	At an early stage of development.  Support is required to access and understand the curriculum	Growing independence across the curriculum, support still required.	On track to achieve expected standard.  Demonstrates a secure understanding of the curriculum covered	Working more deeply within the aspects of the curriculum covered.  On track to achieve Greater Depth
End of Summer	At an early stage of development.  Support is required to access and understand the curriculum	Growing independence across the curriculum, support still required.	Gaps in curriculum knowledge and understanding.	Secure knowledge and understanding of the curriculum	Working more deeply within all aspects of the curriculum

The subject schemes of learning outline the age-related expectations for each year group. The individual progress of all children is tracked and shared termly during pupil progress meetings.  A range of strategies and approaches are used to determine if children are making progress and meeting age related expectations including:

• High challenge, low threat assessments within the lesson
• Mini quizzes
• Quality of work in books and stored on digital platforms
• Pupil interactions within lessons e.g. discussions, conversations, answering questions, modelling
• Pupil interviews to discuss learning
• Termly standardised NFER tests
• National tests – Reception baseline, Y1 phonics screening, Y2 phonics screening retake, Y2 optional SATs, Y4 multiplication check, Y6 SATs

Our assessments are quality assured through internal and external monitoring activities including; work scrutiny, moderation, learning walks, pupil interviews and planning scrutiny.

Children who are working below age related expectations in language, literacy and maths are assessed using the Birmingham Toolkit.  The Birmingham SEN Toolkits are a set of resources to support the identification, provision and tracking progress for pupils with cognition and learning difficulties who are working significantly below the level of their peers.  Where children are working below the standards of the national curriuclum and are unable to access learning through the Birmingham Toolkit, the Engagement Model is used to measure, track and support progress.  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-engagement-model.

Maths	English	Science	Physical Education	Religious Education	Computing
History	Geography	Art & Design	Music	Design Technology	PSHE/ RSE

Our curriculum is designed to offer a wide range of balanced learning opportunities to help our children grow into responsible and independent young people with a desire to learn.