Curriculum INTENT

There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

In all Excalibur schools, the purpose of the curriculum is based on our purpose as a Trust. The core values of Community, Individuality and Excellence are reflected in our sharing of common approaches to curriculum design and implementation, while supporting schools to develop their own curriculum breadth and content. Our curriculum is designed for excellence, deepening pupils’ knowledge of the best that has been thought and said in each subject discipline.  Furthermore, our curriculum is designed for excellence through mastery.  We ensure pupils develop frameworks for gaining new knowledge, which is embedded and retrieved easily, so that they can progress to expert outcomes and deepen their understanding. 

We aim to secure strong academic standards and to develop every pupil spiritually, morally, socially, culturally and emotionally, preparing them well for their secondary education. We ensure all pupils have access to a broad and deep body of knowledge regardless of demographics and starting points.   

Each school’s curriculum breadth reflects the scope of the National Curriculum, alongside ‘school breadth’, decided by school leaders which reflects the needs of their local context. The curriculum will build pupil’s cultural capital to enrich their knowledge and experience of the world.  The curriculum will support pupils to become responsible global citizens who engage with British society and its values and live happy and healthy lives. Schools have a comprehensive programme of SMSC, PSHE, citizenship and enrichment activities including extra-curricular clubs and visits. This curriculum is developed at local level and is regularly reviewed.  

Our overarching curriculum principles:  

1. Our curriculum is ambitious and challenges students to accumulate powerful knowledge in each subject discipline, it will meet and exceed the National Curriculum.  

1. Our curriculum is founded on subject-specific core concepts and is sequenced so that new knowledge builds upon pre-existing schemata.  

1. Our curriculum revisits key concepts and is supported by the science of learning to ensure the durability of knowledge in the long-term memory.   

1. Our curriculum breadth is dynamic and reflective of the unique context of each school.   

1. The curriculum builds towards composite outcomes, or curricular goals which enable pupils to demonstrate their mastery of curriculum content and progression through cognitive domains. Pupils progress from remembering, to knowing and then reasoning with curriculum content. Milestones for curriculum progression are detailed in the curriculum plans and reflect the National Curriculum’s attainment targets. 
2. Our curriculum centres on developing our children’s use of and understanding of the English language, with explicit and deliberate opportunities to develop spoken language, vocabulary acquisition and the study of high quality texts. Reading for Learning is central to our curriculum; Reading for Pleasure is central to our ethos. 

Curriculum content:  

We teach the National Curriculum, PHSE, RHSE and Religious Education. Our intent for each subject area is underpinned by the purpose and aims of study of the National Curriculum, statutory guidance on Relationships, Health and Sex Education, and locally agreed syllabus for R.E. Knowledge, both substantive and disciplinary, is planned in detail. The most important subject content is defined in our medium-term plans through ‘threshold concepts’ which organise new knowledge systematically and ensure a logical progression to pupils’ knowledge and understanding. In foundation subjects, science and mathematics, the trust provides a centrally planned curriculum. Schools can adapt this to their own needs, while aligning to the five trust curriculum principles. In English and Mathematics, our preferred approaches reflect the Education Endowment Foundation research into best practice and include commercially produced materials.