The curriculum model that we feel best suits our students and allows them to reach their full potential follows a three year Key Stage 3 followed by a two year Key Stage 4.
We will continue with this and will continue to review its impact on the outcomes of our learners. Our rationale for this is as follows:
- The curriculum model provides quality, breadth, depth and reach that enables all students to achieve and progress further. The curriculum reflects the school’s integrity and is designed to meet the needs and aspirations of all students, regardless of ability and school performance measures.
- Students enjoy a greater personalised curriculum that provides them with learning experiences, opportunities and qualifications that will serve them for the rest of their lives.
- RIAB have developed a Key Stage 4 curriculum that has allowed us to increase our academic offer including a wider access to science, another language and greater access to the arts subjects and subjects not previously studied at Key Stage 3.
- Having a 3-year key stage 3 allows us to offer a broader range of academic subjects in which our students are able to study.
- Departments have reviewed both their Key Stage 3 schemes of work and pedagogical approaches to further improve teaching and learning.
- Departments at RIAB can begin Key Stage 4 programmes of study with skills development, which complement and enhance the knowledge content.
- We promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of students and society.
- We prepare students for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.
- We make provision for personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE)
Learn about our curriculum intent, implementation and impact below:
Curriculum Intention 1:
Develop our learner’s learning
Our head and body: what we learn
To develop the appropriate subject specific knowledge, skills and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum and beyond, so that children can flourish, reach and exceed their potential academically, physically and artistically.
Curriculum Intention 2:
Develop the character of our learners
Our heart and character: who we are when we learn
To develop learners to have a holistic set of values that prepares them for life in the modern world in a diverse and ever changing community and workplace.
Curriculum Intention 3:
Develop behaviours and habits to become effective learners
Our actions and attitudes: how we act when we learn
To develop the behaviours learners need to succeed in the world such as concentration, perseverance, imagination, co-operation, the enjoyment of learning, self-improvement and curiosity.
Curriculum Intention 4:
Develop the moral compass of our learners
Our place in the community and wider world: who we are
To understand spirituality in themselves and others, develop social skills and understand society, build a firm set of personal morality, and to engage in the culture they live in and understand the cultures of others.
Our curriculum will be implemented with our intentions as the drivers behind our actions. By ensuring we think about what we learn, who we are when we are learning, how we act when we learn and who we are in the world, we build happy, resilient, successful, good citizens.
Our implementation plan ensures our curriculum keeps us focussed on these areas. We have the National Curriculum, which we use as a starting point, and embellish and deepen further as a school but at the heart of this is learners being exposed to quality experiences and lessons with a large element of choice and need for independent thinking.
Flip Learning opportunities are used ahead of teaching to enable learners to become immersed in their own learning. Visits and enrichment clubs allow learners even greater opportunities to find and develop their individual interests and personal talents.
Visitors and parents coming into school to help at regular opportunities bolsters our offer and deepens experiences further.
Intention 1 Implementation:
Develop our learner’s learning
Our promise to our learners: Over and above any of our national curriculum learning, we promise holistic childhood experiences throughout their journey at RIAB. Our teachers plan subjects using progressive skills and knowledge. Learning is checked against these to ensure progression and understanding. Teachers keep a record of how leaners are achieving and intervene effectively and collaboratively to close any skills or knowledge gaps.
Our teachers plan a wide variety of offsite educational visits, as well as visitors being invited into school as a way of enhancing subject knowledge and providing the learners with real life experiences.
Intention 2 Implementation:
Develop the character of our learners
We follow a Values Based Learning programme in the school, which explores values that are critical for us to understand in modern Britain and beyond. Each day, our school community models, teaches and promotes a range of values that we need to demonstrate in order to become good citizens of the world. We think carefully about the value, explore it in learning and demonstrate this whenever we can. Our teachers ask learners to undertake positions of responsibility around the school, as we believe that children understand values by seeing them in action in others. These include: Prefects to role model for each class; School council; Learner Ambassadors; Sports Leaders; Snack Monitors and House Captains.
Intention 3 Implementation:
Develop behaviours and habits to become effective learners
Teachers design learning opportunities that look for ways to develop good learning behaviours. At Rochdale Islamic Academy, we understand that learning about learning helps us to be better learners! In our curriculum, we ask learners to look for ways to develop concentration, perseverance, imagination, co-operation, the enjoyment of learning, self-improvement and curiosity. For example, in the curriculum we try to frame our learning around questions: Where do the leaves go in winter? Will you ever see the water you drink again? How do I know I’m being good?
The staff notice when learners are showing great learning behaviours. We award certificates for this in our regular celebration assembly. When we work as a team, we collect house points that earn a prize. We issue commendation certificates, and our teachers send postcards to parents when they notice great behaviour. Once a term, we are awarded certificates for: Attitude to learning, Progress in learning, Behaviour, Attendance.
Intention 4 Implementation:
Develop the moral compass of our learners
When planning the curriculum teachers think not just about what learners should learn and how they should learn it, but also how they can bring in an understanding of morality and the wider world. They do this through:
- SMSC is planned for and highlighted to us by our teachers across the curriculum. We learn about new beginnings in life, going for goals, getting on and falling out, changes and relationships. This helps us understand our place in the world.
- They ensure that in our half termly learning, they think about how to challenge stereotypes. In Key Stage 3, we learn about slavery, both historical and modern, thinking about why it happens and what motivates this. Our teachers identify positive role models that challenge stereotypes for us to learn about.
- Inviting in people from local groups, we work with lots of local religious groups to get a good understanding of the beliefs of others.
- We work with local community groups such as visiting the local residential home, working with local charities, collecting and raising money for charities, working with other schools in Rochdale and beyond.
We aim to increase our learner’s engagement with activities that benefit other members of the community and beyond.
The Self Organised Learning Environment (SOLE) mindset places the learner back at the centre of curriculum and makes teachers think “What will the experience be for the learner and how can we make the absolute most of each element?”
The SOLE aspect promotes learners making both group and personal connections with the content due to having genuine freedom of expression and choice.
It is beginning to produce learners who must and can, think for themselves, be resilient and face challenges with strategies to overcome and progress.
Intention 1 Impact:
Develop our learner’s learning
Our head and body: what we learn
We strive to ensure that our children’s attainment is in line with or exceeding their potential when we consider the varied starting points of children. We measure this carefully using a range of materials, but always considering Age Related Expectations. We intend that the impact is that children will be academically and physically prepared for life in high school and in Modern Britain and the world.
Intention 2 Impact:
Develop the character of our learners
Our heart and character: who we are when we learn
The impact will be that our learners will have fully rounded characters with a clear understanding of complex values like equality, friendship, trust and many others. Only by really learning what these mean will our learners be able to develop a character that prepares them for living in the community demonstrating tolerance and equality. We measure this not just by the work our children produce, but in the behaviours we see each and every day in all learners on the playground, in corridors, and in the many roles we give them. The impact of this intention is seen in the daily interaction of all members of our community, including staff and children.
Intention 3 Impact:
Develop behaviours and habits to become effective learners
Our actions and attitudes: how we act when we learn
The impact we intend to achieve by developing this intention is seen by how the children approach challenges every day. This could be on the playground, in a game or disagreement, or in class in a complex learning challenge. The impact should be that children don’t give up, are highly motivated to succeed and achieve and are equipped with all the personal skills to do this.
Intention 4 Impact:
Develop the moral compass of our learners
Our place in the community and wider world: who we are
Our learners will be motivated by a strong personal sense of morality. They will make decisions for the right reasons and in the best interests of their community. They will be able to decide what is right and what is wrong and will be resilient to the influence of others. They will go out into the world and make a difference in their own life and to others. Our learners will be the owners of their own destinies.