Curriculum Statement
Information for Parents
Why is Curriculum Important?
At Sporting Stars Academy, our curriculum exists to ensure all students can unlock their potential and achieve a brighter future.
We are committed to challenging our students to realise their hopes and dreams, regardless of their previous learning experiences.
Christine Counsell summarises the aspiration of curriculum to empower all students, creating a pathway to success in their career and life:
‘A curriculum exists to change the pupil, to give the pupil new power.
One acid test for a curriculum is whether it enables even lower attaining or disadvantaged pupils to clamber into the discourse and practices of educated people so that they gain powers of the powerful.’ – Christine Counsell
Curriculum Aims
It is important that the curriculum meets the needs of our context.
A high proportion of students attending Sporting Stars Academy have experienced struggles with their educational journey. Many of our students have been out of school for significant periods of time and a high percentage of our students have an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) with social, emotional, and mental health as their primary need. As such, many of our students present with a range of barriers, including anxiety and emotional dysregulation. In attempting to help them overcome their barriers, it is vital that we provide holistic support to help build confidence and self-esteem whilst promoting independence and helping our students return to full-time education.
In order to address the needs of students within our academy, our curriculum has three overarching aims:
- To carefully and intentionally plan for recall and retrieval of powerful knowledge through progression mapping and assessment
- To promote a love of reading, and improve students’ vocabulary acquisition
- To promote cultural capital by exposing students to a range of historical, social and cultural contexts, experiences and perspectives.
Subject Curriculum Maps
Our subject curriculum maps and rationale documents offer our teachers a vehicle through which to express the aims and values underpinning their curriculum. These documents are built in collaboration with other subject specialists and are reviewed throughout the year to ensure efficacy.
Each subject curriculum map outlines the powerful knowledge that students need in order to master subject content.
Knowledge
Within the curriculum map we have ‘Key ideas’ or fundamental concepts– these are subject-specific goals that should be achieved by all students. These key ideas act as a framework to help connect knowledge and describe progression towards mastery of the content. The curriculum maps allow us to map out where and when this key knowledge will be taught.
Planning for Progression
A progression map describes how powerful knowledge and disciplinary competencies progress over an extended period of time. As such, progression maps describe how students develop proficiency across the curriculum.
Curriculum Programmes
We recognise the value of the national curriculum, therefore we strive to meet and exceed the aims set out in the programmes of study. In developing their curriculum, subject leaders have carefully considered how their curriculum aligns with the national curriculum as well as how it can best serve our students by meeting our overarching curriculum aims.