Teaching & Learning

We have an ambitious, broad, and balanced curriculum - and ambition for all. For our curriculum implementation to be highly effective, teachers must demonstrate expert subject and pedagogical skills to be able to deliver that knowledge in the most efficient manner, utilising every minute of available time. We want all our students to be confident and fluent communicators, who can interpret, articulate, and analyse a variety of complex ideas with precision.

---

Ambition for all

We provide students with a high quality education that raises standards and aspirations. We aim to:

• Give every student, regardless of starting point or background characteristics, access to the curriculum offer, making adaptations and reasonable adjustments
• Ensure that all students are taught a knowledge-rich curriculum that supports development of long-term memory as well as understanding and application, through consistent daily practice to make it stick.
• Enhance the experiences of student learning by making links with learning experiences outside of the classroom and provide our students a rich co-curriculum offer.
• Ensure that feedback to students is timely, purposeful, and elicits pupil response that addresses misconceptions, ensures that it promotes reflective learners, and supports planning that will make significant improvements to student progress.
• Provide a safe, calm learning environment for all students and staff to ensure that quality of provision provided is consistently effective or highly effective.
• Enhance students' literacy, numeracy and digital skill sets by embedding opportunities to develop students' writing, oracy, and reading development, solve mathematical challenges and use digital technology appropriately to enhance the learning experience.
• Ensure that all staff have access to a comprehensive professional development programme catering to the professional needs of all staff to support with enhancing their professional practices.
• Ensure that professional development of staff is driven by clear accountability systems and guidelines of what constitutes best practice and enabling consistency across the academy.

---

How we approach lessons

Across our secondary and primary phases, teachers follow a shared playbook of evidence informed moves, set out in the Pedagogical Approaches mats.. This ensures every learner experiences the same high quality classroom routines—whatever the subject, whatever the stage.

• I do → We do → You do – direct instruction and live modelling flow into guided and then independent practice so pupils gain confidence before flying solo.
• Cognitive Load & Working Memory – lessons are chunked and stripped of unnecessary detail so pupils can focus on the ideas that matter.
• Dual Coding – key information is presented through complementary words and visuals, making new concepts easier to grasp and remember.
• Spaced Retrieval & Interleaving – regular, low‑stakes quizzing and mixed‑topic practice keep knowledge fresh and flexible.
• Active Learning & AFL – varied questioning techniques and responsive teaching check every pupil’s understanding and tackle misconceptions in the moment.
• Schema Mapping & Mastery – diagrams, graphic organisers and deliberate practice help pupils connect new ideas to prior learning and meet the same ambitious end‑points.
• Retention Strategies – from multiple choice recap starters to whole class feedback, we recycle knowledge until it is fluent, automatic and ready for transfer.
• Knowledge Organisers - A living map: allowing students to revisit its core facts and vocabulary each term, pupils move from simply recalling information to generating new connections and insights - transforming static knowledge into generative knowledge that grows stronger over time.

We take pride in a spiralled curriculum that begins narrowly and then widens, enabling pupils to know more and remember more as they progress. Personal, social, health and economic education, British values and careers guidance are woven through, while targeted support for SEND, disadvantaged and EAL learners ensures everyone benefits from the same ambitious content.

For a deeper dive into the research, routines and case studies behind our approach, download Why We Approach Lessons the Way We Do (Secondary) and the Primary Pedagogical Approaches MAT. Our commitment to ongoing instructional coaching and lesson study keeps staff practice sharp and consistent across the academy.