The LEAP Curriculum

Our Aim

Our aim is to deliver a broad and balanced curriculum that is inclusive, representative and inspirational.  We expect it to be rigorous in its design with clear outcomes and high expectations and to provide active and relevant learning opportunities, which involve the whole community. We aim for our curriculum to be creative and motivating, nurturing a love and curiosity for learning and developing well-rounded individuals who are curious about the world around them and who are hungry to learn more.

Curriculum Design

Our curriculum is designed to fully meet the requirements of the new National Curriculum but also to ensure that we provide rich learning opportunities, which deepen and extend understanding.  It has been structured to develop children's long-term retention of key knowledge.  Children revisit key ideas within subjects and across the curriculum to enable greater depth and understanding, leading to meaningful and purposeful learning, which children carry with them through school and beyond.Maths, English and reading are taught daily.  In addition, we have weekly PE, Spanish, music, art and PSHE lessons.  The foundation subjects are woven throughout the year in our block curriculum ensuring a clear progression of skills and knowledge from year 1 to year 6.  The table below shows how each subject is taught:

In addition we have a number of themed weeks: Creativity Week, Spanish Day, STEM Week and DT Week.

English and Maths

We are fortunate to live in such a diverse and cultural part of the UK and are aware that a part of that is many of our pupils speak English as an additional language.  We value these languages and celebrate them within the school, such as our International Evening and through our daily routines.   Our English curriculum has been developed to ensure that every child that comes to us, is equipped with the necessary English skills by the time they leave primary school.  We use Read Write Inc for synthetic phonics in Key Stage 1 and the 'Power of Reading' to support effective teaching of English in Key Stage 2.  We also promote the value of reading and teach daily Destination Reader lessons, which have a proven acceleration in children’s progress in reading skills including reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge. 

In Maths, we use the Singapore approach to support the planning, delivery and assessment of maths. We teach mathematical procedure through a variety of problem solving contexts, which develop children’s conceptual understanding as well as make maths relevant to the world around them. 

Rich, Relevant and Representative: The LEAP Empowerment Curriculum

We have taken the decision to remove Black History Month from our special weeks and make a commitment to ensuring that Black History is taught all year round and woven throughout the curriculum.  We have rigorously analysed existing units of work to assess whether they are rich in content, representative and relevant.  Changes have been made to our English curriculum as well as our foundation subjects to ensure that the curriculum we are delivering meets these expectations.  We continue to analyse and assess the impact and value of these changes and welcome feedback from our school community.

Foundation Subjects

The foundation subjects are an exciting part of our curriculum that allow us to deliver a broad and balanced curriculum, which is rich, relevant and representative.  Geography, History, Art, Science, RE, Music, PSHE, Spanish, PE, Design & Technology and computing are based on the National Curriculum objectives and are led across all three schools by a Curriculum Leader.  Each leader is an expert in their field and passionate about the subject which they lead.  This has allowed us to maintain a creative and engaging approach to these subjects whilst ensuring rigor and high standards.  The Hackney School of Food also offers a rare and exceptional opportunity for our pupils.  In addition to cooking and gardening lessons, the school of food is also used across the curriculum to support learning in geography, history, maths, Spanish and science.  For more information about our foundation subjects, please visit the individual subject pages.  

How we adapt the curriculum and learning environment for children with Special Educational Needs and/or disabilities (SEND)

The LEAP curriculum has been designed with all learners in mind and is accessible and inclusive for all children including those with SEND. Progression in knowledge is planned in all subjects and formative assessment allows teachers to understand how to scaffold learning successfully and improve access for all children. Barriers to learning are removed through Quality First and adaptive teaching including appropriate challenge so that all children can achieve. The LEAP curriculum includes not only the formal requirements of the National Curriculum, but also a range of additional opportunities to enrich the experiences of our children. Quality First teaching is a style of teaching that emphasises high-quality, inclusive teaching for ALL children and adaptive teaching is responsive and matches children’s needs. Our curriculum also includes the social aspects that are essential for life-long learning, personal growth and development of independence.

Some examples of how SEND children maybe supported are:

• A range of adaptive teaching strategies
• Differentiated learning materials
• Access to ICT and Technology
• Additional in class support
• Additional out of class support
• Targeted interventions
• Flexible groupings
• A commitment that that all children have access to the school curriculum and all school activities.
• Early identification of additional needs (whether these are educational, social, physical or emotional)
• Staff awareness and sensitivity to the needs of all pupils
• A working partnership with parents/ carers, pupils and relevant external agencies in order to provide for children’s special educational needs and disabilities.
• Opportunities to raise aspirations & self-esteem and celebrate achievements.
• A Behaviour Policy that uses appropriate rewards and sanctions

More details on how we adapt information, our environment and our curriculum can be found in the Equality Action Plan (which includes our Accessibility Plan) – which is located on the Statutory Information page of our website.

 

The curriculum overviews (which are at the bottom of the Curriculum Overview page in this section of the website) show the overview of units studied from Early Years to  Year 6 and these are supported in school by more detailed documents detailing the objectives and approaches to teaching.

If you have any questions or would like further information on our curriculum please contact the school.