OUR CURRICULUM

“The capacity to learn is a gift; The ability to learn is a skill; The willingness to learn is a choice.”

― Brian Herbert

"Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today." 

- Malcolm X

We are proud of the challenging and academic education offered at Aylward, built on a tradition of subject expertise and passion. We are confident that our curriculum and wider opportunities for enrichment, combined with pastoral care, provide the best possible platform for students to become independent and intellectually ambitious students.

The curriculum from KS3 to GCSE and Sixth Form level, is based on allowing students a wide variety of choice in order to create a programme of study that is truly personalised to each individual. Our programme of challenge and support allows all students to flourish, no matter where they are in their education or what path they have chosen. 

Aylward Academy delivers the National Curriculum at Key Stages 3 and 4. For post 16, many of our students go on to study A/AS Levels at our Sixth Form. At Aylward our students leave us embodying the Aylward Attributes as independent, creative, professional, collaborative, resilient, respectful young citizens often taking up places at some of the most prestigious universities in the world.

OUR CURRICULUM AIMS

The Curriculum Intent

At Aylward Academy, we expect our students to experience a knowledge-rich, progressive and ambitious curriculum. Our curriculum is accessible for all students regardless of starting point and enables our students to confidently prepare for future education and employment by building strong foundations in literacy and numeracy.  Students are empowered to become confident communicators who embrace a love of learning and are engaged with learning beyond the classroom, in order that they become positive contributors to society. The Aylward curriculum shows our students how to be safe, and instils the principles of community and equality.

Key drivers for our curriculum :

1. Explore : Exploring new knowledge in active ways

Planning for exploration of the curriculum encourages students to be actively curious  learners who enjoy seeking the answers to the big questions posed through their learning experiences.

Students are assisted in developing the tools to become explorers of learning. Their research skills are built up in order to allow them to explore the knowledge learnt . This also allows them to make connections with prior and wider knowledge around specific topics. The ability to explore deeply and widely around knowledge learnt enables our students to develop resilience  and develop mastery overtime.

The exploration of knowledge encourages students to develop understanding independently. Some will do this at first with guided support, but most will develop the skills to do this with increasing independence and confidence over time. They will learn that through exploration of knowledge they gain a deeper fulfilling understanding of content learnt. Students’ exploration of knowledge will enable them to make the connections between prior knowledge, newly acquired knowledge and  the wider knowledge related to topics that they learn. By actively being taught to enhance their exploratory skills, our students will attain a deeper and meaningful  knowledge of content that moves them closer to mastery.

Students will question, think critically and deliberate knowledge to arrive at sensible conclusions. 

2. Express : Applying deep knowledge in interesting and creative ways

We plan for our students to be expressive learners who gain and apply deep knowledge enthusiastically, and demonstrate this through their productivity and creativity in lessons.    

Students’ skills are developed so that they confidently apply their knowledge through debate, deliberation, meaningful writing and creative application.

Students are given a variety of platforms to express themselves through the knowledge that they gain. Planning for lessons actively takes this into consideration; therefore students' application of knowledge might be seen in forms ranging from creative writing, art, use of graphic technology, spoken word, music and other forms of expression. Students use these forms of expression to apply their knowledge in all areas of the curriculum; for example music could be used in the application of attained knowledge within a Maths lesson.

Students are able to apply their knowledge to solve problems, and create solutions whilst  reflecting on ethical considerations.  Students are regularly supported in using the  power of language to express ideas and impact on discourse. Therefore oracy through debate, presentations and dialogue feature as key components that add vibrance to their learning experiences.

Our students are trained to become reflective learners who are responsive to their learning. They will receive and respond to feedback in a process that enables them to make adjustments to, and improve on the application of their knowledge. 

3. Enrich : Taking opportunities to enhance the learning experience beyond the classroom  

Planning for the enrichment of learning empowers students to take ownership of their learning in and beyond the classroom. Students will be given the opportunity to meet inspirational guests, visit local, national or global landmarks and thus bring learning to life. 

Students are encouraged to take the  lead in learning both within and beyond the classroom. Opportunities for student leadership and ambassadorial roles are given to students. These roles connect students to the principles of citizenship, justice, civility and service that lie within the discipline of every subject. Students therefore gain an appreciation of how every subject actively contributes to wider society.   

Students will have aspirations and goals to work towards which will support their academic and personal development.

Students will consider the ethical principles which underpin units of learning to take responsibility as positive contributors of society who are tolerant, considerate and kind.

AYLWARD ATTRIBUTES : Our attributes support the delivery of our curriculum :

RESPECT 

Across the curriculum, students are taught the importance of respect. This is threaded through our PSHE and whole academy curriculum where key issues around what respect means are explored. Our curriculum is mapped to demonstrate how important respect is to create an inclusive society where no one is created as an outsider. Our discipline policy clearly outlines the agreed expectations of respect towards all within the academy community. This ensures consistency on rewarding behaviours that support the academy’s attributes, whilst also dealing consistently with behaviours that impede the learning of others. 

PROFESSIONALISM 

Across the curriculum students are given opportunities to learn about how the subjects they are taught link to the professional environment, including key information about careers links. Our drive on oracy supports the development of students’ cultural capital, teaching them how to use language in different settings to represent themselves and demonstrate how remarkable they are. Our discipline policy outlines the key expectations for students, parents and staff to ensure the Aylward standard of professionalism is understood by all. 

INDEPENDENCE

 The curriculum is planned to support students to become masters of the subjects they learn and opportunities within each lesson are embedded to enable student independence in their learning. The use of worked models and success criteria are built into the curriculum to enable students to understand what excellence will look like and develop their ability to self-regulate their learning. Talk underpins the delivery of the PSHE curriculum made visible through the use of the oracy framework and Votes for Schools providing a platform for personal autonomy through meaningful debate linked to social action. 

RESILIENCE

Across the curriculum students are given opportunities to apply and practise their new knowledge, and to make errors to allow them to learn from their mistakes. Common misconceptions are addressed within schemes of learning to support staff in planning to model how to work through these.  The use of live feedback across the curriculum supports students receiving immediate feedback to correct misconceptions and to make improvements on their work. Peer and self-assessment is used to develop opportunities for students to review their own and each other’s work, offer constructive feedback to learn how to support each other and learn how important to respond to feedback and not be fearful of mistakes. 

CREATIVITY 

The curriculum is planned to develop students’ creativity. Through the use of learning partners they have opportunities to develop their skills at working through problems in lessons together. The use of big questions within the lesson delivery supports students to think critically and creatively about how their learning applies to the wider world. This develops their confidence in thinking about the possibilities for their future progression. 


COLLABORATION 

Students are given opportunities across the curriculum to develop the skills of working with others. This is pushed through our drive for oracy, where students are explicitly taught how to use professional talk both within the core curriculum and through wider curriculum opportunities. These opportunities are identified across the curriculum and within scheme of learning planning and are assessed against the criteria for effective oracy.  

Specialist Intervention Curriculum – THE HUB

 A specialised pathway to support the removal of  barriers to learning

 

“Our mission is to provide first-rate guidance and support to our students by taking into account their individual needs  to understand what they need in order to reach their potential”


The Aims of the Hub

The Hub is designed to support in removing barriers to learning by providing an opportunity for individual, diagnostic and therapeutic work to identify strategies which advise reasonable adjustments for quality first teaching. This involves working effectively with individual students who are experiencing significant difficulties, their parents/carers, school staff as well as external agencies in order to identify and overcome the barriers preventing their learning. In turn, we aim to offer appropriate support to assist them in achieving their effective reintegration back into a learning environment. 

We aim to challenge students to develop essential behaviour for learning skills, to develop self-belief, improve self-esteem and to re-engage with learning in mainstream lessons in the Academy. We also work to increase the students’ responsibility through target setting, self-reflection, monitoring and evaluation. 

We ensure that young people can have an opportunity to gain access to an appropriate curriculum, adapted to meet their individual needs and differences by means of a detailed assessment of their learning, social and emotional needs. The welcoming environment aims to help provide positive messages about self-respect and achievement. 


Support Provided


For further detailed information regarding our Hub Curriculum please refer to our curriculum policy found here.

The Hub New to English Curriculum 

On entry to the Academy, if it has been identified that a pupil is new to the English Language, such that they would struggle to access instructions given in a mainstream classroom or around the school, the following model is implemented at KS3. This would be followed until a student has a level of English that allows them to safely understand instructions required to travel around the Academy, understand essential classroom commands and communicate at a level that they can access differentiated work in English. At KS4, as above, however, pupils will follow ESOL entry courses which enable pupils to read and write a variety of formal and informal texts. Pupils will also be able to get information from different texts and pictures. Pupils will practise writing in the present and past tense, use conjunctions and adjectives as well as improve punctuation and spelling. (see sample curriculum guides below)

EAL intervention at the Academy covers a variety of skills-based learning across various subjects.  Pupils learn not only to improve their overall English language skills, but also how to extract information, identify key points and bond with other pupils who have a shared experience of being new to the UK; in some cases new to education.  

As pupils’ progress in their English language acquisition, they graduate out of their provision. Currently we have tired provision; the aim is for all puipls to ‘graduate’ from EAL intervention programmes into mainstream lessons.  Using the EAL code set as a functional guide, pupils who are A and B learners receive intervention in the form of withdrawal support. 

EAL Induction Intervention Programme

Offsite Alternative Curriculum Interventions 

A small number of our highest-need students access offsite alternative education providers through a range of Enfield and Haringey providers including:

We have a designated careers lead who works collaboratively with all our providers to ensure the courses studied suits the needs of the specific student, who ensures daily communication happens to monitor their attendance and meets regularly with them to monitor their progress on the courses they attend. All providers have all relevant DBS checks.