Curriculum Principles

1. We have high levels of ambition for all pupils

This means: 

• We have high expectations of the end points that pupils will reach:  we are unapologetically ambitious about what pupils will know and be able to do by the time they leave us. We provide a curriculum that allows pupils to gain the qualifications that enable choice and agency. We expect the best educational outcomes and strive to give pupils the knowledge, skills, habits of learning and intellectual resilience they need to continue to progress beyond our settings. 

• We have an equally ambitious curriculum offer for each and every child, regardless of their background, prior attainment or learning needs. We make decisions about what to teach driven by the principle of equity. Access to a high quality curriculum is an entitlement for all our pupils so we focus on ensuring accessibility, making necessary adjustments and adaptations to support this where needed. 

• We embrace academic rigour and high levels of challenge in our content choices. We are unashamedly committed to ensure that pupils have the opportunity to engage with challenging and interesting content at every stage and in every subject and that they do so with fidelity to the disciplinary rigour of each subject. We teach context in a deep and profound way. This may mean teaching less content - an ambitious curriculum, taught with rigour is more demanding, rightly so. Pace should not be privileged over security of content.

2. Access to a broad academic and extended curriculum is an entitlement

This means:

• We value the unique contribution made by each subject. AET pupils have the right to study every national curriculum subject and to benefit from the full breadth and depth contained within each discipline. We therefore ensure that the subject offer is broad and maintains breadth for as long as possible and that all key knowledge domains within each subject are taught.

• We ensure the curriculum is diverse and inclusive; we actively reflect realities and widen viewpoints. It is crucial both that the curriculum is relevant and inclusive to all our pupils and that it provides an opportunity to gain knowledge about people, places, cultures and ideas with which they are less familiar. We plan our curricula to have the necessary breadth and diversity to provide pupils with well-rounded knowledge that equips them to think and reflect critically. We will enable pupils to search for truth and through our curriculum share the voices that have not always been heard. 

• We develop pupils’ cultural capital and wider knowledge through rich experiences and encounters. We ensure that our academic curriculum includes opportunities and encounters that develop pupils’ character, self and pathways knowledge. We enhance this with a rich extended curriculum offer that enables all pupils to engage with wider subjects and areas of personal interest or talent.

3. We select and sequence curriculum content with intent and precision

This means:

• We focus on knowledge, prioritising the most fundamental, powerful and emancipatory. We believe that knowledge is the key to academic success and is the foundation on which broader skills can flourish. We deliberately select content because of the role it plays in unlocking the wider world and consider carefully the context of our schools when making these choices. Our curriculum should empower our pupils, enabling them to access influence and contribute to society, developing powerful knowledge and enabling agency.

• We respect the traditions and unique nature of subjects in our selection and sequencing of knowledge, connecting within and across disciplines. We believe that academic disciplines are fundamentally different so we adapt our approach across subjects to ensure our pupils can master the most critical knowledge in each. We use the wisdom and expertise of subject communities to help make and sequence content choices coherently. We pay attention to the weave of knowledge over time and across the whole curriculum so that pupils can make links between content seen in different contexts. 

• We carefully consider the purpose and contribution of each piece of knowledge in selecting and sequencing content. We invest in ensuring that every piece of content we choose plays a valuable role and has an important ultimate or proximal purpose. Content is sequenced with care and attention so that pupils encounter new knowledge when they are best equipped to remember and use it. We structure our curriculum to respond to the science of learning and memory so that pupils have opportunities to recall and retrieve knowledge that will enable them to build up their schemata efficiently. 

4. Teachers are the agents of curriculum implementation 

This mean:

• A curriculum can only be delivered effectively through great teaching. We rely on teachers to skilfully implement and adapt the curriculum - in every classroom, every day. An expert teacher who understands the curriculum and knows their pupils is best placed to make decisions about how best to deliver it in their classroom. We empower our teachers to make these decisions and commit to growing them as expert practitioners to do so.

• Our curriculum draws on and extends the collective expertise of our teachers.  Decisions about curriculum content, sequencing and structure are made collectively through our subject networks, informed by current research, expert practice and examples of excellence from across the education landscape. We know that when teachers are experts they have the necessary knowledge and skills to bring the curriculum alive - so we invest time in developing their subject knowledge, pedagogic expertise and curriculum understanding and we choose curriculum programmes which prioritise teacher development in their materials. 

• The curriculum is not static: it is always evolving. We continue to develop and improve our curriculum using feedback and insights from teachers. We respond to new research, programmes and contexts to make adjustments and changes that ensure continued excellence.