Our Curriculum Vision

At Danesholme Infant Academy we seek the highest standards of attainment for all our children. We aim to help our children to become independent learners. Above all, we believe learning should be engaging, motivating and immersive. We aim to provide all pupils with a stimulating and inclusive environment in which all children feel safe, respected, and supported to grow and to develop to their full potential. Our curriculum is knowledge-rich, ambitious and provides all pupils, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds and those on the SEND register, with the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. Ensuring there are equal opportunities for all in line with the Equality Act and SEND Regulations.

We believe that learning is a shared commitment that involves children, parents and staff to ensure our children are given the best possible learning opportunities.

Our thematic approach allows children to access our broad and balanced curriculum with a strong emphasis on experiential learning. Children are given opportunities to access a vocabulary rich environment. We use a variety of stimulus including artefacts, pictures/photos, video clips, visitors and visits. Our aim to ensure children achieve high standards in the core subjects whilst having the opportunity to learn life skills through developing confidence and independence through Skills Builder.

Our Curriculum Intent -

(developed by all members of the Academy community (Children, Parents, MDSA's, Office staff, teaching assistants and teachers)

We DEVELOP our children by:

• Promoting independent skills (social, emotional, resilience, stamina) considering the whole child.
• Having high expectations for all children to be their personal best.
• Providing a nurturing, safe, secure environment to deliver an engaging, immersive, inspirational curriculum through creative planning.

We INSPIRE our children by:

•  Providing experiences they may not otherwise access.
•  Being positive role models and demonstrating a ‘can do’ attitude to learning.
• Providing memorable and exciting experiences through a thematic approach to learning.

We aim for our children to ACHIEVE:

•  Their individual potential whilst experiencing success and meeting their personal goals.
• Self motivation with a positive mindset with a love of learning.
• Being active members of their community with a toolbox of life skills that prepare them for the future.

We have long term plans which outline key topics that will be taught over the year.

The curriculum entitlement supports the development of individual essential skills for life through the skills builder aspects of:

Our Curriculum Implementation:

At Danesholme Infant Academy teaching and learning is planned using assessment for learning. This personalised approach expects all children to reach or exceed national expectations, to achieve in all areas of development and to be able to generalise their learning to new situations. High expectations of progress apply equally to children working above, at, or below age-related expectations, including those who have been identified as having special educational needs. All children are entitled to participate, fulfil targets and succeed; and teaching and learning is characterised by ambitious objectives, challenging personal targets, rapid intervention to keep pupils on trajectory and rigorous assessment to check and maintain pupil progress. There are clear plans to support those who are struggling to maintain trajectory. The teacher’s priority is to support children so that they can keep up with the pace of learning and make good rates of progress. The effective teaching practices at Danesholme Infant Academy see teachers expecting everyone to succeed by offering higher levels of support or extra challenge for those who need it, so that all pupils can access the learning at the expected year group standard.

Key Foci for Effective Teaching:

1. Quality first teaching

- Highly focused lesson design with sharp objectives;

- High demands of child engagement with their learning;

- High levels of interaction for all children;

- Appropriate use of teacher questioning, modelling and explaining;

- Emphasis on learning through dialogue;

- An expectation that children will develop resilience and accept responsibility for their own learning and work independently;

- Regular use of encouragement and praise to motivate children.

2. Target setting

- Individual children’s progress tracked;

- Strengths and weaknesses identified supporting planning and intervention

- Data collected on a regular basis and shared with staff and children;

- Children have regular opportunities to discuss their progress. Teachers actively involve children in setting and reviewing their progress towards their targets;

- Teaching, interventions and revision programmes are adjusted in the light of progress children make;

- Parents and carers are regularly updated on their child’s progress;

- Processes run across the whole academy to ensure consistency and are regularly evaluated to ensure that the needs of all children are being met.

3. Focussed assessment

- Rigorous assessment and tracking of children’s performance takes place to inform classroom practice allowing children to make good progress and close attainment gaps;

- Assessment for Learning (AfL) evident across the academy

4. Intervention

- Individuals and groups who are not making sufficient progress are identified;

- Provision for intervention is mapped according to need;

- Learners are enabled to perform beyond the norms expected for their year group where appropriate;

- Interventions are evaluated and relevant adjustments are made;

- Teaching staff regularly meet to discuss current and future interventions engaging in dialogue around the impact of interventions, potential barriers and further actions required.

5. Learning environment

- Organisation of the classroom/learning environment adapted to the children’s learning needs;

- The use of learning resources and ICT developed to allow children to work independently and successfully;

- Make effective use of other spaces – outdoor learning areas, work spaces and the hall;

- Displays to be a mixture of celebration of children’s work, supportive resources and information.

6. Curriculum organisation

- The curriculum is designed to cater for the needs and interests of a full range of learners including: Gifted and talented, Learners with learning difficulties, including those with speech, language and communication needs, Learners who are learning English as an additional language, Boys and girls, Children who are in care, Learners with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.

- Flexibility is built into the curriculum organisation and delivery to ensure greater coherence from the children’s perspectives.

7. Extended curriculum

- Danesholme Infant Academy offers after school and lunchtime clubs which enhance and extend the basic curriculum;

- We ensure access for all;

- We encourage and invite parents and carers, as well as the wider community, to be involved in extended provision;

8. Supporting children’s wider needs

- Danesholme Infant Academy maintains close communication with parents and carers;

- We develop and maintain multi agency links to support vulnerable children;

- Employ pastoral support staff as a first point of contact for parents and carers.

Effective Learning

We acknowledge that people learn in different ways and we recognise the need to develop pedagogies which enable all children to learn in ways which suit them.

We offer ways for children to learn in different ways including:

• Investigation and problem-solving;
• Open-ended tasks;

• Reasoning;
• Research and finding out, with independent access to a range of resources;
• Group work, paired work and independent work;
• Effective questioning;
• Presentation and drama;
• Use of ICT;
• Visitors and educational visits;
• Creative activities, designing and making;
• Use of multimedia, visual or aural stimulus;
• Participation in physical or athletic activity;
• Homework;
• Extracurricular clubs and activities.

Termly Information Sheets (Click Here)

These information sheets have been prepared by teachers to support your child with their learning each term. They will include subject specific language and vocabulary from Tier 1 to 3 across the different curriculum areas. Key texts that you can enjoy together at home and a list of spellings are included, with some ideas for home learning. 

Phonics and Spelling

At the Danesholme Infant Academy we use the principles of synthetic phonics, using Read, Write, Inc as our approach to teaching Phonics. Read Write Inc. Phonics is a fast-paced, rigorous and structured phonics programme developed by Ruth Miskin which helps get every child reading fast and gives teachers the confidence and skills to deliver high-quality teaching every day.

Reading

We value the importance of reading as a skill for life. Children take part in reading activities each day, either through one to one reading with an adult, group reading, guided reading or reading for pleasure. Children have access to a range of decodable fiction and non-fiction texts that are matched to their personal sound awareness.

Children are encouraged to develop a love for books and reading through individual, guided and shared reading. Our long term topics also have key texts, which inspire the childrens' work. Children take a reading book home each day and are encouraged to read and discuss books at home with their family.