Our Curriculum

At Ashperton we aspire for each individual to enjoy being life-long, ambitious learners equipped with a curiosity and resilience to discover and work out future challenges. We aim to provide them with the necessary skills, knowledge and experiences for their life journey. We want our children to be mentally and physically confident about themselves and to be able to socialise with their peers and adults alike. We want our children to treat people and their environment with a kindness and honesty that shows respect to everyone. We actively promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance for others, such as those with different faiths and beliefs.

Our curriculum is largely underpinned by the Essentials Curriculum by Chris Quigley. The Essentials Curriculum sets out the essential coverage, learning objectives and standards for each subject. The curriculum is aligned to the National Curriculum endpoints. We have personalised our curriculum to ensure progression is still achieved within each subject but also that objectives are best matched to year groups and opportunities can be maximised. Using the Essential Curriculum, we have mapped the progression of key skills, knowledge and vocabulary for each subject. However, in the main, these subjects are taught through topic and therefore many cross curricular links are made. The expectation is that staff always share a clear explanation of key content, modelling correct vocabulary and knowledge. Each subject has a progression in vocabulary which is made explicit through teaching.  

In EYFS, we follow the early Years foundation stage curriculum however, all of our curriculum progression documents take into consideration EYFS.

In each curriculum area there is a focus on skills and knowledge. We achieve this by providing a highly enjoyable and creative curriculum where all children have fair access to a broad and balanced curriculum. Our children are encouraged to revisit and recall skills and knowledge in order that it is embedded in the long-term memory.

We use the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At Ashperton Primary Academy, these goals drive our curriculum intent, shaping our culture, curriculum and pedagogy. Our approach to developing a social action enables teachers and pupils to envision a better future for all through learning about SDGs.  

We are conscious that not all of our children have the same wealth of experiences and opportunities as each other. Therefore in addition to the well planned and comprehensive curriculum delivered by our teaching staff, our Tas, we also deliver the following learning experiences: Forest School to every year group; specialist sports coaching and sporting opportunities; music lessons; swimming IN KS1 and to all non-swimmers in KS2; each year group having at least 3, well-considered trips including a 5 day activity based residential, trip to London to explore our capital; opportunity to perform in all year groups; visitors to support learning topics; carefully chosen resources including vocabulary specific and rich texts; experiences within our beautiful environment including our newly acquired 7 acre field and a wide range of extracurricular activities that extend their opportunities. We have also established a system where each class celebrates work that has been going on in school through a class showcase but can also celebrate their learning. We have strong links with a school in Tanzania (Karanagai) who we are sharing a project “Zero Waste” with. We also aim to deliver multicultural events to the children termly. 

Behaviours and Values to help our Learning:

We facilitate our high levels of learning by fostering values of ambition, tolerance, respect, gratitude, perseverance, responsibility, caring, honesty, positivity, co-operation and happiness. We expect high levels of behaviour at APA and the values support us in reinforcing this. The values are also explored further in assemblies and through incidental opportunities. The School Council, consisting of pupils elected from each class, provides a forum for pupils to contribute to the decision making process in the school.

Aspects of PSHE and religious education, within the curriculum, provide pupils with opportunities to develop morally in a supportive atmosphere. Spiritual and moral themes are also explored in regular whole school and class assemblies. We teach our children to understand and respect all faiths and communities and appreciate that people live their life differently which aims to prepare them for life in Modern Britain. Within SMSC, we promote the fundamental “British Values” through class and whole school assemblies, school values, religious education, School Council, PSHE and through our Learning Journey. 

SEND and disadvantaged children 

Subject leaders and class teachers ensure that the curriculum is accessible to all including the most disadvantaged, more able and SEND. At Ashperton, we have high expectations for all of our children. Expectations are that all children access the curriculum through different levels of support and scaffolding. Ways in which we support SEND and most disadvantaged include: the use of amanuensis; giving extra time to complete tasks; use of one to one support; peer support; scaffolding in a variety of ways; knowledge organisers; links with parents (eg encouraging them to look at Knowledge Organisers with them, high frequency words to be practised; additional homework to support with gaps); pre reading, laptop use, use of interventions, repetition and revisiting skills in smaller groups; explaining in different ways with different vocabulary; working walls; resources; close the gap; questioning techniques that are inclusive for all and placing high expectations that all are engaged.