Implementation

Embracing a personalised learning agenda, our curriculum design meets our students’ needs and promotes lifelong learning. Students are allocated to one of four Personalised Learning Curriculum Pathways each following a varying route and ensuring access to a broad and balanced personalised curriculum. Student’s needs are constantly reviewed and these pathways can and do change in response to student needs either through our regular pathway reviews or whenever it is deemed to be in the best interests of the student so that they experience a curriculum which is as bespoke and personalised as possible.

We constantly review our curriculum to ensure it meets the needs of our current and future students as well as our community. This is through a detailed annual curriculum review which takes views of staff, students, parents, governors, primary schools and Post-16 providers on board. At the end of each year all students also complete a MyPRIDE questionnaire which helps to identify any prevalent social attitudes and issues that may need addressing through PRIDE (PSHE) the following academic year.

Across both KS3 and KS4, students follow a carefully planned, aspirational and sequenced journey which continually builds on prior learning and is designed to prepare the students for the rigours of national curriculum reform, providing an accumulation of fundamental knowledge, skills and effective communication strategies that prepare them for life Post-16 beyond Acklam Grange. Regular opportunities are taken for distributed retrieval practise, including low-stakes quizzing, making links between new content and that which has already been encoded into long term memory. This is underpinned by our AGS Success strategy which ensures that the science of learning informs teacher delivery and independent study.

Flexibility in curriculum delivery allows for responsive teaching, resulting from a clear understanding of what makes effective formative and summative assessment strategies which identify key misconceptions, gaps in knowledge and provides clear and purposeful feedback. Opportunities exist for students to receive direct teacher instruction and explore subject matter via discussion with peers and independent learning.

High-quality first teaching at AGS centres on 8 effective learning routines which draw from Rosenshine’s principles of instruction:

Establish a purposeful learning environment
Establish the purpose of the learning
Activate prior learning
Utilise direct explicit instruction
Model the application of core knowledge and skills
Question to check understanding
Provide opportunity for independent practice
Provide effective feedback

These 8 daily routines underpin 6 principles for an academic curriculum designed to challenge all of our students to think hard, know more, communicate effectively and maximise opportunities outside of the classroom.

The explicit teaching of reading and vocabulary is prioritised across the curriculum and key skills are taught explicitly in all subject areas to allow students to access the full curriculum offer. Through our Read to Succeed Programme students are encouraged to independently read a range of literature. Our tutor reading programme alongside a rigorous focus on using knowledge and culturally rich texts develops students’ fluency, confidence, and enjoyment in reading. An explicit focus on using oracy effectively in the classroom to develop talk for learning and as an integral part of the PRIDE curriculum through AGS Enquire, ensures that students develop the necessary communication skills to enable them to articulate their viewpoint effectively