At Abbots Hall, we designed our own curriculum to ensure that children have a positive sense of self-identity, are able to relate and interact well with others and have the skills and talents for now, for the future and to make the world an even better place.

We have a growth mind-set to our own learning as educators so that we can model this for our pupils. We integrate research and theory into our practice in a quick and efficient manner so that we can maximise the positive impact on outcomes for our pupils.

The whole academy community plays an enormous part in reviewing the curriculum. There is a highly cohesive team ethos and we work together to identify areas for improvement and to problem solve and find solutions quickly. We work in an agile manner to address any school improvement points as urgently as possible.

Our aims:

• Provide equal opportunities for all children, regardless of their background and starting points, to gain knowledge, skills and character and make significant progress across the range of concepts taught in the School Curriculum.
• Encourage children to develop a sense of personal growth through character development, enabling them to become global citizens and socially responsible. They will develop key characteristics through the celebration of our values.
• Develop children’s application of knowledge through carefully planned, high-quality questioning and activities where a wide range of thinking skills are required. These skills are accessed by the Abbots Hall ‘Thinking Skills’.
• Prepare children for their own unique journey by encouraging them, through the curriculum, to become reflective, effective learners.

How do we implement this?

We know that children learn better when they are excited and engaged. At the Abbots Hall, we are constantly looking to provide stimulating and motivating learning opportunities which not only challenge our pupils but also inspire them to continue their learning beyond the classroom.

We also recognise that great learning needs to be the right balance in lots of areas and if there is too greater focus on one aspect, learning can be limited. It is for this reason that we have carefully designed our curriculum around four key areas: Character, Knowledge, Skills and Meta-Learning (or learning how to learn).

More information on what children learn in each subject and year group can be found on our Curriculum document.

Teaching children to read
At Abbots Hall we use the Little Wandles Letter and Sounds Revised programme. Children in Reception and year 1 receive daily whole class phonics teaching. The children also receive Little Wandle reading fluency sessions in Reception and Key stage 1. More information on the Little Wandles programme can be found below, along with a guide for parents about home reading books. For more information on the books children bring home to read, please visit the 'Homework' section under the 'Children' tab.