Curriculum Rationale 2020

CURRICULUM RATIONALE – HAVEN HIGH ACADEMY 2020-21

CURRICULUM RATIONALE

Our curriculum intent at Haven High Academy is to ensure that

all pupils have the opportunity to learn and succeed within a

broad, balanced and ambitious curriculum that focuses on the

knowledge necessary to broaden their horizons. The knowledge

and understanding developed, along with the qualifications they

achieve, will lay the foundations for lifelong learning and enable

them to be successful citizens of the future.

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1 Our Context

Our vision is to provide a world class education for all students to enable them to reach their true potential

in a safe and supported environment. They will graduate from Haven High Academy with the skills

required to ensure they are successful citizens of the future.

We are an academy in transition, many improvements, particularly to culture have been delivered. Ofsted

noted in their report of January 2019 “... about considerable improvements in a very short space of time,

…. transformed the culture into one of aspiration and belief. Improvements to leadership and the quality

of teaching are leading to students making better progress than in the past”.

Our results at GCSE have shown a significant improvement but there is still more to be achieved in

relation to building resilience and personal development. We plan to be an established “GOOD” by the

end of the 20/21 academic year.

Haven High is growing as a community with 25% of our academy population in year 7 and over 1300

students across 11-16. We are a Secondary Modern School in a selective system and as such there are two

Grammar schools in the town. We serve some of the most deprived wards in Lincolnshire and know how

important education and knowledge will be to our students in their future. 34% of our students are

Student Premium. (PP) 23% Free School Meals (FSM), 21% are on the SEN register and 41% of our

students have English as a Second Language (EAL). Our current year 11, 200 out of 230 students have

KS2 data of which 23% H, 44%M and 33% L.

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2 Haven High Academy

In May 2019, after completing a significant amount of research and pilots, Ofsted issued their new School

Inspection Handbook. Inspectors make judgement on four key areas, including the quality of education.

In order to arrive at this judgement, they consider the intent of the school curriculum – which Ofsted

defines as the substance of what is taught with a specific plan of what students need to know in total and

in each subject.

Haven High has always offered its students a broad and balanced curriculum that includes academic or

vocational routes or a combination of the two. The new framework has not only allowed us to focus more

on our student’s specific needs but also the community we serve. Haven High has spent a lot of time

reviewing its curriculum and firmly believe that it is able to offer individual subject choices that suit the

needs of every student. The curriculum is delivered through high quality teaching in a well-behaved

environment which creates a positive learn environment allowing all students to reach their potential.

2.1 Haven High Curriculum Intent

Our curriculum intent at Haven High Academy is to ensure that all pupils have the opportunity to learn

and succeed within a broad, balanced and ambitious curriculum that focuses on the knowledge necessary

to broaden their horizons. The knowledge and understanding developed, along with the qualifications

they achieve, will lay the foundations for lifelong learning and enable them to be successful citizens of

the future.

.2.3 Curriculum Foundations

These foundations support our vision to provide a world class education for all our students.

Positive Learning Environments: All classrooms have a calm, purposeful and productive environment

creating classrooms were students can answer questions without fear of getting answers incorrect.

Quality First Teaching: Teachers are subject experts with a passion and understanding of their subject

area which alongside their teaching skill is used to create the positive learning environments that engages

students.

Knowledge Rich Curriculum: Subject specialists are clear on the powerful knowledge they want the

students to know and the curriculum designed to help students remember what they are taught.

Raising Aspirations: Students understand the importance of education and how this will help them

achieve throughout their life, giving them clear guidance throughout.

Successful Citizens: Students develop their academic capabilities throughout their learning journey as

they also become more thoughtful, confident and inquisitive citizens that will allow them to make

reflective choices.

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2.2 Haven High Curriculum Intent

Broad and Balanced Curriculum: This is done through the knowledge provided in all the subjects they

partake in and how subjects interleave with each other. We are particularly conscious of the role that

reading, and vocabulary plays in unlocking the whole curriculum. The aim of a curriculum that is full of

powerful knowledge, is to create socially mobile young people by giving them opportunities to pursue

careers they are passionate about.

Assessment: Common assessments in most subjects are taken by students year on year ensure a

consistent approach. These are high quality summative assessments which allow students to demonstrate

their growing understanding of their subjects and teachers to assess the impact of their teaching. These

summative assessments are typically taken two or three times a year.

Our formative assessments are designed to support students in achieving fluency in each subject. This

means that in lessons students are quizzed on prior knowledge in order to embed this knowledge in their

long-term memory. This frees up their working memory to attend to current learning. Knowledge

organisers provide students with key information in each subject, enabling them to develop their

understanding of key concepts outside of their lessons.

Transition: From day one we want our students to be working at the same level or higher than they were

doing at the end of year 6; we want to avoid any transitional dip in their knowledge. This is achieved

through positive dialogue with our primary partners and working with them in the development of both

our curriculums. We want our students to be successful when they leave Haven High. Students are given

the opportunity to develop their career thinking and to acquire important career management and

employability skills.

Reading: We recognise that the academic success of our students is dependent on them being fluent and

proficient readers. To encourage all students to read widely, once a week all members of the Academy

partake in our Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) initiative, allowing students to engage in their own

reading whilst demonstrating reading as a lifelong occupation of the teachers. Our World Book Day

celebrations create an immersive reading experience involving local bookshops and Boston library, and

our students are issued a Rooted in Reading passport to track their personal reading and encourage them

to extend the range of texts they encounter. We recognise that reading for pleasure is one of the greatest

determining factors of academic success and therefore encourage students to read for 20 minutes per

night.

Wider Curriculum: Our students experience a rich and varied curriculum which is not just based in the

classroom and contributes towards them developing important 'skills for life' such as self-awareness,

compassion, teamwork, personal organisation and leadership. This is achieved through an extensive menu

of extra-curricular clubs and many learning experiences outside of the classroom including trips, concerts,

performances and awards evenings to develop their cultural capital.

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3 Broad and Balanced

3.1 Broad and Balanced Curriculum – Curriculum Intent Statement

This is done through the knowledge provided in all the subjects they partake in and how subjects

interleave with each other. We are particularly conscious of the role that literacy and vocabulary plays in

unlocking the whole curriculum. A curriculum that is full of powerful knowledge aims to create socially

mobile young people by giving them opportunities to pursue careers they are passionate about.

3.2 Balanced

Students build knowledge of the key learning within a subject in a coherent and carefully sequenced way

to develop a mental model towards expertise. We have a five year curriculum. In years 7&8 the National

Curriculum is covered in all subjects. In year 9 we have a bridging year in which students can choose 3

subjects they would like to study and time is provided so they can build on the required skills needed for

GCSE. Additionally, they all also experience a program of study that includes History, Geography, RE,

PHSE, a conversational MFL and ICT skills.

3.3 Broad

In years 7&8 students are provided with a curriculum that covers all elements of the National Curriculum

whilst also including issues pertinent to the local community. The knowledge learnt is then used to feed

into years 9-11 with all subjects providing clear ‘roadmaps’ to plan out the learning journey. Students are

offered a greater mixture of practical and academic subjects from all areas of the curriculum in KS4. Within

the choice subjects, the academy offers a range of different accreditation routes including academic and

vocational options. This gives every student a broad and balanced curriculum, but still offers a flexibility

to maximise the outcomes achieved by everyone. This model also maintains the widest possible choice for

progression routes Post 16 as every student will have a greater range of subjects from which to choose

future opportunities for education and training.

3.4 Entitlement

Students at Haven High Academy are entitled to a broad, balanced, challenging, differentiated and

relevant curriculum which promotes their intellectual, physical, personal, social and emotional

development.

• The curriculum will be supported by a comprehensive system of pastoral care and makes use of

Information & Communication Technology (ICT).

• A broad curriculum introduces students to a wide range of knowledge, understanding and skills.

• A balanced curriculum allows each part to be allocated sufficient time to make significant

contribution to the overall learning journey.

• A challenging curriculum stretches our students according to their individual abilities and in turn

improves their knowledge.

• A differentiated curriculum matches what is taught and how it is taught to students in order to

match abilities and aptitudes.

• Haven High also offers its students a range of specialist learning periods that are designed to

develop essential skills they will need throughout their lifetime.

• A relevant curriculum ensures that subjects are taught so as to bring out their applications to

students’ own experience and to adult life, and to give due emphasis to practical aspects.

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4 Mastery

4.1 Mastery – Curriculum Intent Statement

Students develop a breadth of knowledge and skills which will enable them to fulfil their potential and

prepare them for life after they leave school. The curriculum in years 7&8 allows students time to build

knowledge in broad range of subjects. We then have a bridging year in which our students are provided

with further knowledge and skills they need to move forward when they begin to study their chosen

GCSE subjects in year 10.

4.2 Why Mastery?

‘Learning builds on learning’. (Hirsh, 1996). The more a person knows, the more they can learn. Hirsh

describes existing knowledge as ‘mental Velcro’, as additional knowledge will stick to it.

It is much easier to understand things if they are meaningful for us. For them to be meaningful they need

to fit into an existing frame of reference – a mental model. A mental model refers to what the students

know and how the knowledge is organised to guide perception, decision and action. (Schempp, 2002).

We want our students to be able to recall and use existing knowledge. This is because we learn by

building on what we already know. Students need to be taught, ‘in ways they build on existing mental

models gradually and incrementally.’ (Mccrae, 2018). This is then a skill they can take beyond their time

and school and into adult life. Mastery is about becoming more expert, not about ‘mastering’ things.

(McCourt, 2019). We want to create lifelong learners who understand the importance of constantly

learning in an ever-changing world.

Factual and procedural knowledge are moved to long-term memory. This helps free up space in the

students working memory meaning that they can use it to process new information.

4.3 Subject Expertise

Subject expertise is a key element of mastery and at Haven High Academy all teachers are subject

specialist in the areas they teach. Faculties are given the time to carefully sequence their schemes of

learning and plan accordingly. Low stakes testing is used so that factual and procedural knowledge are

moved to long-term memory. ‘As we use our memories, the things we recall become more memorable’

(Bjork, 2006)

4.4 Resilience

In order to master elements, it is important that we also develop the resilience of our students. It is

important that for an environment to facilitate resilience it needs to be both high in challenge and support.

Too much challenge and no support will result in excessive stress, burnout and isolation. Too much

support but not enough challenge can lead to complacency and boredom. All students can achieve well

given the right conditions. (Carroll, 1963).

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5 Knowledge

5.1 Knowledge Rich – Curriculum Intent Statement

Subject experts are clear in the invaluable knowledge they want their students to know. One way in which

Haven High achieves this each subject provides every student with a knowledge organiser. Knowledge

Organisers are used encourage the development of long-term memory through encouraging home

learning and low stakes testing in the classroom. Knowledge is the powerful factor that empowers our

students and gives them the opportunities to pursue careers they are passionate about.

5.2 Knowledge Matters

Without knowledge there can be no higher order skills and knowledge is information that is held in long

term memory. Therefore, the more we know the better we can think and the better we think the more we

can know.

Knowledge is information that exists in the mind in long-term memory. Knowledge allows us to develop

our mental models (which are what we know and how that knowledge is organised to guide perception,

decision and action). To be confident, articulate and culturally aware – in line with our mission, students

need to ‘become initiated into the common language, whether they were born into it,’ (Hirsh, 2016)

meaning not just the literal use of the words themselves but a deep understanding of the meaning of the

words and their context – something that comes through the process of mastery to increase expertise.

5.3 Powerful Knowledge

Michael Young defines knowledge as powerful, ‘if it predicts, if it explains, if it enables you to envisage

alternatives.’ (Young, 2014)

There are three criteria for powerful knowledge (Burns, 2018):

• • It is distinct from the ‘common sense’ knowledge we acquire through everyday life – schools.

• • It is systematic (the concepts of powerful knowledge as systematically related to each other in

subject disciplines).

• • It is specialised as part of a subject discipline.

Powerful knowledge is specialised knowledge that gives students the ability to think about, and do things,

that otherwise they couldn’t. Young calls this powerful knowledge, not because it exerts ‘power over’

students, but because it gives ‘power to’ students. Powerful knowledge takes students beyond their

everyday experiences by giving them access to knowledge from the academic disciplines such as biology,

chemistry and history. It is also knowledge from different experiences they may encounter throughout

their time at Haven High and is another reason why feel cultural capital is important for our students.

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6 Assessment

6.1 Assessment – Curriculum Intent Statement

Common assessments in most subjects which are taken by students year on year ensure a consistent

approach. These are high quality summative assessments which allow students to demonstrate their

growing understanding of their subjects and teachers to assess the impact of their teaching. These

summative assessments are typically taken two or three times a year. Our formative assessments are

designed to support students in achieving fluency in each subject. This means that in lessons students are

quizzed on prior knowledge in order to embed this knowledge in their long-term memory. This frees up

their working memory to attend to current learning. Knowledge organisers provide students with key

information in each subject, enabling them to develop their understanding of key concepts outside of their

lessons.

6.2 Summative Assessment

Students are given grades produced through their summative assessments and are used so there is

commonality that can be shared throughout facilities and whole academy. The assessments are reviewed

by students so they can highlight any gaps in their knowledge and allow the students time to reflect on

how they can close these gaps. The teachers will also use question level analysis to help highlight if

certain topics that may need to be revisited. All summative assessments include the knowledge the

students have learnt over a particular period but also work that would have been covered in previous

years.

6.3 Formative Assessment

The most important assessments happened during teaching, not after it. (Black and Wiliam, 1998). Dylan

Wiliam has suggested that ‘responsive teaching’ might have been a better term for Assessment for

Learning. Responsive teaching – or formative assessment – blends planning and teaching, based on an

understanding of how students learn from cognitive science, with formative assessment to identify what

students have learned and adapt accordingly. (Fletcher-Wood, 2018). It focuses on what students are

thinking and how we respond. (Coffey et al., 2011).

Continual checking of student understanding and addressing of misconceptions facilitates the

development of subject specific mental models. Responsive teaching is not giving a grade to students

based on a piece of work: it is giving feedback in the highest-leverage way possible to amend and

improve the students’ mental model. Formative assessment will not – and often should not – look like the

final summative assessment. You wouldn’t train for a marathon by trying to run 26.2 miles in every

training session. In the same way, you shouldn’t prepare for an exam by doing exam-style activities in

every lesson. (Christodoulou, 2017).

Checking for student understanding also helps to secure knowledge in the long-term memory. View the

core work of teaching as consolidating connections, not just forging them. (Mccrae, 2018). We use

regular low-stakes quizzes and opportunities for retrieval practice to help students transfer information

into their long-term memories.

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7 Transition

7.1 Transition – Curriculum Intent Statement

From day one we want our students to be working at the same level or higher than they were doing at the

end of year 6; we want to avoid any transitional dip in their knowledge. This is achieved through positive

dialogue with our primary partners and working with them in the development of both our curriculums.

We want our students to be successful when they leave Haven High. Students are given the opportunity to

develop their career thinking and to acquire important career management and employability skills.

7.2 KS2 to KS3

Our curriculum is designed with the work students undertake in KS2. All faculty leads work with our

primary partners along with other primary schools in the area. Teachers from our year 7 site will visit

primary schools and see what content is delivered and how it is delivered. It is important that we address

the issue of the year 7 dip or so called ‘lost years’. Projects are ongoing between us and primary schools

one example is a joint project in maths using the London Challenge model. In addition, our MFL,

Science, English and Humanities faculties are also working collaboratively with primary schools to help

ensure not just a smooth transition but maintain an academically rigorous curriculum. Term 6 in year 6

students are provided with a transition booklets to help them bridge the gap between primary and

secondary school. There are two booklets one is pastoral and contains information on the site, the staff

house system etc. The second more academic and consists of work the student can do in all subjects prior

to starting at Haven. Most primary schools in area use the booklet in term 6 and it is made available

regardless of attendance at Haven High. In addition, all year 6 students are given a reading book over the

summer which they are encouraged to read prior to starting in year 7.There is a SEND element of the

Academies transition process throughout, a member of the SEND team meets with colleagues from the

primary setting to discuss these students in depth and offer extended transitional visits as required so that

students can meet identified key members of staff, know where they need to be each day and who to go to

in times of crisis.

7.3 KS4 to KS5

As we do not have a sixth form it is important, we develop good working relationships with other schools

and FE providers. Our curriculum is designed to raise the aspirations of our students and let them feel

anything is possible. We have therefore established links with KS5 providers either academic or

vocational. The establishment of a Future Zone and the appointment of a Director of Aspiration has

provided the students with up to date in formation about future academic and vocational opportunities.

This has included work experiences in architecture, medicine, psychology to the University of London.

The Academy has been officially recognised for the impartial careers’ advice offered to all students

during all aspects of their education by gaining the prestigious Career Mark award. We also build good

relationships with our SEND professionals at other schools and FE providers. They are invited to the

Annual Review/SEND Transition meetings during Yr11 and extended transitional visits are available

when required.

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8 Reading

8.1 Reading – Curriculum Intent Statement

We recognise that the academic success of our students is dependent on them being fluent and proficient

readers. To encourage all students to read widely, once a week all members of the Academy partake in

our Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) initiative, allowing students to engage in their own reading

whilst demonstrating reading as a lifelong occupation of the teachers. Our World Book Day celebrations

create an immersive reading experience involving local bookshops and Boston library, and our students

are issued a Rooted in Reading passport to track their personal reading and encourage them to extend the

range of texts they encounter. We recognise that reading for pleasure is one of the greatest determining

factors of academic success and therefore encourage students to read for 20 minutes per night.

8.2 Reading

‘To read is to have access to the store of human knowledge. In reading we encounter not just knowledge,

but the mind that recorded it, with its experiences and biases, its insights and perceptions.’ (Murphy,

2014). Our students’ future should not be determined by their background – addressing gaps in students’

ability to read, ‘is the single most powerful, cost-effective contribution that education can make to

society.’ (Murphy and Murphy, 2018). Powerful knowledge is contained in books.

8.3 Vocabulary Instruction

We aim for our students to leave school with the widest possible vocabulary – as many as 50,000 words.

(Quigley, 2018). We build towards this by explicitly teaching subject-specific disciplinary words,

carefully selected by experts. This is built into our planning and builds coherently through our mastery

approach.

8.3 Transition

All students before they start in year 7 are given a reading book to read during the summer holidays. This

book is then used in some English class as a reference point when studying different texts. The scheme

has been so successful it is the intention for next year to do the same at the end of year 7 into year 8 too.

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9 Wider Curriculum

9.1 Wider Curriculum – Curriculum Intent Statement

Our students experience a rich and varied curriculum which is not just based in the classroom and

contributes towards them developing important 'skills for life' such as self-awareness, compassion,

teamwork, personal organisation and leadership. This is achieved through an extensive menu of extracurricular

clubs and many learning experiences outside of the classroom including trips, concerts,

performances and awards evenings.

9.2 Our Wider Curriculum

At Haven High we are proud of our extra curriculum offering and fully aware of its importance. Our

numerous clubs and activities include Electric Car Challenge, STEM, Chess Club, Sign Language Club,

Chess Club, Debating Club and Cheer Leading Club to name but a few. Haven has a very successful

Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme and we have just set up our Combined Cadet Force. We believe

passionately in the importance of competitive sport and have teams performing at local and regional

levels in most sports. We know the benefits the arts can offer our students and all students can take free

music lessons if they wish to do so. We are involved in joint art projects with local primary schools and

our Christmas production along with the Spring Arts Extravaganza are critically acclaimed and often

compared with professional productions.

The importance of developing our student’s knowledge by expanding their cultural capital is also key tour

curriculum. We run numerous trips to Universities, Museums, Theatre and residentials both at home and

abroad.

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