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Our Curriculum Philosophy

To create:

• successful learners who enjoy learning, who aspire and achieve
• individuals who are confident, resilient and live safe, healthy and fulfilled lives
• young adults who make a positive contribution to our society

Our Curriculum Intent Statement

At Atam Academy our curriculum has been carefully thought out and designed to:

• create an aspirational culture
• recognise our pupil’s prior learning
• provide creative and joyous learning experiences
• allow the pupils to develop knowledge and skills
• build our pupils’ resilience
• develop pupils’ interpersonal skills;
• enhance our coherent British Sikh values based learning culture;
• ensure pupils become critical thinkers
• allow everyone to experience success
• raise standards of attainment

Curriculum Principles

Every pupil is recognised as a unique individual. We celebrate and welcome differences within our school community. The ability to learn is underpinned by the teaching of basic skills, knowledge, concepts and values. We constantly provide opportunities to engage learning and believe that school should be a happy, investigative and enquiring time in our pupil’s lives where there are no limits to curiosity and there is a thirst for new experiences and knowledge.  We promote positive attitudes to learning which reflect the values and skills needed to guarantee one’s responsibility for learning and one’s future success. 

Community involvement is an essential part of our curriculum as we celebrate local and national traditions, learning new skills to enable the pupils to take an active role in local, national and global events throughout the year. 

Pupils continue their learning journey to our Secondary phase, with a sense of belonging to a tightly knit community where they have the confidence and skills to make decisions, to self-reflect, to evaluate, to make connections and to understand that learning is a gift for life.

Curriculum Implementation

The National Curriculum

The National Curriculum sets out what children should know, understand and do in each year group in the following subjects: English, Maths, Science, Computing, Design Technology, History, Geography, Music, Art, Physical Education, Personal, Social and Health Education. 

Please click HERE to read a copy of the National Primary Curriculum 2014

What is the Cornerstones Curriculum?

We follow the Cornerstones Curriculum to make cross curricular links.

The Cornerstones Curriculum is a creative and thematic approach to learning that is mapped to the new 2014 Primary National Curriculum to ensure comprehensive coverage of national expectations. Our new curriculum will be delivered through Imaginative Learning Projects (ILPs) which will provide a rich menu of exciting and motivating learning activities that make creative links between all aspects of our children’s learning. 

We believe children learn better when they are encouraged to use their imagination and apply their learning to engaging contexts. Our new curriculum will provide lots of learning challenges throughout the academic year that will require children to solve problems, apply themselves creatively and express their knowledge and understanding effectively across the curriculum.

Cornerstones also provide a rigorous essential skills framework that outlines the end of year expectations in all subjects. These essential skills are tied to activities and are age related so that staff can track children’s progress and identify their individual learning needs.

How it Works?

We believe that a successful curriculum is brought to life by high quality teaching, inspirational learning activities and opportunities to listen and plan for the developing interests and motivations of children.

Children will progress through four stages of learning in each ILP – Engage, Develop, Innovate and Express.

Children will be working on 2 learning projects each term which will develop skills and knowledge in a creative way.

Children will progress through four stages of learning in each ILP – Engage, Develop, Innovate and Express.

At the ‘Engage’ stage, children:

• gain memorable first-hand experiences, such as going on a visit or inviting a special visitor into school
• enjoy ‘WOW’ experiences
• get an exciting introduction to a topic or theme
• begin researching and setting enquiry questions
• get lots of opportunities to make observations
• develop spoken language skills
• take part in sensory activities
• have lots of fun to fully ‘engage’ with their new topic.

At the ‘Develop’ stage, children:

• improve their knowledge and understanding of the topic
• develop and practice their new skills
• compose, make, do, build, investigate, explore, write for different purposes and read across the curriculum
• research their own questions and those set by others
• follow new pathways of enquiry based on their interests
• complete homework activities that support their learning.

At the ‘Innovate’ stage, children:

• apply skills, knowledge and understanding in real-life contexts
• solve real or imagined problems using everything they’ve learnt
• get inspired by imaginative and creative opportunities
• re-visit anything not fully grasped at the ‘Develop’ stage.

At the ‘Express’ stage, children:

• become the performers, experts and informers
• share their achievements with parents, classmates and the community
• evaluate finished products and processes
• link what they have learnt to where they started
• celebrate their achievements!

Click here to see the Cornerstones annual curriculum map for each year group.

Nursery     Reception      Year 1        Year 2      Year 3     Year 4     Year 5      Year 6

To find out more about the learning stages please click on the link through to Cornerstones website:

TEACHING PHONICS

We use a range of approaches to ensure that all our children become confident and enthusiastic readers. One approach is through the teaching of phonics. Teachers follow the 'Letters and Sounds' scheme of work to teach phonics supported by 'Phonics Bug' resources in the classroom. All children in Year 1 take a Phonics Screening Test each June to check upon their standard of their phonics knowledge.

Information about Letters and Sounds can be found here.

Information on the Year 1 Phonics Screening can be found here.

How will the school know if my child needs additional help?