Curriculum overview

At Ark Brunel we believe that:

• Children will thrive if they are effective communicators
• Children will thrive if they have solid foundations in English and maths
• Children will thrive if they can draw on a rich range of experiences

The Ark Brunel Curriculum is firmly rooted in Ark’s six pillars.
 
We set high expectations for all our pupils, and we do whatever it takes to meet them. Every hour of every day is devoted to children learning, with no wasted time. Our aspirations are no lower for our most vulnerable pupils. We strive for excellent teaching, because a great teacher affects a pupil's achievement more than any other factor.
 
In order to nurture a love of reading and develop fluent communication skills, we dedicate additional time to oracy, literacy and English. When children build firm foundations in English and maths, they find it easier to do well in other subjects too. That's why we prioritise depth in these subjects, giving our pupils the best chance of success.

We have designed our curriculum around the rigour and challenge of the Ark Base Curriculum with the addition of rich experiences and local knowledge. Importantly for us, the whole community plays a key role in defining what an Ark Brunel child looks like. By the time our children leave us, aged 11, they will have a deep understanding of their local area and how it connects them to London, the UK and the world beyond. They will understand what it feels like to try something new, and actively seek new opportunities, and they will take their love of success with them as they move on to secondary and further education. 
 
We also recognise that children do best when families and schools work together. We aim to keep parents well informed about children's targets, and we involve families in all aspects of school life.

At Brunel, we believe that effective assessment provides useful information to improve teaching and learning. Our rigorous progress and target setting model supports this. We provide children with regular feedback on their learning so that they understand what they need to do better. This allows us to base our lesson plans on a detailed knowledge of each pupil. We also give parents/carers regular reports on their child’s progress, as well as hold parent conference weeks, so that teachers, children and parents/carers are all working together to raise standards for all our children.

The aims and objectives of assessment in our academy are:

• To enable our children to demonstrate what they know, understand and can do in their learning
• To help our children understand what they need to do next to improve their learning
• To allow teachers to plan learning that accurately reflects the needs of each child
• To provide regular information for parents/carers that enables them to support their child’s learning
• To provide the Headteacher and governors with information that allows them to make judgements about the effectiveness of the academy
• To help us to plan highly effective learning opportunities