Leigh Academy Bearsted > PYP Curriculum Framework

Overview

A broad and balanced curriculum is at the heart of an aspirational and successful school. We shape our curriculum delivery through the framework of the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB PYP). As an authorised IB PYP school, our curriculum development, intentions and scope are derived from a shared international understanding and rooted in the philosophy and ethos of the International Baccalaureate. Our curriculum delivery drives pupils to become lifelong learners who seek knowledge, truth and an understanding of their global context; and who respect and care for the world they live in and all those who live in it.

An inquiring learner is also an effective thinker, communicator and risk-taker. Our learners, both adult and pupil alike, will have agency as critical thinkers and take action as creative thinkers. They will reflect upon their successes, circumstances and barriers, making adaptations and finding solutions through open-minded and honest learning dialogue and conversations. This communication approach is known as conferencing within our academy.

Collaboration is pivotal to all that shapes the academy as by working together, we will all achieve together. Through an alliance between all stakeholders of the academy, through mutual care and respect, we will create an environment which fosters and promotes the importance of a principled approach to learning and teaching and caring for each other.

IB World School …

Our curriculum covers all the requirements of the National Curriculum but is arranged around inquiries into six different Transdisciplinary Themes.

International Baccalaureate World School logo
Leigh Academy Bearsted is an IB World School, authorised to deliver the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme.
 
The  International Baccalaureate® aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.
 
To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.
 
These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.
Overview of the pyp framework
OUR PROGRAMMES OF INQUIRY CORE TEXT OVERVIEW
  • The Leigh Academy Bearsted curriculum is delivered within relevant and purposeful contexts, is built upon prior learning and is designed to be challenging, ambitious, interesting and motivational to all pupils and is rooted in research and current thinking.
  • Every child is recognised as a unique individual and we celebrate and welcome differences within our diverse school community.
  • We aim to create happy inquiring, lifelong learners who respect and care for the world they live in and all those who live in it.
  • Leigh Academy Bearsted learners will understand how they are connected to the world in order to take action to improve their own lives and the lives of local and global communities.
  • The Leigh Academy Bearsted curriculum celebrates diversity and utilises the skills, knowledge and cultural wealth of the community while supporting the children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, ensuring that children are well prepared for life in modern Britain.
  • Community involvement is an integral part of our curriculum, learning about, with and from it.
  • The curriculum will be underpinned by the National Curriculum (NC), the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB PYP) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It will be entrenched through conferencing and an effective cycle of evaluation by all stakeholders.
  • Teaching staff will not only plan and deliver the curriculum, they will be responsible for monitoring and driving the impact and effectiveness of all subjects and opportunities for learning for all pupils, overseen by the Curriculum Lead. This will ensure that the curriculum is not only broad, balanced and inclusive but that all pupils learn the skills, knowledge and understanding significant to their stage of learning and for achieving their ambitions in life, building upon and augmenting these year on year.
  • Everything about the curriculum is designed to be aspirational through experiences and opportunities for all pupils to enrich their learning.
  • Inclusion and well-being are at the heart of Leigh Academy Bearsted to be certain that all pupils know and understand how they are a valued member of society, how it is their right to feel and to be kept safe and how to maintain their own positive well-being.
  • At the heart of the curriculum is the skills, knowledge and personal development pertinent to each stage of a child’s growth as organised in the NC, the IB PYP and the SDGs.
  • The NC provides the core requirement of academic skills and fundamental knowledge across a wide range of areas of learning. The national curriculum provides pupils with an introduction to the essential knowledge they need to be educated citizens. It introduces pupils to the best that has been thought and said, and helps engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement (The National Curriculum in England: Key Stages 1 and 3 framework document, 2013).
  • The aim of all IB programmes is to develop internationally minded people who, recognising their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, help to create a better and more peaceful world (International Baccalaureate Organization 2013).
  • The Sustainable Development Goals are a call for action by all countries – poor, rich and middle-income – to promote prosperity while protecting the planet. They recognize that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with strategies that build economic growth and address a range of social needs including education, health, social protection, and job opportunities, while tackling climate change and environmental protection. The Goals interconnect and in order to leave no one behind, it is important that we achieve each Goal and target by 2030.(https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/).
  • A primary focus of our curriculum is to raise aspirations, engender a sense of personal pride in achievement, and provide a purpose and relevance for learning. Knowledge will be developed and skills appropriately applied through lines of inquiry, all the time widening and deepening knowledge and understanding through a well-resourced, truly broad, balanced and relevant curriculum. This will be further enhanced and complemented by challenging and collaborative projects for all pupils procuring ‘Agency’ (Voice, Choice and Ownership (IB PYP, 2018)), cultural capital and international mindedness.
  • Teaching and learning will be delivered through a range of traditional and contemporary resources with a particular focus on the most current applications in ICT to deliver the digital curriculum and blended learning. Interventions will be specific, regularly reviewed and revised and delivered within the daily teaching and learning unless agreed otherwise with the Inclusion specialists.
  • Skills will be taught in context based conceptual learning and discreet lessons as appropriate.
  • Strategies will be used to enhance the development of long term memory and embed learning. This will include, but is not exclusive to, low-stakes testing, interleaving, inquiry and regular application of skills and knowledge.
  • The effectiveness of the curriculum implementation will be evaluated through subject leadership, monitoring and assessment. Pupils will have ownership and understanding of the progress and focus of their learning through the high quality questioning and scaffolding approach of conferencing and together with Curriculum Leads will be responsible for ensuring appropriate sequencing and delivery of the National Curriculum.
  • The PYP Coordinator will ensure the philosophy and ethos of the IB and the PYP are maintained and that inquiry led learning is at the heart of the learning and teaching.
  • The well-being of pupils and the Academy team will be integral to the inspirational Leigh Academy Bearsted curriculum and culture and will be supported through conferencing feedback together with mutually rewarding engagement with and by the local and wider community.
  • A varied timetable for extra-curricular activities is offered by the school, with clubs that support the core curriculum offer, as well as those which develop specialist skills, whilst also further extending the range of children’s experiences.
  • Pupils will progressively learn techniques and strategies for completing tests and assessments, including Government statutory assessments, as they continue through the school, mastering previously learned skills and acquiring new ones as appropriate. As knowledge and understanding will look different for each subject and in each stage of learning, so will the evidence of this learning
  • This curriculum design ensures that the needs of individual and small groups of children can be met within the environment of high quality teaching, supported by targeted proven interventions where appropriate, having significant positive impact upon the outcomes of all pupils.
  • Enjoyment of the curriculum promotes high achievement, confidence and appropriate learning behaviours in an environment where the safeguarding of pupils is paramount and they feel safe to try new things.
  • High quality enrichment activities and visits enhance the curriculum, particularly providing opportunities for writing for a purpose.
  • Pupils have opportunities to share their learning with each other, their parents and carers and other learners through school-based and external exhibitions, performances, competitions and events involving other schools.
  • All pupils of Leigh Academy Bearsted will have equitable learning opportunities to achieve high attainment and progress by the end of key stage 2 across a broad and balanced range of subjects and associated knowledge and understanding.
  • Highly effective learning and teaching rooted in expert pedagogical research will ensure all pupils will make progress and achieve personally and academically enabling them to be healthy and successful in employment and in life.
  • Impact of academic progress and attainment will be evident through outcomes for GLD, Phonics, KS1 and KS2 SATs.
  • Through the use of context based learning and low-stakes testing, pupils will have a wealth of skills and knowledge that will remain a foundation throughout their lives. Further to this, through the Leigh Academy Bearsted curriculum, pupils will be equipped to manage positive relationships and transitions through all stages in their lives.
  • Pupils will have due respect and consideration for the local and wider community and will be resilient, inquisitive, confident communicators with a strong work ethic and the desire and capacity to be responsible, principled, successful citizens.

Please view our dedicated Curriculum Map website for more information on the Leigh Academy Bearsted Curriculum and its various components.

Curriculum Map Website

Please see below for Curriculum Maps for Nursery and EYFS classes.

Little Bears Nursery Curriculum Plan (Cycle 2) Reception Curriculum Map

International Mindedness

International-mindedness is central to the IB mission and is a foundational principle to its educational philosophy; it is at the heart of the continuum of international education.

International-mindedness is a view of the world in which people see themselves connected to the global community and assume a sense of responsibility towards its members. It is an awareness of the interrelatedness of all nations and peoples, and is a recognition of the complexity of these. Internationally minded people appreciate and value the diversity of peoples, cultures and societies in the world. They make efforts to learn more about others and to develop empathy and solidarity towards them to achieve mutual understanding and respect (Oxfam 2105; UNESCO 2015).

International Mindedness venn diagram

Primary Years Programme (PYP) learners and their learning communities have a range of perspectives, values and traditions. The concept of international-mindedness builds on these diverse perspectives to generate a sense of common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet.

Co-curricular Leigh Academy Bearsted

The Profile for Success is an individual portfolio documenting personal achievements as selected and achieved by the pupil including the Learning Profile Attributes.

This forms part of the Profile for Success and Leigh Academy Bearsted careers programme. Pupils view the advertised jobs and choose which they would like to apply for. They complete an application form and wait to hear in writing if they have been selected for interview. If they attend an interview, they will then hear in writing if they have been successful. Employees must carry out their responsibilities as detailed in the advert and this will be monitored by their line manager. At the end of their employment period, they will receive their ‘wage’ which will be in the form of their choice. Possible wages include a film and popcorn afternoon, a trip/visit linked to their job and afternoon tea with the Principal.

Clubs are run after school every module. They are mostly led by teachers and open to pupils across the academy.

Examples of clubs are: Spanish club, International Mindedness, Chess, Dance, Outdoor games, Creative writing, Comic club, Eco club and Photography club (this is not an exhaustive list).

Outdoor learning is integral to a rich curriculum and is accessed by all pupils throughout their education at Leigh Academy Bearsted. Pupils have access to a vast field, large MUGA and playground areas. Currently, plans are being implemented for Forest School provision in the wooded land adjacent to the academy grounds and conversation learning in the natural areas on the academy grounds. We are also incredibly lucky to be able to collaborate with Snowfields Academy in learning experiences using their excellent facilities including horticulture and sports.

The curriculum provision is enriched through trips, visits and visitors that add depth and understanding to the unit of inquiry and wider learning.