LEO Curriculum Strategy

Curriculum Intent 

At LEO Academy Trust,  we aim to foster a lifelong love of learning, through an evidence-informed curriculum which is ambitious for all, (particularly the most disadvantaged and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) or high needs), balanced, well-sequenced and diverse. This enables pupils to develop 'cultural capital.' The curriculum at each school is well-structured, with digital skills and technology used to transform teaching and learning. 

Each school covers the national curriculum and the EYFS framework as a starting point and is enhanced by our vision of Learning, Excellence and Opportunity.  LEO prides itself in offering an extensive range of extra-curricular and enrichment activities for learners within and beyond LEO Academy Trust. 

The academic achievement, wellbeing and character development of our learners is at the heart of our ‘curriculum offer’ and we regularly review our provision to ensure that it is relevant, engaging and challenging for all.

We pride ourselves in developing the whole child and preparing them for the next stage of their learning, including the use of digital technologies, sustainability and twenty-first century skills. We want every pupil  to achieve well, learn together, celebrate diversity and be globally aware.

Curriculum implementation

Curriculum and pedagogy

Curriculum planning enables learners to make connections and interconnections in order to ensure that knowledge (substantive) and skills (disciplinary) are learned progressively to reach agreed end points. Lessons enabling retrieval practice (reviewing previously taught objectives), formative assessment, metacognition and opportunities for teachers/support staff to address misconceptions, means that learning is moved from the short term memory and embedded into long term memory so that learners know more, remember more and do more. The context and relevance for learners in each school is considered when planning relevant learning and meaningful wider opportunities, so as to maximise each child’s ‘cultural capital’ and knowledge of British values. 

The curriculum at each school in our Trust draws on the knowledge of successful evidence- informed strategies and should be used in conjunction with our LEO Teaching and Learning Strategy. Staff are empowered by innovative performance management and extensive professional learning opportunities for staff at all levels. 

Curriculum principles:

• Each school has a curriculum that is ambitious for all (through adaptive teaching and other strategies), giving all learners the 'cultural capital' they need for the future. 

• The curriculum is structured and sequenced from EYFS to year 6, with knowledge of KS3, so that pupils can build increasingly rich schemata as they move through the primary years. Thus preparing them for current and future learning. 

• At each school, the curriculum is taught using the key aspects of our LEO Teaching and Learning Strategy.  For example, feedback, retrieval practice, metacognition, adaptive teaching, oracy, technology, including assistive tech and modelling/explaining and questioning.

• Learners demonstrate detailed knowledge (substantive) and skills (disciplinary) across the curriculum which progresses as learners move through the curriculum. In EYFS, teacher questioning, opportunities and continuous provision are used to prepare pupils for future learning. 

• Learners have opportunities for explicit and implicit learning of new vocabulary across the curriculum.

• Reading is at the heart of the curriculum, through reading across the curriculum, promoting a love of reading and reading aloud to pupils. Pupils read widely, speak and write well across the curriculum (disciplinary literacy). 

• The teaching of younger readers focusses on a robust systematic synthetic phonics programme, with materials that match their phonic knowledge. This is also continued into KS2 for learners who need to rapidly catch up.

Opportunities at LEO (beyond the national curriculum and EYFS framework)

Curriculum Impact

Please see our LEO Pupil Outcomes.