Our Curriculum

We have taken on an ambitious project – to enhance our curriculum through aspiring for all our children to ‘thrive’ (Valerie Hannon) – to be successful in the ever changing modern world. We have a clear  development plan to fully achieve this by building on our successes since 2017 and  working with Haringey Education Partnership. Due to the context of our school, we have three key threads that run through everything we do.

To see how our context informs what we do, please click Curriculum Intent Diagram 2024

LIFE-LONG LEARNERS

Becoming a Life-long Learners links directly to our school ethos of ‘Learning to Learn’; our children will enter several jobs (many of which haven’t been created or thought of yet), several markets or several new industries. The need to learn how to ‘thrive’ and be successful in which ever path they take.

Enhancing our curriculum, focusing on building prototypes (giving meaning to abstract nouns or concepts) and developing schemata (a web of background knowledge), will allow our children to enhance their learning through using their long term and working memory more effectively. We have sequenced our curriculum to ensure the very best schemata are developed, ensuring pupil readiness for new or more demanding content and more complex operations.

Adaptive teaching is an evolution of differentiation that focuses on the entire class while still responding to individual pupil needs. It involves knowing pupils’ prior levels of attainment and providing targeted support. Learning at De Bohun is adapted effectively to allow pupils to be successful in their learning. As a school we deliberately teach knowledge and vocabulary. Pupil retrieval of this vocabulary and knowledge is supported through pedagogical techniques.

Reading is an absolutely essential part of what we do, as it is the key to creating life long learners. Reading has been a whole school priority since 2016. As a result of that we have seen a three year rising trend in outcomes (2016 – 2019). Please see Reading at De Bohun & The Reading Week for an overview of our approach. To support reading further, we have embedded, repeated vocabulary across all subjects.

ASPIRATIONS

We aspire for our children to be ‘thrive in the modern world. To achieve this, we fully respect each subject independently. We teach both substantive knowledge (‘what’ you need to know) and disciplinary knowledge (the form of enquiry), with high and equal expectations for all learners. Our staff have planned the order in which pupil learn and practice their skills. Our Skills & Knowledge Subject Progression Maps show this journey. The skills and knowledge (coupled with developing excellent behaviour for learning) children acquire in EYFS prepare them for the start of this journey in Year 1.

We strive to ensure all children reach their potential in every lesson. We aspire to ensuring every child is challenged and supported to achieve. Every child is always given the opportunity to complete the full learning journey.

We know there are certain areas of the curriculum which are enhanced by specific skill-set. We have ensured the very best possible provision for our children by employing subject specialists to teach these subject areas:

Our robust awards systems, linked closely with the high expectations of our ‘De Bohun Way’ Behaviour Policy also supports this culture.

We ensure that we provide the best possible opportunities across the curriculum, be that participating in a Spelling Bee, joining the Robotics Team or representing the school in a debating competition. These extracurricular activities are carefully sequenced to support the De Bohun curriculum. A series of specific learning days are mapped and scheduled throughout the academic year supporting learning. They are:

  • Promoting Healthy Living
  • Gaining Money Sense
  • Understanding Governance
  • Celebrating the Arts
  • Having Career Aspiration
  • Keeping Safe online

This is all supported by robust professional development for all staff with a commitment to improving pupil outcomes.

Our focus is on formative assessment (we have developed our very own bespoke assessment tool ‘Mind The Gap’) This allows us to carefully assess children and continually address gaps in learning. We believe that feedback is best given at the point of learning, supported by our Feedback and Marking Model.

INCLUSION

We have high and equal expectations for all learners. Through individualised provision, our Additional Resource Provision (Rainbow Class) and Unit for Complex ASD (Sunshine, Butterfly and Starlight Classes) and bespoke assessment models we ensure that high aspirations lead to the best outcomes for all children. We work in partnership with Oaktree Special School to continually enhance our practice. We ensure that children who may need extra support at a particular point in time receive it, allowing them to continue to thrive. Our adaptive teaching structure supports this inclusive practice as all children are have scaffolds to ensure that they have the opportunity to achieve.

LEADERSHIP

Many of our staff are Curriculum Subject Leaders (please visit Who’s who?). Our main school priorities are led by teams to support development.

Our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Team consists of Zaahirah Ali (AHT), Shipa Zaman (Maths Leader),  Cringe Technologies and  supported by Peter Warwick (Maths Consultant).

Our Language and Communication Team supporting English and phonics is led by Sadie Moorhouse (AHT), Hannah Komodromos (English Leader) and Maisie Byre (Phonics Leader).

The Foundation Curriculum is led by our Amanda Jamil (AHT) and Eve Newman (Assistant Subject Lead) and the additional subject leaders.

ACCESS FOR ALL

To see how everyone accesses our curriculum, please see our Accessibility Policy, by clicking here

VOCABULARY

Since our OFSTED Inspection in January 2020, we have continued our work around our Progressive Vocabulary Maps to ensure that: ‘ Leaders should ensure that pupils broaden their vocabulary through
planned exposure to it throughout the curriculum’. We believe that ‘consolidation is not treading water.’ Through planned, repeated exposure, our children will broaden their vocabulary. To see some more about how we do this at De Bohun, please click Vocabulary at De Bohun to see a presentation given to our Governing Body.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

To learn more about our curriculum, please do not hesitate to contact the school office to arrange an appointment to speak with the specific subject leader (please visit Who’s who?), or the Assistant Headteacher responsible for your child’s year group.