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Thamesview Curriculum Intent and Implementation
As a community we have the highest aspirations for all our students, regardless of their background, and are ambitious in the breadth and depth of knowledge we want our students to gain in their subjects.
Our Curriculum has been designed using a Trivium framework encouraging students to Know Well, Think Well and Communicate Well. Students need to develop rich foundational knowledge, be able to think and deepen their understanding through questioning, discussion and debate. Be able to communicate and express their learning in a variety of forms.
As Tom Sherrington states in The Learning Rainforest, “Knowledge is key in a curriculum but so too is the ability to develop capacity to question and challenge, to engage in dialect of the trivium*, to contribute to debate and conversation.”
Thamesview seeks to go beyond a curriculum based on knowledge alone, to a curriculum that builds thought, expression and character.
The Trivium as outlined by Martin Robinson has three parts for students;
Knowledge (AKA Grammar):
Learning involves connecting new information with what is stored in our long-term memory. Therefore, limited prior learning can limit our future learning. Development of a rich knowledge base essentially makes us more intelligent by creating more branches for new learning and ideas to connect with. Without much foundational knowledge of a topic it is difficult for learners to form their own ideas and to work independently. Teachers have a vital part to play in leading the learning process to ensure that conceptual understanding progressively builds over time. The curriculum must be coherently constructed and sequenced across subject disciplines to achieve this. The development of a broad vocabulary is also a key part of this pillar. Thamesview places high importance on every subject area having a coherent and strong approach to successfully improving and strengthening disciplinary literacy within our school. This work is based on the research of the EEF and Alex Quigley.
Elements of Teaching & Learning related to Knowledge:
- Clarity through explanations & modelling
- Responsive teaching strategies
- Repetition & spaced retrieval practice
- Regular low level stakes assessment to identify and close gaps & address misconceptions.
- Disciplinary Literacy strategies to secure and cement knowledge for learners.
- Relevant Rosenshine principles of effective implementation – Thamesview School expects all staff to know and implement Rosenshine principles in curriculum implementation.
Exploration (AKA Dialectic):
Simply knowing things is insufficient. Encouraging our students to think, debate and consider alternative views is a vital part of the education we provide. Knowing things without the skill to explore knowledge further is of limited value to our students in the wider world. We encourage our students at Thamesview to be respectful of others, to be resilience when learning or when ideas are challenging, to be ambitious for themselves, seeking to take knowledge beyond the just knowing and retaining of facts.
Elements of Teaching and Learning related to Exploration:
- Real world experience, challenges and experimentation
- Debate, critical thinking & deep questioning
- Problem solving & reflection
- Character Education
- Relevant Rosenshine principles of effective implementation – Thamesview School expects all staff to know and implement Rosenshine principles in curriculum implementation.
Communication (AKA Rhetoric):
We want our students to leave Thamesview confident communicators. Explaining ideas publicly strengthens knowledge. This pillar is not, however, limited to public speaking. Any performance involves communication, whether it be a Sporting or creative performance, essay, speech or exhibition of work. These performances help to develop a range of qualities that prepare our learners well for their future lives. Ensuring all our learners can communicate in a clear, articulate and convincing manner, in a variety of ways, is vital.
Elements of Teaching & Learning related to Communication:
- Public performance & extended writing
- Presentations, exhibitions and displays.
- Demonstrating Thamesview Character values.
- Relevant Rosenshine principles of effective implementation – Thamesview School expects all staff to know and implement Rosenshine principles in curriculum implementation. At Thamesview we aim to build our curriculum around five key principles.
- A curriculum that has Coherence for students – explaining to them what they are learning and when and why.
- A curriculum that provides all students with a wide and deep range of Experience(s).
- A curriculum that equips students with Knowledge and the ability to use it, develop it and be inspired by it.
- A curriculum that Expands horizons for students.
- A curriculum that represents all creating a sense of Belonging
Subject Curriculum Intent and Implementation
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INTENT PSHE equips students to live healthy, safe, productive, capable, responsible and balanced lives. It encourages them to be enterprising and supports them in making effective transitions, positive learning and career choices and in achieving economic wellbeing. A critical component of PSHE education is providing opportunities for children and young people to reflect on and clarify their own values and attitudes and explore the complex and sometimes conflicting range of values and attitudes they encounter now and in the future. PSHE education contributes to personal development by helping pupils to build their confidence, resilience and self-esteem, and to identify and manage risk, make informed choices and understand what influences their decisions. It enables them to recognise, accept and shape their identities, to understand and accommodate difference and change, to manage emotions and to communicate constructively in a variety of settings. Developing an understanding of themselves, empathy and the ability to work with others will help pupils to form and maintain good relationships, develop the essential skills for future employability and better enjoy and manage their lives.
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Link to Whole School Intent The PSHE curriculum has clear links to the school intent in that Trivium has a prominent place. In PSHE, there is a clear intention to ensure that all students are able to gather more knowledge about the world around them, develop their ability to think about and evaluate this information and communicate their views and ideas about this knowledge effectively. The curriculum is designed to take students outside of what they are familiar with by covering a wide range of subjects that may be new to them, as well as developing their knowledge of what they may already know. The curriculum features key questions which are designed to get students thinking further and in more detail about what they are studying. Students will become more confident with communicating their views and opinions, both verbally and in writing. They will also develop the skill of justifying their view or opinion with evidence based on what they have learnt, so they can clearly demonstrate their knowledge of the topics they have studied. |
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Curriculum Implementation for PSHE PSHE will be taught to all students in Years 7-12 with students at Key Stage 3 and 4 having two lessons per fortnight and students at Year 13 completing PSHE during Tutor time. Students will study six topics each year at Key Stage 3, 4 and 5 at each Key Stage, each topic will linked to Health and Well being, Living in the Wider World and Relationships. Lessons have been planned to help students develop the skills of describing, explaining, and evaluating beliefs and ideas. There is an emphasis in lessons on reading to obtain information. Once each topic has been completed across Years 7-11 students will sit an end of unit assessment. This will be used to inform teaching and learning by helping teaching staff to assess what form affective feedback should take and indicating what skills should form the focus of upcoming lessons. |
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Link to Whole School Implementation The implementation of Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction is an important part of teaching in the PSHE Curriculum. The review of material is a key part of every lesson in the form of the Starter activity, this can identify previous learning. Questioning also features prominently in lessons with key questions to develop student thinking built into schemes of work. |
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How Impact is measured within the department The effectiveness and impact of teaching and learning in PSHE will be measured through the analysis of data from assessment. The assessment model is cumulative and so students are expected to know more, retain more and be able to use existing and newly acquired knowledge to engage in extended writing. Data from assessment is to be recorded on assessment trackers, which will be analysed to inform future planning decisions in terms of skills development. Teacher assessment will be used to ensure that the curriculum is being delivered in an impactful way. Teachers should frequently reflect on whether students know more and are able to remember information and demonstrate understanding from earlier in the course as well as what they have most recently studied. |
Schemes of work
Subject Core Knowledge Maps
Contacts for the department
| Catherine Lima | c.lima@thamesview.kent.sch.uk |