Curriculum Drivers 2024-2025

Harpenden Academy Curriculum Drivers

We are passionate in our aims to create a curriculum which allows our children to become real learners. We believe we have developed a balanced, rich and inspiring curriculum which specifically meets academic, personal and social needs of our pupils and has them at its core.

We have therefore adopted 4 drivers which we feel must lie at the heart of our curriculum design and allow us to build upon pupils' experiences, knowledge and also address any areas of development in terms of cultural capital.

Our curriculum drivers are: -

• Oracy: We realise that in today’s world the ability to send and receive information, understanding speech and writing is paramount. We have an embedded approach to promote communication both verbal and non-verbal so that our children are able to interact in the world inside and outside school life.
• First Hand Experiences: We know that our children learn best through providing them with learning experience outside of the classroom. We have a full and active calendar of events which are aimed at developing the semantic rather than a one-off event in the children’s memory.
• Belonging: We are aware that our children come from a wide variety of backgrounds which means we need to instil within them an understanding and appreciation of the differences, that are existing in our school community, particularly cultural, so that everyone’s rights and needs are understood.
• Emotional Intelligence: Our children are living in an ever changing world. We strive to support them to be ready - both academically and emotionally. We explicitly teacher strategies which will support our children in the following areas: self awareness, self-regulation, social awareness