Phase 1 Curriculum
Our curriculum is designed to empower every student to live The Hadley Way, facing every challenge with the confidence to care, aspire, achieve and endeavour.
The Hadley Curriculum
The Hadley Curriculum Intent Statement
The Hadley Curriculum is designed to create an aspirational programme of learning for all students from Early Years to Sixth Form, as well as to enrich the lives of students, both in and out of the classroom.
Our intent: to empower every student to live The Hadley Way, facing every challenge with courage, aspiration, responsibility, co-operation, independence and resilience |
- Our curriculum is broad and dynamic and always prepares students for their next stage of learning and life in the 21st Century.
- Our curriculum is rooted in a commitment to the Nine Oasis Habits and the promotion of these habits as the basis for learning and character development.
- We make a comprehensive fundamental offering as part of the Oasis One Plan.
- Attitudes to Learning and RICRAC Characteristics are integral to The Hadley Way
- We create exciting and purposeful opportunities for our students
- We expect all our students to have high aspirations for their own academic achievement.
- We cultivate a rich source of cultural capital through experiences both in the academy and throughout the wider community to address social and economic challenges in the local area.
- Our curriculum is responsive to the needs, concerns and interests of our learners and prepares in the community.
- We put the development of Character at the heart of our curriculum, ensuring that every student builds a broad range of personal and social skills that enable learning, growth, and participation as active citizens.
- We provide first class career education, including interactions with employers, work experience and advice from experts.
- Our pedagogical approaches are driven by the Hadley Steps to Excellence to ensure consistently high-quality lessons.
- Our Horizons project provides opportunities for online learning, sharing and feedback for rapid progress.
Cultural Capital Intent Statement
Cultural Capital is the wealth of knowledge, skills, experiences, memories, and ideas that a student brings with them from outside our academy and develops along the way.
By having access to opportunities to try new things, meet new people and explore more culture, students build their cultural capital slowly over time, like money in a savings bank. They do this by engaging with art, performance, literature, ideas, and achievements. They get familiar with “the best which has been thought and said” in every area of learning.
We develop their bank of experiences by ensuring all our students get to visit museums, art galleries, sports fixtures, music performances and celebratory events. Our students will get to visit places of worship to see how other cultures differ from their own and build respect and tolerance for others. They learn to play and instrument and take part in performances. They learn to use an electronic device to research and explore every subject and keep track of their learning, through the Horizons project.
We make international travel possible for our students through trips that are subsidised and paid for through long-term instalments. We teach languages and independence skills that prepare students for life at university and in professional jobs.
But we also value the diverse, colourful tapestry of our own neighbourhood and the learning community here at Hadley. Our student’s families come from all around the country and the world and often they have come to London in search of a world-class education. We value that sense of endeavour and aspiration and the cultural richness that our students bring to Hadley which enhances all our learning.
We invite you to find out more about the subjects taught at OA Hadley by clicking on the panels below. If you have any questions about the curriculum please get in touch with us via the academy office.
Within Phase 1, the children are taught a broad and balanced curriculum which includes;
EYFS
- EYFS Curriculum Overview
- Curriculum Intent
- Communication Language and Literacy
- Mathematical Development
- Expressive Arts & Design
- Personal, Social & Emotional Development
- Understanding of the world
- Physical Development
- Religious Education
- Delivery and assesment
EYFS Curriculum Overview
Oasis Academy Hadley EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage)
At Oasis Academy Hadley, we believe that the Early Years Foundation Stage is crucial in securing solid foundations that children are going to continue to build upon. It is our intent that the children who enter our EYFS develop physically, verbally, cognitively and emotionally whilst embedding a positive attitude to school and learning. We believe that all children deserve to be valued as an individual and we are passionate in allowing all children to achieve their full, unique potential.
We begin each New Year by looking at the individual needs of our children and – taking into account their different starting points- we then carefully develop our flexible EYFS Curriculum which enables them to follow the path of their learning journey, at a point, that is suitable for their unique needs and stage of development.
Children in both our Nurseries and Reception classes follow the EYFS curriculum, which has seven main areas of learning.
The Prime Areas:-
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Communication and Language
- Physical Development
The Specific Areas:-
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Arts
The teaching of these areas of learning is practical and playful with support and challenge from adults in class sessions, small group sessions and working with individuals. There is a combination of adult-led; teacher taught sessions as well as a wealth of stimulating continuous provision opportunities. Throughout all of these areas of learning and at the heart of the EYFS Curriculum are the “Characteristics of Effective Learning”.
At Oasis Academy Hadley, we strive to develop these key characteristics of “Playing and Learning”, “Active Learning” and “Thinking Critically” in order to give the children the skills that they will continue to draw upon throughout their development. All of the crucial skills, knowledge and vocabulary that we teach are presented to the children throughout the year, which encompasses a range of topics, which are designed with their interests in mind. A vital part of the Curriculum design and topics is therefore the transition period before the children enter our classrooms and where we get to know more about them and their interests.
Our learning environments, both inside and outside are also adapted regularly to meet the different and developing needs of the children in our care. We aim to ensure that these areas are always stimulating and exciting and that, importantly, they are accessible to all children, regardless of where they are on their learning journey. The environments are developed to promote independence within our children and allow them to access the curriculum independently and confidently with the necessary level of support and challenge.
Within our EYFS Curriculum, children are assessed continuously through accurate and important observations. These provide us with information for future planning, not only for our individual classes but also for individual children’s next steps in their learning. They enable us, as EYFS practitioners, to ensure learning is embedded and consistent and that all children continue to make outstanding progress within our EYFS setting.
Our Oasis Academy Hadley EYFS strongly believes that the beginning of our children’s educational journey and igniting the flame for learning is imperative in “transforming lives, transforming communities”.
Curriculum Intent
The curriculum in the Early Years provides a structure and sense of direction, whilst ensuring there is clear progression and ambitious opportunities for children to learn. Through valuing every child and believing that every child is capable of making good progress, we can ensure that no child is left behind. This is achieved through mapping out essential and potential themes and key skills, careful planning of the environment and purposeful, targeted assessment.
The 3 C’s outlined in the Primary Curriculum intent are woven through the EYFS curriculum.
Character
The Early Years Foundation Stage provides children with their first experiences of understanding who they are and their place in the world. This has been carefully built into the OCL EYFS Curriculum, building in explicit opportunities for children to begin to navigate their preferences and emotions and begin to accept more responsibility.
In addition to this, the 9 habits approach enables a tangible approach to character development, seen in all aspects of academy life. These are mapped against the Early Learning Goals to support children to embody the habits from the beginning of their OCL journey.
Competence
Reading and vocabulary are deliberately featured in all resources as we know children’s chances of success in later life are heavily dependent on their acquisition of language and ability to access written text. We also know the importance of using books to open up the world to our young people and developing a love of literature for future learning and cultural capital. Therefore, there are always links to key texts, key vocabulary and environment enhancements throughout the EYFS Curriculum resources. The innovative and exciting approach of Bookwings Phonics will also support this by developing a true love of books in our children, and then contextualising the learning of phonics to make learning to read and write meaningful and memorable.
Community
Understanding who you are and who you are becoming requires you to understand your place in time, past, present and future and also your place in the world at a local, national, global and spiritual level. These concepts are deliberately woven into our EYFS Curriculum in the Yearly Overview and Knowledge Organisers, with overarching questions to guide learning and reflection. These resources guide practitioners to consider their own school context to maximise the opportunities to develop a sense of community through the curriculum they deliver.
Communication Language and Literacy
Mathematical Development
Expressive Arts & Design
Personal, Social & Emotional Development
Understanding of the world
Physical Development
Religious Education
Delivery and assesment
In the Early Years, children learn through a wide variety of approaches. This includes:
- Direct adult teaching input
- Learning through play in a carefully planned environment
- Learning through peers
- Learning through scaffolding during play
- Learning through small groups and focus activities
- Experiences, trips and visits
Children in the Early Years need a balanced curriculum which includes teaching which has been carefully planned according to their developing needs and interests, as well as allowing plenty of time for spontaneous child-initiated learning. They need organised, adult-guided learning to bring new ideas and experiences into their lives and for the direct teaching of new skills and concepts. These will deepen or consolidate their learning over time.
Approaching the curriculum – Phonics
Phonics is delivered through Bookwings Phonics, which is an immersive, multi-sensory approach designed to capture children’s interests. This approach is closely linked to the OCL Reading intent, promoting the use of high-quality texts and develop a love of reading.
Approaching the curriculum – Literacy and The Write Stuff
The Write Stuff is used in EYFS to develop children’s vocabulary, talk and writing. Embedding this through the use of the FANTASTIC lenses in Nursery to promote talk and the development of vocabulary in all areas of learning lays a strong foundation for the use of the lenses to form the basis of writing in Reception and beyond. The approach is rooted in early language development, inspiring and introducing new words to children in meaningful ways to enable them to navigate the world.
Approaching the curriculum – Maths
Maths is structured across the Early Years phase to ensure a progression of skills that build from Nursery through to Reception. The approach uses NCETM Numberblocks as the main tool for learning, however it is also influenced by NCETM Mastering Number and White Rose Maths.
Assessment
Assessment throughout Early Years is conducted through observations. The staff make systematic observations of each child’s achievements, interests and learning styles. These are then used to identify learning priorities and plan the next stages in the learning experiences for the child.
Some observations that are considered “Wow Moments” – new learning, a new skill, something the child is really proud of – are shared via the child’s online learning journey, which parents can engage and interact with.
Reception Baselines
During the children’s first half-term in Reception class, the teacher must conduct the DfE Reception Baseline. This is a short, interactive and practical assessment of your child’s early literacy, communication, language and mathematics skills when they begin school, using materials that most children of your child’s age will be familiar with. For more information, please read this leaflet - Information for parents: reception baseline assessment (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Teachers will then use this assessment, alongside a three week transition period of getting to know the children and conducting observations, to inform their learning priorities and know how best to support the every individual child.
Phase 1
- English
- Mathematics
- Art
- Science
- Computing
- Design and Technology
- Geography
- History
- Modern Foreign Languages (KS2 only)
- Music
- Physical Education and Dance
- Religious Education