Our Curriculum

Our Ethos: Building Excellence

The Hawksmoor Learning Trust is inspired by the privilege, moral responsibility and challenge of preparing our children for real life ahead of them in an unpredictable, ever changing world. We know that great schools make a difference. We strive for our individual and collective best to achieve excellence for all. In ‘Building Excellence’ in our schools, children come first in all our decision making.

Building Excellence for our children

Our mission is to ensure that our children are well educated, know how to stay safe and healthy and are able to participate as active, thoughtful members of present and future society.

Excellence in educational standards: We are driven by the moral imperative to ensure that our pupils receive the highest quality education to equip them with the necessary skills and knowledge.

Personal Excellence: We recognise that the best education is as much about developing young people’s character strengths and virtues. We have the highest aspirations for every individual as they learn and grow with us. We value respect and consideration for others, equal opportunities, hard work and fair discipline. We seek to develop skilful, curious and independent learners; foster individual resilience, confidence, and a strong sense of identity underpinned by integrity and responsibility, so that they are prepared to contribute positively to the communities and world that they belong to.

Building Curriculum Excellence

Children within The Hawksmoor Learning Trust schools will have access to a relevant, engaging and inspiring curriculum that provides opportunities and creativity to develop the whole child. We aim to provide rich and relevant curriculum experiences which are effectively structured, properly planned, challenging, active and engaging.

We seek to provide curriculum and extra-curricular opportunities in all our schools, particularly through high quality provision in the Arts and Sports, which develop character, support children’s interests, channel their enthusiasm and contributes to their progress intellectually, physically, emotionally, socially and spiritually.

We strive to create an exceptional learning environment for our pupils and we appreciate the importance of attention to detail as well as creating a sense of excitement that inspires moments of awe for the world in which they live and fosters an enquiring mind.

Our Curriculum Intent for all our pupils has 4 main strands:

Core skills and knowledge: developing literacy, oracy, numeracy and critical thinking skills enables pupils to access the entire curriculum and master key knowledge and concepts, by building on prior knowledge in all subjects so that they are ready for the next stage of their education and equipped to make healthy and safe choices in their future lives.

Creativity: a curriculum enriched through exposing pupils to the best that has been thought and said, and helping to engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement through the Arts, Sports and real-life learning contexts, inspiring pupils to be interested, to think, express and problem solve to deepen their understanding and engagement with the world.

Character: developing character strengths and virtues supports pupils’ personal growth and confidence, helping them achieve sustained wellbeing.

• Curiosity – an intellectual virtue, that refers to open-mindedness, a desire to inquire, thinking for oneself and a quest to improve and find out more.
• Honesty – a moral virtue, that calls on us to seek and honour the truth both in the world and within our own lives; this also calls for humility and openness to feedback, whatever our status.
• Perseverance – a performance virtue, that enables us to be tenacious and keep striving in the midst of challenges, in the pursuit of long-term goals.
• Resilience- the capacity to recover quickly from difficulty; adapt with ease when faced with adversity; embracing the process of learning from mistakes: not fearing them and keeping a positive mindset.
• Independence- teaching pupils to be self- aware, self-motivated learners developing metacognitive strategies to support their own learning, take personal responsibility, regulate their behaviour and set themselves high personal standards

Community: a curriculum that promotes:

• Sense of identity, belonging and responsibility towards the local and global communities and the world in which they live
• An appreciation, understanding and celebration of diversity
• Ability to collaborate and interact positively with others
• Service – a civic virtue, meaning a commitment to be kind, to put others first and be enthusiastically helpful understanding the importance of participation and making a contribution in democratic society

The three principles of The Hawksmoor Learning Trust approach are:

• Quality
• Enthusiasm
• Partnership

These principles will guide The Hawksmoor Learning Trust in providing an education of the highest quality. These principles demand that we think and act in highly constructive ways towards each other as colleagues, towards the children who are placed in our care and towards the parents in our schools and communities and helps us to maximise opportunities for our pupils, working collaboratively as Trust Schools.