How Adamsdown Primary designed a curriculum to meet the needs of its learners.
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Information about the school or provider
Adamsdown Primary School is situated in the inner-city area of Adamsdown in Cardiff. The vast majority of the catchment area falls within the 10% most deprived areas in Wales. Many children have barriers to learning in the form of English as an additional language (72%) additional learning needs (9%), being in receipt of free school meals (65%) child protection issues, poor housing, health issues and poor attendance
Context and background to the effective or innovative practice
In 2015, after being placed in an Estyn category of ‘requiring significant improvement’ and following the publication of Donaldson’s ‘Successful Futures’, the school embarked on a journey to design a robust curriculum offer fit for purpose at the school. All stakeholders were involved in a process of evaluation, innovation, and reflection to create a vision for an engaging the curriculum that accurately reflects the diverse needs of pupils.
To begin, the school reflected upon its current context, curriculum and pupils’ needs. With four purposes at the heart, they focused on four key elements:
- Well-being
- Teaching and learning (adapting pedagogy)
- Engaging and meaningful experiences
- Language and communication
With this information, the school was able to embark on the next stage of curriculum design and structure.
Description of nature of strategy or activity
The school concluded that the classic structure of year group classes did not match their vision for effective teaching and learning. The school formulated a ‘cluster class system’ to enable them to adapt pedagogy and the learning environment to support effective learning for all. All staff engaged in professional learning, collaboration, inquiry and sharing of good practice to develop a strong understanding of effective pedagogy.
Based on research, the school devised an annual structure over a two-year cycle to deliver authentic, engaging contexts and offer meaningful experiences for pupils to apply their knowledge and skills purposefully. The contexts ensure opportunities to develop pupils’ skills progressively through increasingly sophisticated contexts.
Staff designed a four-part structure to deliver their major contexts:
- Inception phase – a planned experience to immerse pupils, spark interest, gather prior knowledge and to inform pupils of the purpose for learning.
- Acquisition phase – the teaching of skills, concepts and knowledge relevant for the next stage.
- The application phase – enables pupils to combine and apply the skills and knowledge they have learned in a purposeful and meaningful way.
- Contemplation phase – deepens understanding about their own learning and gives opportunity to reflect on learning, successes and next steps.
Pupils are fully involved in creating and evaluating their learning experiences at every stage. ‘Globie’, a character designed by pupils to represent and support learners in pursuit of the four purposes, is prominent at each stage of learning and reflection. Staff complement the annual cycle with mini contexts, a calendar of events, enrichment opportunities and community links.
What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?
The school has implemented an innovative new system for teaching and learning whilst also successfully creating a curriculum offer for learners that ensures nearly all pupils make good progress from their starting point.
Pupils learn through a range of meaningful experiences, enabling them to apply the skills learned purposefully. The progressive nature of the curriculum enables pupils to build on prior learning in all areas of learning, including their literacy, numeracy and digital skills.
How have you shared your good practice?
Sharing with local consortia and cluster schools.