At Willows Academy Trust children are the centre of our focus and schools in the Trust must ensure they reach their potential - a ‘no excuse culture’ is paramount to achieving this. Academies will provide pupils with opportunities that expand their understanding of the world and raises their aspirations for the future.

The curriculum, underpinned by current research, ensures our children will be well-rounded individuals. Our schools promote the pursuit of excellence in order for our children to reach their potential.  The enquiry approach takes pupils on a journey of memorable learning through rich and purposeful experiences ensuring they acquire the building blocks of knowledge essential for the next stage of their learning journey.

Our schools are given autonomy to develop a curriculum that promotes the Trust’s key aims and has a clear learning intent for all pupils that all stakeholders are able to engage with.

The curriculum is carefully designed to ensure coverage, progression and retention of transferrable knowledge and skills. It aims to provide inclusive and aspirational environments where learners thrive and build the cultural capital they need to make aspirational choices about their future, overcoming any barriers. To achieve this our curriculum is underpinned by the following principles:

Aspire…Achieve…Thrive

We aim to provide the best opportunities for all our pupils and staff to enable them to become the best they can be.

Aspire:

• To aspire to the highest quality education in an inspirational learning environment.

• To raise pupils’ aspirations and enable all individuals in our trust community to achieve their potential and ‘dream big’.
• To inspire children to develop a love of learning and grasp new experiences, look back with pride and forward with confidence.

Achieve:

• To continually strive to raise the achievement and attainment of all children in our trust and the local community.

• To support all children to develop character, resilience, life skills, social skills, problem-solving and conflict resolution.

Thrive:

• To develop a culture that actively promotes all aspects of pupils’ welfare.
• To develop an excellent understanding of how to keep themselves safe in a range of situations and circumstances.
• To enable pupils to mature into confident, motivated learners who actively contribute to the wider community and develop an understanding of the wider world through direct personal experiences.

‘Together we can achieve excellence’

• A knowledge-driven curriculum
• A progressive curriculum
• Structured sequences of learning
• Enquiry based learning
• The ‘Big Question’ approach
• A relevant and meaningful curriculum
• Creativity, curiosity and exploration
• Promotion of the love of reading
• Books linked to phonics phases
• High quality text
• A curriculum that celebrates their local environment
• Experiences that develop pupil’s awareness and understanding of the diverse cultures in modern Britain
• Equality of access to the arts
• Access to nature through Forest Schools
• An aspirational environment that celebrates what has been learnt and what is being learnt

• Well behaved and engaged pupils