Please follow the link below to view School Performance Tables.

http://www.education.gov.uk/cgi-bin/schools/performance/school.pl?urn=120749

 

 

Curriculum Overview

Our topics can be seen below. More information and home learning ideas can be found on Tapestry. 

                                 

Intent

It is our primary purpose to awaken an interest in the world, a love of learning in our pupils, and to give them the ability and desire to carry on learning throughout life. Our curriculum is designed to recognise our pupils’ prior learning, areas of challenge and of emerging strengths and to provide active and engaging first-hand learning experiences. Gosberton House Academy aims to provide an enriched, challenging, engaging, real world, personalised, problem-solving curriculum. The diagram above reflects our holistic approach to curriculum design; the child at the centre of a broad and balanced curriculum with other elements including sensory integration, like skills and independence, woven through, whilst also taking into account their primary area of SEN need.

 

Every pupil is recognised as a unique individual. We celebrate and welcome differences within our community. We constantly strive to provide enrichment opportunities to enhance learning and believe that childhood should be a happy, investigative and enquiring time in our lives where there are no limits to curiosity and there is an excitement and thirst for new experiences and knowledge. We aim to ensure that our youngsters are able to optimise their potential academically, socially, emotionally and spiritually within their life at school, at home, within their community and beyond into the world ensuring that they become learners for life and life-long learners.

Family and Community involvement is an essential part of our curriculum as we Work Together and Learn Together to build a better future for our young people.

 

  English

English is at the heart of everything we do. We want to inspire and promote a love of reading for pleasure in our children and were delighted to be awarded Bronze in Lincolnshire's Reading Pledge. Our children regularly visit our cosy story den and take home a library book each week. We have recently begun using the Little Wandle phonics programme after working closely with Lincolnshire's English Hub. NELI is also in use through school.

As well as English lessons focusing on reading, writing and communication, children consolidate their learning during daily Basic Skills sessions in which overlearning is prioritised.

Each topic has one or more engaging key texts, shared with the children via the use of Sensory Story Sacks and engagement activities.

A key focus is communication; we want our children to be able to communicate functionally through an appropriate means for them. As such, we use communication boards, technology, visual cue cards and spoken language.

As part of our Family Learning activities, children are encouraged to develop their learning at home.

   

     Mathematics

  

Mathematics is one of the core areas of the curriculum. We believe that children at the early and primary phases should be taught the basic mathematical skills that will enable them to become confident using mathematics in further education and in everyday life. We use homework to enrich these basic skills with regular practice of number facts. We use a range of our pedagogies to support how these basic skills are applied in a variety of contexts – with an emphasis on visual representation and problem solving.

 

     Science

Our children experience and engage with a variety of activities that involve lots of scientific investigations. The children are encouraged to think and investigate in a number of ways, both with the support of the adults and independently to develop their knowledge. Our practical approach to the teaching of science ensures that children are encouraged to think scientifically based on what they experience, broadening their own thinking skills and developing their understanding of scientific concepts.

     Humanities

  

We aim to provide a stimulating and enriching humanities curriculum. The humanities curriculum consists of Geography, History, Religious Education as well as Modern Foreign Language- Spanish. We aim to provide a curriculum which informs the children of previous historical events, ensures geographical and environmental understanding and provides them with a rich cultural, moral and spiritual understanding of the world through the teaching of Religious Education  - we follow the Lincolnshire Agreed Syllabus - and Modern Foreign Languages. Teaching is stimulating, exciting and provides them with a greater understanding of current events in the wider world. The humanities curriculum also provides the children with key life skills such as teamwork, empathy, communication, language, thinking and independence skills which will develop your child both academically and socially.

 

Creative Arts                                             

Children explore a wide range of skills and media through a range of pedagogical approaches to the creative arts. The arts are a form of celebration, communication and expression. Drama, music, dance and art help children to develop self-awareness and confidence and to acquire empathy, teamwork and listening skills. Participation in the arts develops gross and fine motor skills and can be used to support all other areas of the curriculum. At Gosberton House Academy, we strive to offer a curriculum rich in the arts, inspiring and nurturing each individual, raising self-esteem and confidence; we were recently awarded Arts Mark Gold.

 Technology                                                      

We believe that technology can support and dramatically enhance the lives of our children. We believe that mobile technology already merged with our ethos, pedagogy, vision and immersive environments will give our children a relevant and successful education which will enhance their learning opportunities. This will develop individuals and prepare them for the technological future in their everyday and working lives. We also aim to provide children with Design and technology skills that will ready them for future jobs and provide life skills. Children learn through stimulating and exciting DT projects.  

Emotional Literacy/Well-Being        

At Gosberton House Academy the promotion of Emotional Literacy is a core element of our work. We believe that emotional well-being and self –esteem are central to all aspects of social and academic learning. Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education is a crucial aspect of our curriculum. We aim to ensure each child develops a deep understanding of not only themselves, but their peers and other members of our society.
We strive to prepare them to become positive citizens of our community and try to ensure they understand the importance of a healthy and active lifestyle.
Many different important concepts are taught, rehearsed and generalised; which not only prepare children for their future, but also ensure at present they are healthy, positive and confident individuals.

We encourage participation in a wide range of our extra-curricular activities and also through the local competitions we partake in throughout the year. Our children take part in lunchtime clubs (story den, lego club, art club), after school club, external tennis sessions and swimming lessons. We also have external visitors who bring new and different activities including theatre performances, Kin Ball and Table Cricket. The school was awarded Distinction by the Association for Physical Education, and Bronze in the Lincolnshire School Games Quality Mark.

 

 Enterprise                    

The children’s economic understanding is also developed well through the enterprise aspects of our curriculum, which we strive to ensure they participate in throughout the year.
We encourage them to work towards their personal aspirations and goals to develop self-esteem, confidence and a love for learning. These lifelong learning skills are developed through the use of project based learning. Some examples of this have included; selling snacks to raise money for our sister school in India; fund raising for class celebrations through making and selling crafts. The school operates a pupil Bank. Loans can be secured at 0% interest rates to fund enterprise initiatives.

 

Family Learning

The school operates a Family Learning approach to homework – our suggestions for topic-related projects and activities to support the development of life skills can be found in our school newsletters and also on Tapestry.  Children have ongoing access to online learning platforms including Purple Mash. The school holds a weekly Homework Club and termly Family Learning celebrations, to which families are invited. 

GHA Community

The school participates in local community events including the Spalding Flower Festival, and supports wider community events by fundraising and raising awareness. We aim to support our children to take all learning opportunities and become lifelong learners. British Values are taught alongside SMSC. The school engages with various initiatives including Children's University - to commemorate, celebrate and mark local, national and international events and dates. GHA has also recently been awarded; UNICEF Gold Rights Respecting School, Silver Learning Outside the Classroom Silver, Arts Mark Gold,  AfPE Award and Leading Parent Partnership Award. 

Impact

Our children show increasing levels of readiness to learn, and engagement in their learning – they are curious and keen to know more. This is reflected in their happiness on arrival to school, good attendance, and attainment in relation to their starting points. With the support of their families, they extend their learning beyond school, generalising their new knowledge and skills into truly real-life learning. Families share this with us via their Family Learning Homework, which we celebrate as a community each half term; we also welcome ongoing feedback about the children’s learning. The focus on a visually cued environment, routine and consistency of approach throughout school means that the children can focus on learning, rather than anxiety regarding managing change or unexpected events. Children develop fine and gross motor skills; their physical and emotional regulation needs are met throughout the day and they are able to communicate these to familiar staff. Children can identify, show and communicate their learning and some take part in formal testing.

Supporting the children to manage change within the supportive and familiar environment of GHA helps them to make progress across the curriculum at engagement level and subject-specific level and to develop the resilience and confidence to prepare them for the transition to secondary school and beyond. The significant focus on developing skills to support and develop independence gives the children executive function skills to support organisation and planning, resilience and compromise; practical skills learned during weekly cooking lessons and ‘learning outside the classroom’ sessions; communication in an appropriate format for each child and also strategies to enable them to regulate their feelings and behaviours. The children also gain knowledge of staying safe, for example sun safety, water safety, internet safety and road safety.