EPC : Curriculum Intent - Don Valley Academy

Intention of the Curriculum: Why are we teaching the content and concepts that we do?

Intention 1: Developing the skills and knowledge of students:

EPC at Don Valley Academy aims to equip our students with the knowledge, skills, and attributes to lead a safe and positive life within the school setting and beyond. Further to this it ensures our students are able to make decisions which will make them a good active citizen and allow them to flourish as individuals, friends, family members and colleagues through their decisions. EPC will help shape their decisions around relationships, aspirations, making safe and responsible choices on issues such as alcohol, drugs and staying safe online. EPC will help shape our student’s future, by helping them face challenging and critical situations they will face when growing up.

Intention 2: What content do we intend to teach:

EPC at Don Valley aims to develop a curriculum which has the appropriate subject knowledge, skills and understanding in which follows the National Curriculum guidance whereby schools must provide a ‘balanced and broadly-based curriculum which promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils and prepares them for the opportunities and responsibilities and experiences for later life’. In order to create a balanced EPC curriculum students will study three core themes through their time at Don Valley, which include RSE (Relationships and Sex Education), Health and Wellbeing (Including online safety) and Living in the wider world. Using a combination of all three areas allows our students to access a broad set of skills and knowledge to embrace both a successful academic and adult life. Content for each of the three broad themes has been chosen specifically for the needs of our students, to respond to issues which they may have or face personally, in the home or in the local community/wider world. This means the curriculum is meaningful for them, supporting and addressing their needs and the statutory content set out by the DFE. RSE and Health and Well Being within the curriculum meets all statutory requirements set out by the DFE on this area to ultimately ensure our students are knowledgeable in these areas and develop to be well round and responsible people. * RSE is now part of compulsory education for our students, and we want to create a curriculum which offers them exciting opportunities to learn more, know more, to ensure they become safe and responsible adults.

It is our aim that the EPC curriculum builds on our students starting points from the knowledge gained at primary school and also supplement learning which happens at home on many of the matters which arise in EPC.

Intention 3: Having a curriculum which meets and develops the vision and value of the academy:

Finally, it is our intention that EPC fits with both the vision and the skills and qualities of the academy to ensure our students are consistently developing these skills through their learning. The overall vision of the academy is to ‘change lives’ and through the content and skills learnt within EPC it is hoped our students will access the wider curriculum to successfully achieve at their time in the academy and beyond. EPC will contribute to our student’s self-esteem and self-worth, which will impact positively on academic achievement, life skills, employability and other future life choices.

Belief:	EPC at Don Valley has been designed with our students ‘future goals’ in mind. Each lesson provided is to ensure our students have both, knowledge and skills which will secure them a successful future beyond the academic setting. Stand-alone lessons on careers and future aspirations instils drive and determination in our students and where they want to be in the future. Not only this the whole EPC curriculum develops skills such as resilience, but self-confidence also throughout to ensure our students have the highest aspirations for themselves and others.
Collaboration:	Each lesson of EPC encourages and creates an environment which supports the learners to have their say and contribute. All lessons use the DELTA collaboration techniques, to fully develop our student’s ability to work well with one another and develop their oracy skills. This is then supplemented through wider school projects when external visitors which enrich the EPC curriculum further students will become involved and share ideas. More so through projects and lesson ideas our students will contribute to their school community through ‘fundraising days’, the development of SMSC/EPC material to be used in displays around school. More so, the development of knowledge on topics such as citizenship and wider world issues allows out students to contribute to the wider community.
Kindness:	Ultimately, we want our students to be happy and content in their learning to ensure they achieve the best possible outcomes. EPC promotes kindness through, both explicit content (e.g., anti-bullying) but, also through discreet measures such as respect, ground rules, tolerance of beliefs. We are creating a safe and respectful environment which allows for difficult issues and ideas to be approached sensitively and in the correct manner. More so it allows us to support our students with mental and physical health to ensure they are happy.
Being the best learner:	High quality teaching and learning is the heart of the EPC curriculum, to ensure our students get the best experience from EPC at Don Valley. The standards of our students are exceptionally high, they are provided with challenge and frequent opportunities to debate topical issues. Reward is also at the heart of EPC lessons to ensure, recognition and praise is given, to continually promote our students to be the best learners in EPC.

Implementation: what does our curriculum feature and how do we embed the learning of our students?

EPC is taught through dedicated timetabled lessons of 2 lessons per week for 7-8. The one hour per week for 9-11. For Years 7-11 and the tutor programme further supports the learning of EPC through topics such as ‘This is culture’ and ‘votes for schools. It is integrated into numerous lessons through content taught (see cross-curricular tracker), SMSC and through our values system and through our behaviour for learning systems. The EPC curriculum itself will be delivered as a spiral curriculum, this enables are students to build on their prior learning gaining deeper knowledge and skills surrounding the core themes but, also ensuring we are delivering age-appropriate content for each of the three main themes within EPC. The curriculum will be accessible for all with variant levels of support and challenge.

Lesson structures and implementation: All lessons will follow the following structure for consistency in learning. Individual teachers will adapt or create lessons to follow the learning outcomes and skills needed but will keep the main elements of learning below:

The Drill Task	This task is to ensure students are focused and settled within their learning at the start of the lesson. The drill will always focus on recapping prior learning. Every lesson will recap prior learning from last term, last week and last lessons learning with EPC, this is firstly to ensure knowledge is ‘sticking’ with students. Evidence shows chunked retrieval practice of content and skills shows students are more likely to keep this information in their long-term memory. More so in recapping prior learning it allows our students to make links between all their learning so how one topic informs the other, they are then able to show their own starting point and how they have built on their knowledge each lesson.
Sharing of outcomes:	Sharing the big picture with our students allows them to understand what they need to know by the end of the lesson or scheme of learning and where this lesson fits into that scheme of learning. Sharing these outcomes allows are students to have target to work towards each lesson to show their progress and achievement. This in turn allows them to articulate their learning and how the tasks they have completed in the lesson/lessons have enabled them to achieve the outcomes intended. These are referred to as our challenge and aspire- they are visible on every slide.
Starter Task:	This is an engaging way to ‘hook’ our learners into their new content, suggested activities would be videos, images and debate questions. This activity will lead the students into their learning that lesson.
Collaborative element:	Each lesson will have a period of time in which students learn from their peers through collaborative learning. This is proven to heighten engagement within lessons and therefore another technique to ensure the information ‘sticks’ with our students.
Demonstrate and Connects (Every 3^rd and 4^th lesson)	This is a period of time within the lesson where students focus on independent learning. It is their opportunity to reflect and apply their knowledge acquired within the lesson. More than often, this will be a dedicated question in which students have to complete. Students will receive feedback and then act upon this feedback. The feedback will be completed within purple pen, so they are easily accessible and visible to the teacher, to show progress over time. Often purple pen tasks will receive a combination of verbal and written feedback from staff but will also incorporate self and peer assessment.

Lessons all follow the long-term plan and are supplemented with SOW documents to show the intended outcomes of the schemes for each year group. More so this ensures that lessons are making clear links with SMSC and British Values. We also increase out student’s cultural capital by exposing them to media, resources, and articles in which they may not always be inclined to use.

In addition to lessons students will have opportunities to explore the EPC issues deeper using the home learning/knowledge organisers.

EPC is also embedded within the wider curriculum which enforces the messages delivered through the tutor programme and EPC lessons. For example, through Science students will look at issues such as puberty and menstruation. PE will enforce the messages on healthy eating and lifestyles. Assemblies and external visitors will also build on themes used within the classroom. Finally, students will have opportunities to be involved in creating displays and delivering assemblies themselves to ensure the messages are seen around the academy and ultimately enforce the content and the further development of British Values and SMSC.

Assessment within EPC: Assessment in EPC education is not about levels or grades, passing or failing but, we need to ensure there is a measure of progress in learning and skills acquired. The approach in which is advised an ipsative measure, that each time a student is assessed they can show progress from a starting point. In order to this for each year group a baseline will be completed on the intended outcomes for that year group and each subsequent assessment from here will allow students to demonstrate a deeper knowledge on the concepts.

Demonstrates within schemes will be 2 per half-term/every 3 lessons in which students will receive teacher feedback. Students will know what they have done well and receive at least one next step in which they must respond to, to ensure improvement on this piece of learning. This is referred to as the connect task.

Demonstrate tasks are often given based on a statement in which allows students to apply their knowledge but, ensure there is a balanced response of varied views to the statement. Using this format for each assessment point allows students and staff to demonstrate how their knowledge and skill set is developing each time an assessment is completed. Demonstrates will be standardised and moderated as a team. This again ensures consistency for all learners and ensuring a fair reporting that all students complete the same assessment points. On this note staff are able to mark frequently other activities but, the long-term plan shows which two purple zone tasks will be used for moderation and standardisation. (The plan is emailed to staff at the beginning of each half term for EPC).

Colour coded marking grids have been created for each assessment point in EPC to ensure a balance of workload for staff and easy and accessible targets which drive progress for our students.

In addition to testing in such a manner for us to track progress our students will be taught skills and knowledge to aid them now and, in the future, and will be taught to;

Develop their own opinions on issues, challenge their own and other opinions on issues and explore others personal beliefs and values promoting tolerance and respect for others. They will be taught to explore their own and other beliefs, values, attitudes, rights, and responsibilities.
Skills and coping strategies to lead a healthy life both mentally and physically.
Develop skills which will aid them both in school and through their chosen career path such as teamwork, resilience, self-esteem, confidence, and empathy.

We have used the PSHE Association Framework to map the curriculum across KS3 and KS4. They will study a combination of all three main topic areas in each year group: Relationships and Sex Education, Health and Well Being and Community and Wider World. This can be accessed at any time on the PSHCE Association website, and our curriculum map is accessible through the school website.

Impact: What are we hoping to achieve for our students as an end outcome of the curriculum?

The whole curriculum and planning is to ensure we have a positive impact on our students not only down but, continuing well into their adult life. As the curriculum has been chosen to fit their needs both locally and nationally, engagement and participation in lesson will be high. Our students will be able to respect and promote tolerance in their school lives and further. They will have knowledge and be able to apply the British Values. They will able to show a healthy approach towards school and their future aspirations. In the hope this will lead to well-rounded individuals, who achieve or exceed their expectations across subjects. A combination of teacher feedback and student voice will be used to measure understanding and impact of lessons. This will also allow for changes in the curriculum to respond both to the needs of the students and ongoing issues within the world which can be drawn upon to impact on our student’s future positively. EPC impact will further show itself through our students’ mannerisms and interactions, promotion of anti-bullying, peer mentors and school student leaders.

Enrichment: What links are being made with other subjects to deepen student’s knowledge and skill set? What other experiences do we offer around the academy to develop our students?

SMSC and personal development is being promoted through all subjects for all our students. Please see the whole school tracker for further detail of how all subjects contribute to the EPC topics, SMSC and personal development. Below is some outline of how they do contribute to the content in PSCHE lessons:

English	Develop both oracy and written communication.
Maths	Use of money and finances. Studying budgets/savings and spending.
Science	Looking at the bodily changes of puberty, reproduction and menstruation.
Physical Education	The benefits of physical exercise.
History	History allows our students to look at key events such as Black Civil Rights, which helps underpin their work on tolerance, racism and British Values.
Geography	Explore regional and local issues which may arise.
Technology	Learning about food groups and diet.
Tutor Programme	Careers and financial work.

Drop down days also enrich the learning of EPC taking them from ‘standalone’ and ‘one off’ lessons to them really embedding their learning in various activities. Also allowing them to develop their knowledge and skills along with their cultural capital by exposing them to expert speakers in various areas.