At Irlam and Cadishead Academy, we live by our school motto to ‘believe, achieve, succeed’. We know that to achieve this, we need to find the best in every single student and staff member. For many of our children, this means equipping them with the knowledge, ambition and skills to go to university one day. We have a relentless focus on high standards. We do not apologise for this, even if it seems that we are strict; we are, and we celebrate our high expectations of each other. We believe exceptional learning is about finding out the simple things that work, doing them well, and doing them all the time. We do not overcomplicate things. At Irlam and Cadishead Academy, things are simple: teachers teach, and students learn. All pupils will have completed the content in the scheme of work, which is also broken down into half termly programmes of study to support departments and teachers with their time management. The Curriculum has been carefully designed to continuously interleave content, enabling pupils to revisit prior knowledge without having a spiral Curriculum. The Curriculum focuses on teaching in a sequence that provides building blocks for pupils to access future topics.

We use carefully constructed resources that exemplify accessible methods for students and teachers. We provide an opportunity for challenge by depth rather than accelerating through the Curriculum. In key stage 4, exam questions focusing on the specification objectives AO1/2/3 are used, when appropriate, to assess understanding of core fluency and application of it in context. Development of long-term memory is supported by a Curriculum that focuses on interleaving content, regular low stakes quizzing, daily starter grids that review prior learning, and formative assessments that feed into teacher planning to close gaps in knowledge. Consistent review of key content is integral to the structure and order of the Curriculum itself. Teachers use Hegarty Maths to review this content as homework. All the UL resources and assessments allow pupils to access key assessment language from year 7. Throughout all year groups there is an intentional focus on numeracy which will act as a scaffold to access mathematical questions in other subject areas.

Pupils access prior learning embedded into new topics with ease. Regular exposure to key mathematical skills in starter grids helps pupils to remember these methods and skills, ensuring that confidence grows in these areas. Students learning will be monitored regularly through assessment for learning, knowledge tests in lessons and ensuring students have mastered an understanding of key sections of the curriculum before moving onto the next topic. Starter grids and mini quizzes will take place in lessons. Starter grids and mini quizzes are used each lesson to fix misconceptions from the previous terms learning. Assessment data is used to judge the success of the curriculum, and any ‘gaps’ in learning will be identified and re-taught to ensure mastery of the curriculum.