Background

The Trust’s learning platform started life back in 2018 when the academy heads and senior leaders began working on the development of the Primary Entitlement book.  The book, created by Andrew at the inception of the Trust, set out our ambition for all pupils to be ‘entitled’ to a broad and balanced curriculum enriched by learning opportunities that would ensure they developed lifelong skills and character.

The curriculum working party developed the Trust’s Drivers that sit at the heart of the Primary Entitlement and whole curriculum development.  From these Drivers, schools developed their local priorities, adapting the curriculum to meet the needs of the pupils that attend their school or hub.

The Trust’s Drivers sit at the heart of our intent for all pupils.

Research

During the two years since the working party developed the Trust’s Driver, members of school and the central team have been undertaking research to further develop our curriculum intent and implementation vision and ethos. At schools all teachers and leaders have engaged in context relevant research and development to ensure each setting has a robust subject specific curriculum.  Schools have selected drivers, threads or learning foci that enable pupils to achieve academically and personally, and these threads/drivers have been shaped by the Trust’s Drivers.  The central team have continued to research personal development and the wider attributes that sit at the heart of the creation of the Trust including reaching out to other educational establishments to share best practice both within the primary sector and beyond.  In October 2020, Joel Vaughan (class teacher at Rendlesham) was appointed as researcher for our primary entitlement platform.  He shares an article in this edition of Horizons setting out his work, findings and aspirations for the platform. 

Platform Intent

The platform is being built and designed by a local developer who has worked with us closely since he started the build in September 2020.  Our working title ‘Learning Pi’ has come from discussions about what the platform is for and what it is not for!

• A hub designed to consider teacher workload, with a mission to reduce it.
• A hub for pupils and families where progress and achievement can be reviewed and celebrated.
  • that supports pupil/parent consultations
  • that demonstrates achievement against Trust Driver criteria
  • that demonstrates pupil attainment and progress in the core subjects

^{Information about core subjects will be automatically pulled from our assessment databases. From December 2021, when using Mark for NTS assessments the data will be pulled automatically from Mark into the assessment data base and then pulled to the learning platform. There will be no expectation for double entry.} 

• A hub for pupils and families to engage in learning opportunities designed to develop their – Personal Development, Creative Development and Community Engagement

^{An online interactive version of the Primary Entitlement book, enabling teachers to access more learning opportunities designed to enhance curriculum context and personal development.  Teachers have the opportunity to design opportunities where they want to.}

• A hub for teachers to discuss with pupils the characteristics of learning and how they can develop them

^{A pupil ‘page’ (think social media) where a one-page profile shows current attendance and progress in core subjects and progress against development in the Drivers.}

• A hub where, with the class teacher, SEND pupils and their families can set meaningful targets for attainment
• A hub where SEND pupils can track and celebrate their achievements in a broader context

^{A secondary page for pupils who are working with an ‘adapted curriculum’ and or have an EHCP.  Targets and progress against targets will be set on their SEND page with photo evidence and next steps (think Tapestry).  This will replace SSPs, target tracking and evidencing of progress, there will be no need for additional tracking.}

A hub where text limited ‘learning’ notifications can be sent.

• A notification hub where short learning notifications can be sent, designed to support home to school communications and to replace home/school books.  Here messages can be sent to say ‘Jack had a great morning he worked hard in maths and English’, or ‘Jack had a difficult morning in Maths but he’s worked really hard this morning. Please ask him to bring his reading book in tomorrow’.

A hub where teachers are able to review pupil attainment and progress in core subjects as well as pupil characteristics

Next steps

As the platform begins to take form we will start a consultation process with pupils, parents and staff.  Initially, we will be working with a group of peers to review the Driver criteria and the Learning Opportunities evaluation processes.  Some teachers have already expressed an interest in being involved in this, if there are any other staff with an interest in engaging in the first phase of the peer review.