Curriculum

Distinctive Provision at Malton School

The Malton School Curriculum Policy states that ‘Malton School is a learning environment and community that aims to deliver a curriculum enabling each student to meet their full potential so that they are equipped and able to contribute positively to society. The curriculum aims to support students in their personal development, inspire and challenge students to raise their aspirations and demonstrate excellence in learning and achievement, such that they flourish and thrive in school and as they move onward into the wider world.’

developing the whole individual

Our curriculum has been developed around the belief that we are here to serve our students and the community in striving to develop the individuals in our care to their maximum potential. We aim to Nurture the Development of the Whole Individual. This relates to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs shown below which is well regarded as a useful model that underpins the needs of the individual.

We have identified Golden Threads that underpin our Curriculum and our provision at Malton School and lead to Nurturing the Development of the Whole Individual. These appear in our motto. Thread 1 – “Support” relating to the Physical and Security levels, Thread 2 – “Inspire” relating to the social level, and Thread 3 – “Thrive” relating to the Ego and Self-actualisation levels. As gaps in provision are identified or opportunities for improvement arise, we seek to enhance our curriculum with their inclusion. For example the Personal Development Activities programme seeks to encourage and facilitate all students in the participation in extra-curricular activities, a need that is magnified by our rural context and the geographical spread of our community. This develops the students in many ways, and is based upon developing skills related to the CBI list of desired skills, equipping our students for life beyond school both in work and in the wider community.

maslow’s hierarchy of need explained

It can clearly be seen how the curriculum in its entirety fulfils these needs as summarised in the diagram below. The three threads are fed by 15 key strands as shown. By covering the 5 key areas of the hierarchy, beginning with the basics at the base of the pyramid, we aim to set them up to be able to learn and develop as individuals who will be equipped to live fulfilling lives and usefully contribute to society.

The key contributors to the Physical level are based around the pastoral system with non-teaching pastoral staff, through the tutor system with planned activities to develop the students whilst offering a daily point of contact for students with their tutor, themed and planned assemblies that contribute to Wider World teaching and respond to student feedback and recognised needs of the student body, and a positive condcut system that actively seeks to reward good behaviour and attitudes and to correct negative ones, ensuring that students feel safe and secure. In addition our work in the Wellbeing area aims to contribute further to this, improving psychological safety, with student voice playing a significant part in the development of the work and with use of innovative web-based resources allowing all students to access information and strategies to maintain and improve their emotional wellbeing and resilience.

The Social level is targeted through the above vehicles and additionally the Stonewall work which actively promotes ‘acceptance without exception’ and the Wider World work which encourages students to learn about and value diversity, both within their own community and in the larger global community. Additionally the Personal Development Activities (PDA) contribute to this through the use of activities that bring together different groups of students from different year groups and encourage cooperation and friendship between the age groups.

The Esteem needs are targeted through the traditional curriculum in which the reporting system recognises the achievements of the students and the positive use of language by staff aims to encourage students to believe in themselves, through PDA, through our Growth Mindset work, through our options process that allows a small amount of individual choice in Year 8 and much more choice at the end of Year 9. We work hard to offer a good range of choices for the students at this point, within our financial capabilities such that they are able to follow the pathway of their choosing. The iPads for Learning aims to contribute to the esteem needs as students are able to access different resources to suit their needs and are able to achieve and present work in a varied number of ways and develop their independent learning skills. The Stonewall work, Wellbeing work and Wider World work seek to ensure that all students have a good sense of self-esteem, and the positive conduct system and the reporting system, including Celebration Evenings, commendation awards and housepoint awards seek to capture the students achieving well and to recognise their accomplishments.

The Self Actualisation Level is a culmination of the above strategies, and the provision of a wide range of opportunities for performance (school teams, plays, concerts etc) and for leadership (sports, Youth Award, digital leaders, key stage leaders) is a distinctive feature of the Curriculum and overall provision.

It is the combination of these contributing fibres that make the Malton School threads unique.

the golden threads

These different elements of our Curriculum contribute to the Golden Threads as follows.

It can be seen that the balance between the three threads is spread fairly evenly.

Future areas for the further development of the Curriculum could include further development of bridging courses that would fit between the Key Stage 4 curriculum and the largely academic Key Stage 5 curriculum currently on offer. We have a small selection of courses that cover this ground to a degree, with vocational courses in Sport, Food Technology, IT, Business Studies and Health and Social Care, though these are all level 3 qualifications. We introduced Performing Arts as a vocational qualification in 2020-21. On occasion a small number of students undertake study of Functional Skills English and Maths. In addition the development of web-based courses in Years 12 and 13 is another area for development.

in class learning

A large element of the Curriculum is clearly made up of the classroom teaching element. This may be further broken down into fibres that lead to successful outcomes for students as follows

1. Contextualised curriculum and teaching and learning experiences and learning in school linked with learning at home and in the community-The curriculum is often delivered in a contextualised manner. In addition learning for example in Geography looks at local issues, and the Youth Award work aims to contribute to the local and wider local area.
2. Creating curriculum experiences that involve learners actively in identifying and building on their existing knowledge, understandings and skills – this is a common approach employed in lessons
3. Structured group work for interdependence by teaching effective group talk skills and planning tasks that use and reinforce such skills – sometimes used and an area potentially for greater development
4. Developing a less compartmentalised approach to the curriculum to promote development of concepts that are used across the curriculum – There are examples where departments work together to approach learning in the same manner, for example maths and science, PE and Science, Geography and History. The development of the Faculty structure further promotes this work. Further work will be necessary in the future. Analysis of the assessment objectives at Key Stage 4 in the different subjects shows that there are clear links between the subjects and this may be an area for further future development.

Whilst we recognise that all subject areas hit all of these criteria over the course of teaching, from the subject assessment objectives it can be seen that the subjects directly target certain criteria as below:

In addition, Citizenship and the Youth Award contribute to the ‘Analysis and Evaluation’ and ‘Present personal and meaningful response’ elements.

5. Planning for challenging all pupils – A key area of work with differentiation and planning for all students playing an important role in the delivery of lessons, starting from the point that teachers know the students and work with them accordingly through the lessons.
6. Aligning curriculum and professional development (CPL) to build capacity and secure excellence in subject knowledge – The CPL aims of the school work towards this with staff encouraged to undertake training relating to their specific subject knowledge.
7. Skills development – Some subject specific but others eg literacy, numeracy, presentation skills, etc. are developed within the academic curriculum.

Summary

The golden threads of the Malton School relate to nurturing the development of the whole individual, our whole approach is geared towards maximising the potential of every student in our care. These threads are woven from fibres that work to produce a strong and unique curriculum as summarised below.