Curriculum and culture
Great schooling is the heart of our mission – because great schooling leads to great learning. And great learning leads to genuine choice and high-quality destinations - which set our learners up for the good life they choose for themselves.
Curriculum and culture are at the heart of great schooling and between them, they encompass our four school improvement levers:
- Curriculum
- Culture
- Coaching
- Data-drive instruction
The centrality of ‘curriculum’
Curriculum is perhaps one of the most all-encompassing words in the educational lexicon – it means so much. Our sector has the taught curriculum and the hidden curriculum. We have timetabled lessons and enrichment programmes. Ofsted talks about curriculum intent, implementation and impact. Other people talk about curriculum design, or ‘architecture’. It’s a huge topic full of different meanings and emphases for different people!
Follow the links below to see the essence of our work around curriculum at Aldridge Education:
What do we mean by culture?
We’re talking about student culture here. Every school has a student culture, whether it is written down or not. In fact, real student culture is not what is written down in a document, it’s what is seen as you walk around a school. It’s how students conduct themselves, what staff expect of everyone in the building and what the ‘default’ is – what happens on a day-to-day basis in the reality of a typical school day.
How does that culture get set? Well, it is either set with intentionality and purpose or it grows itself within the gaps; it’s either set by leaders or it’s set by students: Aldridge schools choose the former.
We believe that we need to define the culture or the culture will define us! You can find out more about our culture on the links below:
At Aldridge Education we seek to be in the work together. We have a shared approach to curriculum and culture that provides a Trust-wide framework which schools implement and interpret in light of their local context. We believe this model allows our students and staff to succeed together. We are Aldridge.
