About Us

The aim of our academy trust is to ensure everyone is valued and shares responsibility for the challenging learning that take place.

Our approach is based on a fundamental belief that all young people have talent and the potential to achieve more than they ever thought possible.

Our vision consists of three principal areas:

Academic

Excellent standards and outstanding progress are a prerequisite for success in life equipping young people with the skills and knowledge they will need to be successful, happy and productive citizens.

Social

Excellent relationships for learning are a prerequisite for all other achievements. Relationships that engender mutual respect between young people, and all other members of our academies’ communities will ensure learning can be fun in a disciplined and caring environment where the highest expectations are the norm.

Personal

All young people achieve things they can be proud of every day in addition to academic success and outside our school’s planned curriculum. We have a vital role in ensuring individuals develop their own talents and interests and have a responsibility to instill in them a sense of pride in who they are and what they achieve. All members of the MPAT staff community see themselves as learners. They are empowered to make decisions, be creative and to lead. Mutual respect pervades all relationships working together to enhance professional learning and practice and collaboration; collegiality and a sense of team identifies how all staff work together. Staff are part of a team that ensures the academies throughout MPAT strengthen their positions among the best schools in the country.

Our Aim

Everyone is valued and shares responsibility for the challenging learning that take place.

Vision and Values

Our approach is based on a fundamental belief that all young people have talent and the potential to achieve more than they ever thought possible.

Achievement in three main areas:

• Academic: Excellent standards and outstanding progress are a prerequisite for success in life equipping young people with the skills and knowledge they will need to be successful, happy and productive citizens.
• Social: Excellent relationships for learning are a prerequisite for all other achievements.  Relationships that engender mutual respect between young people, and all other members of our academies’ communities will ensure learning can be fun in a disciplined and caring environment where the highest expectations are the norm.
  
  
• Personal: All young people achieve things they can be proud of every day in addition to academic success and outside our school’s planned curriculum. We have a vital role in ensuring individuals develop their own talents and interests and have a responsibility to instil in them a sense of pride in who they are and what they achieve.

All members of the MPAT staff community see themselves as learners. They are empowered to make decisions, be creative and to lead. Mutual respect pervades all relationships working together to enhance professional learning and practice and collaboration; collegiality and a sense of team identifies how all staff work together. Staff are part of a team that ensures the academies throughout MPAT strengthen their positions among the best schools in the country.

Curriculum Intent,  Implementation and Impact 

Curriculum Intent

Every child in our school is recognised as individual and unique. The ability to learn is underpinned in curriculum subject areas by the teaching of basic skills, knowledge, concepts and vocabulary. There are clear, identified end points in each phase of learning which build upon what has been taught before and gives pupils the required knowledge and skills for their next stage of learning. Our curriculum at Mercia Primary Academy Trust is not solely focused on academic subjects and achievement. We provide pupils with rich learning experiences, educational visits, residential trips, extra-curricular activities and enrichment opportunities. We want children to have fun at school and talk about their primary school years as being full of great memories.

Our vision is to provide an overall education which prepares each pupil with the tools and strategies needed to cope with the challenges currently posed in modern day Britain, e.g. social media, health, relationships and finance. We also aim to ensure that our pupils know how to make a positive contribution to their community and wider society.

Alongside the teaching of knowledge, skills and vocabulary, here at Mercia Primary Academy Trust, we aim to promote positive mental health for every member of our school community, including: staff, pupils and families. We pursue this aim using both universal and whole school approaches as well as specialised, targeted approaches aimed at vulnerable pupils. We have a dedicated member of staff in school full time that deals with the emotional well-being of all our school community. Pupils are encouraged to talk openly about their mental well-being and access support as and when required. We aim to provide pupils with the tools and strategies needed to cope when faced with challenges within school or home life.

We are very fortunate to have extensive school grounds. We value the role that outdoor education has in a child’s development and aim to incorporate as much outdoor learning as possible into our broad and balanced curriculum. We find that increasingly more pupils are spending a lot of time in the ‘electronic’ world.  We intend to give pupils a love and excitement for being outdoors and learning in their outdoor environment.

Curriculum Implementation 

How is our curriculum taught at a subject and classroom level?

Subject Leadership

The role of the subject leader is pivotal in the successful implementation of our curriculum. We aim for all subject leaders to have the knowledge, expertise and practical skill to be able to lead their areas effectively. Each curriculum subject has a team of dedicated subject leaders with clear roles and responsibilities. They are responsible for the curriculum design, delivery and impact in their own curriculum area. Subject leaders and leaders at all levels, including Governors, regularly review and quality assure the subject areas to ensure that it is being implemented well and that coverage, breadth and balance is adequate.

CPD

In order for us to be able to deliver the best and most up to date curriculum, we provide staff with high quality CPD in their subject specific areas of leadership or teaching role. Following CPD, staff feedback to each other about what they have learnt and we then discuss the impact of this on a class teacher, subject leader and whole school strategic level.  We aim to give staff the expert knowledge required to deliver the subjects that they teach. Ongoing professional development and training is available for staff to ensure that our challenging curriculum requirements can be met. Newly qualified teachers shadow a subject leader in their first year of teaching as part of their CPD to ensure that when they take on a curriculum leader role in school, they fully understand the expectations, roles and responsibilities of the job.

Planning

The curriculum at Mercia Primary Academy Trust is carefully mapped out to ensure that pupils acquire knowledge, vocabulary and skills in a well-thought out and progressive manner in every curriculum subject ensuring sufficient coverage across each subject over time. New learning is based upon what has been taught before and prepares pupils for what they will learn next. There are clear end points which pupils work towards on their learning journey. We know that if our pupils are learning our curriculum, they are making progress and are being prepared for the next stage of their educational journey. 

Vocabulary

Here at Mercia Primary Academy Trust, we aim to develop pupil’s working vocabulary. We find that a large majority of pupils enter our nursery with speech and language needs. Language is often delayed and active working vocabulary limited. For this reason, alongside the teaching of knowledge and skills, we also teach pupils a range of vocabulary associated with their curriculum subjects and learning areas. Pupils are excited to learn new words and take delight in being able to use them in their day to day working in the classroom and at home.

Reading

The teaching and acquisition of reading skills is prioritised at Mercia Primary Academy Trust to allow pupils to access the full curriculum. Pupils in the Nursery class begin with important skills including rhyming and alliteration and this is built upon in the Reception and Year 1 classes where phonemes are taught and skills such as blending and segmenting are introduced. Where a pupil has been identified as not on track to make expected progress, interventions are put in place to enable them to catch up and achieve in line with their peers. Pupils are able to access a range of reading resources and texts in the school library.

Assessment

Assessment at Mercia Primary Academy Trust is designed thoughtfully to shape future learning. It is not excessive or onerous as it is part of the day to day working practices of the classroom. Teachers ensure that pupils embed key concepts in their long term memory. Key skills and objectives for curriculum areas are revisited throughout the year and applied in different contexts. Assessments are reliable and are moderated to ensure that expected outcomes are fully understood by all staff.

Curriculum Impact
Monitoring and Evaluation

A curriculum subject leader is responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of their own subject area. Additional management time is given to subject leaders each week to enable them to successfully carry out their roles and responsibilities, without adding to working. The information from the monitoring and evaluation then forms the basis of the impact assessment for that curriculum area.

A member of staff has overall leadership for assessing the intent, implementation and impact of the whole curriculum that we offer here at Mercia Primary Academy. This leader has overall vision of the monitoring and evaluation and will guide staff in their roles and responsibilities.

Judgement on the impact of the curriculum on pupils is based upon a triangulation of different monitoring and evaluation activities within school. Work and book scrutiny, pupil voice discussions, outcomes of assessments and quality of teaching and learning are all used as tools to help senior leaders assess the impact of the curriculum.

Outcomes for Pupils

Our curriculum consistently leads to good outcomes and results for the pupils at Mercia Primary Academy Trust. We are consistently in line with national averages for outcomes at the end of EYFS, KS1 and KS2. We also regularly achieve highly in the phonics screening test for our Year 1 pupils and usually all of our pupils have passed the phonics screening test by the time they leave Year 2 unless there is a special and specific learning need.

Pupils with additional learning needs make good progress across the curriculum in line with their own progress measures. Assessment of these pupils is in much smaller and achievable steps. Essential skills, such as: first aid, money awareness, internet safety, healthy eating; and basic life skills, such as: tying shoe laces, using knives and forks correctly, telling the time are all part of what we consider to be necessary skills for our pupils to succeed in life and are key parts of our teaching in school. Although these skills may not be assessed numerically or with a grade, we still feel that being able to achieve these life-skills will enable pupils to fully access life in modern day Britain.