Curriculum

The Lakeside curriculum is an ambitious, coherent and well-connected curriculum which is designed to allow knowledge to be structured and deepened over time. Pupils are supported and challenged to build powerful and lasting connections from their experiences. The curriculum is driven by the rigour in the teaching and learning of the individual subjects; delving into the specific disciplinary knowledge and letting the substantive knowledge of the subjects feed off each other. As subject leaders, teachers are tasked with creating a culture in school which will empower collaboration and overlap between subjects to see the curriculum as a whole—recognising how their subject not only fits in but supports other subjects around it.

Core Components to a Composite Outcome

At Lakeside, we consider each lesson in a given subject to be a core component towards a composite outcome. In some subjects, the composite outcome is disciplinary in nature. For example, some Year 5 children may learn a series of PE lessons around the substantive (know what) factors of tag rugby. Their objectives for these lessons (the core components) may include learning to run forwards; learning to pass backwards; learning to score tries; learning to tackle by ripping tags etc.

The composite outcome for this unit of work would be a game of tag rugby. Now teachers can see how the substantive knowledge transfers to disciplinary knowledge (know how). We are looking for children apply and transfer the knowledge they have gained in the core component lessons to the composite outcome of a match. Success would be a child asking for a pass, behind the passer and then running forwards.

Sometimes, the composite outcome can combine several disciplinary subjects to accommodate the overarching theme the children have been engaged in. For example, at the end of their World War II unit, the children in Y6 are challenged to build a lighthouse out of junk modelling:

Pulling together understanding from the core components in science, the children must wire the lighthouse to make the bulb glow brightest;
pulling together understanding from the core components in computing, the children must code their circuit to flash a Morse code message to the nearby small boats;
pulling on the core components in geography, the children must create a map of where their lighthouse is positioned using relevant OS map symbols and grid references;
and pulling together understanding from the core components in history, the children must design a notice board and blue plaque for their lighthouse to share relevant propaganda and explain the historic significance of the lighthouse.

Over the course of the year, the children will encounter three core questions:

1. Who Am I? Pupils are encouraged to develop an understanding of themselves, their beliefs, their qualities and begin to compare these to a different context e.g. Year 6 pupils gaining an understanding of what life is like to be a child in modern Britain and then comparing themselves to an evacuee during World War II.

2. Where Am I? Pupils build on their understanding of themselves and use this to develop an understanding of the place in which they live – their local community, their country, the world in which they are part of.

3. Where Am I Going? Pupils build on their understanding of themselves, their local environment and use this to develop an understanding of next steps – both for themselves in terms of moving on to a new chapter in their lives but also in terms of exploration and the future.