At OSA the intent of our curriculum is very clear; we want to prepare all of our students to have successful and happy futures. In order to achieve this we have developed challenging, knowledge intensive curriculums.

A FOCUS ON KNOWLEDGE
The only difference between a subject expert and a novice is how much knowledge they have about that topic and how well that knowledge is organised in their memory. When knowledge is well structured, it becomes meaningful and can be used to solve complex and interesting problems. Our subject teams have selected the most relevant and important knowledge to be taught across Years 7 – 9 in order to prepare our students to thrive in the world, as well as supporting students to make informed choices about their GCSE study.

COGNITIVE SCIENCE AND MEMORY
We know from current research that our working memory is very limited (it can only store between 4-7 pieces of new information in one go) this has huge implications for how we plan and teach our curriculum. We also know that our long term memory, where all of the things we have learnt are stored, has an unlimited capacity. This is why subject leaders have developed their curricular to ensure that lessons and learning builds on previous knowledge and therefore takes on deeper meaning and understanding as time goes by.

BUILDING SCHEMA
If we want students to remember the information that they learn, they need to be able to connect it to other information in their long term memory. When this happens an interconnected network of knowledge forms called a Schema. Students need to connect current learning with what they have learnt previously and relate new information to old information to prevent it from disappearing from their memories. Teachers will explicitly make links between the information they teach, and help students to build a detailed, easily recalled web of knowledge in student’s long term memory.
 

Y7 Scholars Guide Cycle 3
Y8 Scholar Guide Cycle 3
Y9 Scholars Guide Cycle 3
Y10 Scholar Guide Cycle 3