Curriculum Overview
David Livingstone Academicians are placed at the heart of what we do. Our curriculum is deliberately designed to ensure that pupils become fluent readers studying a canon of high-quality texts during their school journey and become knowledgeable, confident speakers who can articulate their thoughts and opinions. The professional development of our staff is based on the most recent academic thinking. At David Livingstone we recognise and meet individual needs whilst valuing hard work and kindness.
What is learning?
Learning has three elements: it involves retention, transfer and change. Learning must be durable (it should be long-lasting), flexible (it should be applicable in new contexts) and liminal (it stands at the threshold of knowing and not knowing).
Cognitive development happens incrementally; the only way for a teacher to find out whether a student’s understanding of the world has changed is to wait. If we accept that learning is the retention and transfer of knowledge over time, we must also accept that learning cannot easily be observed in a single lesson. We must look at what students can do elsewhere and later.
Therefore, it follows that to know whether something has been learned, we should ask ourselves three questions:
- Will students still know this next week, next month, next year?
- Will students be able to apply what they have been learning in a new example, a new subject, a new place?
- How will this transform students’ understanding of the world?
You are welcome to contact the academy for any further information regarding our curriculum by emailing: office@davidlivingstone-academy.org