Our Curriculum

Curriculum Design

Leaders and all stakeholders have spent time collaboratively reviewing and discussing the curriculum design and implementation. Educational research, local knowledge and our own school context have all been considered. Our curriculum has been designed to celebrate the backgrounds, life experiences and cultures of our children, to celebrate their strengths as well as helping them to overcome potential barriers to learning.

Language acquisition is the foundation of thinking and learning. Reading, vocabulary development and phonics – alongside opportunities which give real life experiences – are at the heart of our curriculum design. We have planned a coherent knowledge rich curriculum. Knowledge and skills being two sides of a coin – we know that through gaining knowledge, skills can be mastered. We have carefully considered where to position the experiences, knowledge, and skills we believe our children need, to be successful on their learning journeys. Our curriculum has been designed to enable every child to succeed academically and reach their potential whilst developing as individuals who are ready and prepared for the world ahead of them, from the next stage of their education and beyond to employment and to living in their local and global community. Our curriculum has been designed to cover national curriculum content and provide a depth to children’s learning so that they are able to use and apply their knowledge and skills and understanding in all areas of the curriculum.

We understand our school context. We provide a broad and rich curriculum so that our pupils are equipped with the skills to make positive choices about their education, social and working life. This is so that they will have a wide range of skills and knowledge to meet their needs both now and for the future to reach the highest aspirations.

Curriculum Accountability

Our leaders have co-constructed the curriculum to define our high ambition for curriculum outcomes.

Intent

As a school, we follow the National Curriculum. Every term, each year group covers a topic; subjects such as History and Geography are taught through this topic. We call this our Creative Curriculum. The children are immediately immersed into the topic, often through a ‘stunning start’, which could involve the engagement of external or internal providers. All visits and trips are based around the topic wherever possible, ensuring that the pupils’ love for learning is deepened. Subjects which do not fit into the topic are taught as stand-alone lessons.

Our overall aim is that ALL PUPILS - regardless of their background, needs or abilities - read widely and often, with fluency and comprehension at least appropriate to their age. Writing is taught through the topic, which has captured children’s imagination. The school’s Maths curriculum is taught separately. There is a focus on developing pupils’ ability to problem solve and reason about maths once the children become fluent with a mathematical skill.

We are an inclusive school. All staff are passionate and driven to ensure that every child is given every opportunity to develop and succeed to their full potential. For those children who are disadvantaged or have SEND, opportunities are given for them to be included in the curriculum but also to receive timely quality interventions to close gaps in their knowledge and skills, providing them with a range of support to include the four areas of need.

Implementation

All pupils experience high quality teaching and learning opportunities. Teachers have a secure knowledge and understanding of their year group curriculum. The school’s values are embedded within the curriculum; these are instrumental in producing pupils who are outstanding citizens and prepared for life-long learning.

Weaved through the curriculum is the following-

Impact

We expect all our children, whatever their starting point, to make academic progress. But the impact of our curriculum will also be seen through the ability of our children to be resilient, tolerant, moral citizens, who know how their actions, thoughts and opinions can make an impact on others, and in the world, we live in.

We assess using Key Threads, which are the subjects linked to the Topic. We also use Key Threads for Science. The purpose of this is to broaden the children’s knowledge, so they have a deeper understanding, which will remain in their long-term memory. To see our Key Threads please here for Topic and here for Science.

RE, Computing, PE, Maths, French, Design Technology and Music are taught as a stand-alone subjects, but wherever possible we try and link to the topic. Here is our Yearly Overview:

Weaved through all our curriculum are our School Values. Here is an overview of our Values: