Curriculum intent

As a school, we have spent time considering what are the key aspects of our curriculum we want to meet the needs of the pupils and local community.

Our school aim is:

‘For every member of our school community to develop the knowledge and skills to become a successful, considerate and active citizen, who will make a positive contribution to the school, community and wider world.’

This was the starting point for our curriculum design.  It is important we enable the children to aspire to achieve.  This means equipping every child with the knowledge and the learning behaviours they need to be ready for their next stage of education.  We want our children to maintain a secondary placement so they have the opportunity to go on to sixth form and university.  Social mobility is an important driver for our curriculum offer.

We use the National Curriculum as a starting point for our long term plan and for the outcomes we want all children to achieve.  We have built on these expectations to ensure that every child leaves school with the knowledge, skills and behaviours which will prepare them for the next stage of education.

We identified some key concepts which tie together our curriculum long term plan.  These ‘golden concepts’ support teachers in linking the knowledge, understanding and skills children have acquired across a broad range of topics and themes.   Through such links, children revisit and review prior learning and secure substantive and disciplinary knowledge.

These are:

Through our focus on metacognition and learning behaviours, we equip children to recognise that through hard work and determination anything is possible.  It is crucial we raise aspirations by giving a greater understanding of what careers and opportunities exist in the local area and beyond, now and in the future.   To this end, we offer a broad and balanced curriculum, which enables all children to take part in all areas of the curriculum.  We ensure that all children have the chance to access music, the arts and STEM learning.

It is vital we also provide opportunities to go beyond the curriculum through visits, outdoor learning, links with local groups and after school clubs and activities.  Our long term plan identifies opportunities for visits and activities we believe every child has the right to experience.  We recognise that it is difficult for a child to develop knowledge and understanding of something they have never done or seen in person before.  We therefore plan opportunities such as visits to the beach, going to the theatre, staying overnight on a residential or visiting a gallery as part of our wider offer.

Children are encouraged to have a say in what they do and school council groups have been established to cover a wide range of interests. We give children opportunities to take responsibility for areas across the school.  This might be shared reading with a younger child; helping out on the early years and key stage one playgrounds or setting up the new school library. We also identify opportunities for child led learning where a particular interest or current event impacts on them. For example, we have adapted plans to include work as part of the ‘United against Bullying award’, which was identified as an important part of the personal development in school.

Curriculum Implementation

Our curriculum long term plan uses the National Curriculum as a starting point. We have sequenced our curriculum based on key concepts and children having the opportunity to revisit prior learning to be able to build on knowledge.

Our curriculum is based on a two year cycle.  We have chosen these themes based on our curriculum intent.

Year A

Year B

For each subject area, we have drawn up progression documents, which outlines the substantive knowledge and disciplinary knowledge that children should have access to in each term.

Links, through the golden thread concepts link the curriculum long term plan together and enable children to experience knowledge and understanding in different contexts, periods of history or applications of skills.  The curriculum also links through key curriculum subjects.  For example, in guided reading sessions, comprehension and VIPERS skills may link with the current learning in science.  This further reinforces and embeds knowledge into the long term memory, ensuring children know and remember more.

Curriculum impact

At the start of each block of work, children are assessed using quizzes, assessments or tests to identify where they are starting from.  These enable to children to link prior learning with what they will be going on to learn in the coming block. 

Assessment for learning strategies, such as flashback fours or tasks included on learning labels reinforce this on a daily basis.  Misconceptions are identified through assessments tasks and teachers will plan to address these in the next lesson before moving the learning on.

A planned programme of CPD and in-house training ensures that teachers have expert knowledge of the subjects they teach.  They are supported by subject leaders who deliver staff training on key areas of their own subject area.