Curriculum overview

Our curriculum prepares pupils for a life without limits. Our pupils leave us as responsible citizens; they are conscious of their own impact upon the world and others whilst holding a relentless curiosity about the world around them. Rooted in the National Curriculum, our curriculum is ambitious for all, regardless of starting points. It has been carefully designed to ensure pupils think critically, converse with confidence, have a desire to read and know and remember more about the world.

We ensure curriculum coherence and depth of learning through key threads, which are revisited every year from Nursery through to Year 6. Units complement these threads and run alongside the high quality, age-appropriate texts chosen to form our reading spine. Teachers know how the various pieces of our curriculum puzzle fit together across subject domains and over time, and are able to draw on this to deepen children's learning.

The school curriculum is rooted in the national curriculum and is therefore ambitious for all and provides them with the knowledge and skills needed to take advantage of the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. It has been carefully sequenced to ensure knowledge and skills are progressive from Early Years to Year 6, both across and within year groups. Each unit has been thoughtfully designed to build upon prior learning and develop schema to allow pupils to be successful for subsequent learning. There are clearly defined end points; subject leaders have worked alongside subject specialists to ensure the curriculum lays the foundation for pupils to succeed in Key Stage 3. 

• Knowledge: Curiosity is reliant on existing knowledge. If we want our pupils to know more and remember more, we have to be really clear on what it is we want them to remember and why. This is mapped out in all subject handbooks. 

• Skill: If we want our pupils to be future scientists, historians, geographers etc. we need to teach them explicit skills in these areas. This also plays a key role in accessing the knowledge for application. These are mapped out within progression maps which have been influenced by subject associations. 

• Reading: Reading is at the heart of everything we do and is the greatest gift we can offer our pupils. A diverse reading spine runs throughout the curriculum and we also have a wide range of non-fiction text to ensure our pupils read widely and read to learn.

• Vocabulary: due to our context with a high percentage of disadvantaged pupils, we know how important language acquisition and vocabulary is. When thinking about the word gap, we know that this a direct disadvantage our children will have unless we actively and explicitly do something about it. Vocabulary is mapped out in every year group, in every subject. This is not always tier 3 vocabulary, but tier 1 and tier 2 also. 

• Enquiry: We want our pupils to think critically and be curious, to reason and to weigh up judgements – they need to be able to have the skills in order to make informed decisions within their life and understand the impact they have on the world. 

• Experience: As the school is in an area with a high level of deprivation, we know that planned, intentional experiences will develop cultural capital and support learning. We have mapped out core experiences for each year group within different subjects. These include speakers, visits, projects and also virtual reality experiences. 

• Oracy:  The benefits of strong oracy goes far beyond academic achievement; it underpins social, emotional and interpersonal skills, including self-confidence, self-awareness, resilience and empathy. Through a high quality oracy education, children learn through talk and to talk. In lessons, talk is intentionally planned and supported.

Effective assessment provides vital information to improve teaching and learning outcomes. Our rigorous progress and target setting model supports this.

We provide children with regular feedback on their learning so that they understand what they need to do to improve, and our lesson plans are formed with a detailed knowledge of each pupil and their needs.

We also give parents/carers regular reports on their child’s progress so that teachers, children and parents/carers can all work together to raise the attainment of the child.