We believe our curriculum should have an impact on what children know, what kind people they become and the skills they develop. A helpful way we describe this is through a ‘head, heart and hands’ model.

Staff and governors have also identified three key drivers that will run through our curriculum design. These are areas where we want our children to have lots of experiences of so that they can excel and gain a rich, deep understanding. We will make a point of maximising opportunities to promote these across our curriculum.

All these are underpinned by our school’s motto:

Appreciating what we have… aspiring to greater things.

Curriculum Content

In our Reception class, learning experiences are planned for children using the continuous provision model. This model encourages learning through play both indoors and out. Pupils enjoy their learning, whilst being supported and challenged by our Early Years staff when exploring through play and with adult led activities. Literacy, phonics and mathematics opportunities are specifically planned for throughout the day and children can also access a range of well activities from the wider areas of the curriculum such as art and science.
We use the SoundsWrite programme to teach phonics. We put a great deal of focus on making sure that children quickly develop the skills and knowledge that they need to be able to read fluently and confidently by the end of year 1 and make sure that we support children thoughout the school who are not yet meeting the expected standard for reading for their year. We match children’s reading books match the phonics they are taught. Reading is taught through whole class reading lessons in Years 1 to 6.
Across all classes at the school, the mastery approach towards mathematics is followed. Reception to Year 6 follow the Ark Maths Mastery programme. The programme’s principles include high expectations for every child, ‘depth before breadth’, and a focus on problem-solving and conceptual understanding.
The Curriculum for Unity School’s Partnership (CUSP) is used for English, science, history, music, French and geography. This is an ambitous, evidence based curriclum with a focus on vocabulary. End points are identified and carefully planned for, building on previous knowledge. Long term plans comprehensively map out what is taught across the school in all subjects See the attached documents for the content of our different subjects within the school’s curriculum. Subjects are taught individually but links are made across different subjects where approrpiate.
In other curriculum areas, a coherent subject-specific, knowledge based curriculum has been developed with carefully planned sequences of learning that reflect the 2014 National Curriculum.
PSHE (which includes RSE) is high profile and taught weekly. Our long term plans carefully map out what children will be taught each term so children delveoping knowledge and skills in the following areas:
  • valuing different family structures
  • developing safe and respectful relationships
  • promoting good health and carrying out first aid
  • operating safely in a digital world
  • creating and maintaining positive friendships
  • understanding the changes that take place during puberty
  • learning to make independent choices and not be inlfuend by others

For further information about our curriculum, please contact the school office.