Curriculum

Our curriculum supports our children and the whole Federation community in ‘Living Life to the Full.’  This means the curriculum must endeavour to:

• Be rich, broad, balanced and accessible to all;
• Be enjoyable, interesting, relevant and appropriate;
• Be memorable and rich in connections;
• Offer opportunities for creativity;
• Support personal and social development;
• Support children’s knowledge and understanding of their world;
• Support children’s feeling of ownership of their world;
• Prepare children to face the many challenges and adventures that life will bring.

Our core curriculum is based on the National Curriculum for England that must be taught in all maintained schools:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum

Taking the National Curriculum as our core document, we think about putting learning into meaningful contexts that will build upon each other as children progress through the school.

We take time to consider:

• What we know about our families and our children;
• What is happening in our locality, in our nation and in the world;
• What we have found to be successful in enabling children to learn in our setting;
• What research tells us about successful teachers and learners;
• What our children tell us about their learning.

If consideration of the points above means we must deviate from our set plans in order to meet current needs, we do so. Over time we ensure we have covered all elements of the National Curriculum.

We operate a 2-year rolling program to allow for teaching in mixed-aged classes.  The starting point for our planning is the school vision.

Not all subjects can be covered in this way using natural links, so some other learning is purposefully chunked together in order that knowledge and skills are embedded in other memorable ways, for example through a ‘Science Week’ or ‘Ancient Greek Day’’.

Although, whenever possible, links are sought and made, we recognise that systematic building of knowledge and skills in some subjects is best achieved through routine well-planned and taught lessons that may be discrete from other curriculum areas for much of the time – for example, Languages or PE.

We believe that effective learning takes place when children are engaged and excited by the curriculum, when the subject matter is placed in an interesting and relevant context and when resources are chosen for their impact. We recognise the importance of visits and visitors in enriching learning and we seek to provide experiences that are memorable for our children. We consciously seek ways to support the social, moral, spiritual and cultural development of our children through all areas of the set curriculum and ensure that our PSE curriculum is rich in opportunities for children to explore and express these areas of development.