Our Curriculum rationale

Our Curriculum

Our curriculum ensures learning is effective, exciting and above all, relevant to the needs of our children 

All pupils will secure firm foundations in English, Mathematics and Science and this underpins a growing excellence in other subjects.

Our curriculum offers a broad range of subjects from Early Years through to Key Stage 2 (KS2) that is inclusive of all of our learners.

We believe in bringing learning to life, both indoors and out, with an emphasis on engaging and purposeful learning. This is a shared responsibility and vision which involves children, staff and parents.

We recognise that progress means knowing more and remembering more.

Our curriculum content in all subjects is carefully sequenced to build upon prior learning. It enables all children to reach the highest possible standards through ambitious, broad and balanced activities. 

We have thought very carefully about what drives our curriculum and how we ensure we are providing opportunities to develop lifelong skills alongside learning key knowledge. 

Underpinning our curriculum are four key drivers:

Environment: We want every one of our children to value the environment and feel passionate about its management. Our curriculum provides opportunities to be responsible for our school, our local area, our world and everything in it.

Ethos: Our Christian distinctiveness underpins all we do and our curriculum focuses on our key school values of Love- the heart of all aspects of school life overarching our values of Collaboration, Perseverance, Respect, Confidence, Peace and Creativity.

Diversity: We believe if children develop a deep knowledge of other cultures it helps them to understand different perspectives within the world in which we live. Our curriculum content dispels negative stereotypes and personal biases about different groups. In addition, it helps our children recognise and respect “ways of being” that are not necessarily our own. We promote British Values across our curriculum.

Communication: This is more than spoken language. Our curriculum promotes an ambitious use of language in all forms and well as teaching children to become good communicators. Children will learn that words, actions and how they listen to others makes them a good communicator.

We are ambitious for all groups particularly our SEND and disadvantaged children. We strive for all our learners, enabling them to problem solve and undertake learning at a deeper level. To achieve this, we have developed a curriculum with rich learning opportunities that enable the children to make strong connections. In order to do this we maximise learning by carefully designing content that makes strong links between subjects whenever possible.

Our curriculum takes advantage of our local environment and in selecting our areas of study, we consider our local area; what it is now and what it has been through history and how our villages and their surroundings have been shaped over time. Making the most of our wonderful locality is paramount.

Assessment across Foundation Subjects

Across the foundation subjects we aim for all children to access the key knowledge and skills carefully identified through each unit. For children who teachers identify as having gaps in their skills +  knowledge or who have missed sections of a unit due to illness then teachers will try and fill these gaps through additional intervention or revision sessions. Where this is not possible then we ensure that teacher assessment and knowledge of gaps is addressed in the next unit which builds on these key concepts and this is passed on if a different member of staff is planning the next unit. Through identifying where units of work link to previous and future learning- teachers can revisit the key skills and knowledge at the start of a unit and end of a unit needed to successfully grasp the new learning and adapt planning to meet pupils needs.

In accordance with the Equality Act 2010 and the Special Needs and Disability Regulations 2014, the learning in each subject is provided for all pupils in the school, including those with special educational needs.

For further information, please see our SEND information, The First Federation SEND policy and the First Federation Equality policy.

Please talk to your child’s teacher or contact the school office if you would like to find out more about our curriculum.