Curriculum

Click here to see our whole curriculum overview

Our curriculum is the means by which we achieve our objectives of educating children in the knowledge, skills and understanding that they need in order to lead fulfilling lives. Our school curriculum is underpinned by our principle value of providing high quality educational experiences that are focused on continued improvement in whole school standards and the development of independent and responsible learners.

These are the core values of our school, upon which we have based our curriculum:

We value the way in which all children are unique, and our curriculum promotes respect for the views of each individual children, as well as for people of all cultures.
We organise our curriculum so that we promote co-operation and understanding between all members of our community.
We respect each child in our school for who they are, and we treat them with fairness and honesty. We aim to enable each person to be successful and provide equal opportunities for all children in our school.
We value our environment, and we aim, through our curriculum, to teach respect for our world, and how we should care for it for future generations, as well as our own.

Intent

The aims of our school curriculum are:

To enable all children to learn and develop their skills to the best of their ability.
To foster a love for reading and achieve a high level of reading fluency to bring the wider curriculum alive and ensure that it is accessible for all.
To facilitate children’s acquisition of knowledge, skills and qualities which will help them to develop intellectually, emotionally, socially, physically, and morally, so that they may become independent, responsible, useful, thinking, confident and considerate members of the community.
To promote a positive attitude towards learning, so that children enjoy coming to school and acquire a solid basis for lifelong learning.
To create and maintain an exciting and stimulating learning environment where all pupils are encouraged to be risk takers.
To develop pupils resilience in a happy and safe learning environment.
To ensure that each child’s education has continuity and progression.
To enable children to be positive citizens in society.
To enable all children to have respect for themselves and high self-esteem, and to be able to live and work co-operatively with others.
To recognise the crucial role which parents play in their child’s education and make every effort to encourage parental involvement in their educational process.
To deliver a curriculum that encourages respect for the environment and society.

Within the BAWB Federation, we aim to develop pupils who are successful, confident and responsible and as a result of the curriculum offered. We expect that the children will, at a level appropriate to their age and ability, be able to be:

Successful – by acquiring skills to be:

Creative thinkers;
Problem solvers;
Good question askers and learn by their mistakes;
Good collaborators;
Secure in their knowledge from the world and how it is shaped;
Motivated to learn.

Confident – by having a secure:

Sense of identity;
Good relationships with all members of their community;
Emotional awareness;
Knowledge of right and wrong;
Understanding of organizational skills;
Awareness of a healthy lifestyle;
Understanding of risk awareness;
Understanding of how to develop their strengths, talents and ambitions;
Confidence and willingness to try new things.

Responsible – by developing their ability to be:

Well prepared for life and work;
Enterprising;
Able to respect others and understand their own and others’ cultures and traditions;
Able to understand what it means to be British and will appreciate diversity
Able to challenge injustice;
Recognising how to sustain and improve the environment;
Able to try to change things for the better.

Implementation

Key Skills

We believe the following skills are key aspects of pupil development, and these are promoted through our wider curriculum:

Reading
Communication
Application
Information Technology
Working with others
Improving own learning and performance
Problem solving

Organisation and Planning

We plan our curriculum ensuring we meet the requirements of the National Curriculum and the Early Years Foundation Curriculum requirements.

We plan the curriculum carefully, so that there is coherence and full coverage of all aspects of the National Curriculum and Early Years Curriculum, and there is planned progression in all curriculum areas. Our curriculum is designed to ensure that children develop the skills they need to become confident, self-motivated learners, who can engage with and solve challenges innovatively.

We agree a long term plan for each key stage, making sure there is a learning cohesion across the federation. This indicates which themes/topics are to be taught in each term, to which groups of children, and how this meets the requirements of the National Curriculum.

Subject leaders curate unit planning based on a long-term plan which has been developed alongside our curriculum overview, building on and strengthening our cultural capital.

Impact

Assessment

Our schools consider accurate and focused assessment as the cornerstone of high quality teaching, as it allows learning to be planned and taught accurately as well as meeting the needs of the requirements of the children and ensuring high levels of expectation and support. We place a high value on formative assessment (including observation-based assessment) and summative assessment and our policy details robust procedures for ensuring alignment between these two elements. Please read our assessment policy for more details.

The Role of the Curriculum Leaders

The role of the curriculum leaders is to:

Provide a strategic lead and direction for the curriculum ensuring appropriate coverage of the curriculum and our learning guarantees
Ensure that teachers are fully aware of their accountability for pupil progress
Support and offer advice to colleagues
Monitor pupil progress
Provide efficient resource management
Report outcomes to the headteacher
Improve standards
Be held accountable for curriculum development

The Role of the Subject Leader

Within the federation’s organisation, each teacher takes on the responsibility for leading a subject. It is the role of subject teams to:

Keep up to date with developments in their key area of learning at both national and local levels.
Review the way the subjects are taught in the school and plan for improvement linking to whole school priorities.
Monitor how their subjects are taught through monitoring the medium and short term planning ensuring that appropriate teaching strategies are used.
Lead sustainable improvement through supporting colleagues and others.
Review curriculum plans for their key areas ensuring there is full coverage of the National curriculum and that progression is planned for.
Evaluate standards within their subjects so they indicate the achievements of children at each key stage and indicate expectations of attainment.
Evaluate teaching and learning and assessment within their subjects.
Audit, order and manage resources to enhance learning experiences for the pupils.

Curriculum Monitoring and Review

The Headteacher is responsible for the day to day organisation of the curriculum. The subject leaders monitor lesson plans of all teachers, ensuring that all classes are taught the full requirements of the National Curriculum.