Curriculum

Curriculum intent

We strive to provide high quality education for every child. We aim to develop children with enquiring minds who are inspired to learn in purposeful ways which will enable them to achieve academic and personal success.

Our curriculum not only meets the requirements of The National Curriculum but also the needs of the children in our school. We promote children’s learning to learn and collaboration, as a means to build resilient learners who are proud of their achievements. Our curriculum is designed to be engaging and ambitious so that all learners, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds and with SEND, are prepared for lifelong learning.

All areas of learning are coherently planned and sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge and skills for future learning and employment. Prior learning is always the starting point and explicit links are made between what learners already know.

Ongoing regular assessment allows us to understand what our learners know and can remember and swiftly address gaps and misconceptions to ensure that progress is made by all, regardless of their starting points and that learning is embedded into children’s long-term memory.

Our core values are fundamental to both the children’s academic and personal development. We see our learners holistically and educate them to be valuable citizens of society with a strong social and moral code who understand their own brilliant uniqueness and self-worth and value that in others. We encourage children to be the best version of themselves, even when no one is looking. Our curriculum and extra-curricular/enrichment activities are structured to nurture and celebrate individual talents, strengths and interests while also championing teamwork and collaboration.

Furthermore, we want to ensure that our children develop into respectful, well-rounded individuals who are able to make considered and informed choices, both when progressing to secondary school and in later life. With an ever-changing world, we aim to prepare children to be successful, responsible citizens of the future.

The curriculum is underpinned by the Vision and Values of the school.

Vision statement

“Our vision is to create a school community in which everyone can participate, excel and be proud of their achievements”

For the children this means:

You ‘participate’ in your own learning to ‘Build your best’
You excel at being a learner by striving to ‘Be your best learner’
You are proud of who you are and what you have achieved you ‘Try your best’

We believe that we should enable children to develop academically, socially, culturally and spiritually within a caring atmosphere underpinned by strong values.

The three ‘Golden Threads’ of our vision are weaved into our practice

Our school vision drives our curriculum: We use the golden threads of participation, excelling and being proud to steer our decision making and curriculum planning.

To ensure children participate in building their own learning we will:

Encourage pupils to strive for improvement, building upon their own starting points.
Work to ensure that all children are able to learn new knowledge. We routinely recap and revisit learning to ensure that it sticks in the long term memory.
Provide equality of access for all and the opportunity for all pupils to make progress, ensuring high expectations and appropriate levels of challenge and support
Have a motivating curriculum that fosters curiosity and inspires our children to want to learn more.
Encourage pupils to read, as we see this as the most important key to learning. Pupils are taught reading skills and are able to access texts relating to other subject areas to boost learning.
Give children home learning to involve them in their own practice

To ensure that children try their best and excel as learners we will:

Work to Build Learning Power, developing learning to learn skills which will enable children to become lifelong learners
Work to ensure that all children are able to read which will enable them to access the wider curriculum
Work to ensure that children are able to be fluent with number through our maths curriculum including how to problem solve and reason
Work to ensure children are able to communicate with adults and their peers to help learning stick. This is sometimes through formal discussion in Lets Think in English and through discussion in class.
Use success criteria for children to assess their own learning.
Give children home learning to give them the opportunity to independently apply what they have learnt

To ensure that children are proud of their own achievements we will:

Encourage children to explore their interests and things that they enjoy doing. We aim to spark interest through the curriculum. Additionally, pupils take part in societies, extracurricular activities and complete homework projects.
Give encouragement and show appreciation of children’s achievements and work, whether great or small.
Endeavour to build children’s sense of self worth and moral sensibility through our identified values
Give opportunities for pupils to think about our school values as they nominate a person in their class each week for their achievements.
Support pupils in making positive life choices and help prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences that they may encounter later in life
Promote spiritual, moral, social and cultural development through many different aspects of the curriculum

How our aims for our children align with our curriculum

Information about our curriculum intent: Purpose and delivery

In pursuit of our vision ‘Where everyone counts,’ our curriculum seeks to enable every child to ‘let their light shine,’ by providing opportunities for them to grow in wisdom, knowledge and skills which will equip them to move into the next stage of their education. Underpinning this, is the belief that every child has the potential to achieve and grow as a learner from their own starting points and be proud of their achievements at every level. We aim to foster a culture of mutual care and respect which supports and encourages children to approach challenges positively and to learn from their mistakes. The key aims of the curriculum are summarised below:

To provide a broad and balanced curriculum to foster pupils curiosity and engagement and equip them for future learning in secondary education and beyond and to enable them to discover areas of interest.
To provide the opportunity for every child to achieve the best possible progress they can in English and Mathematics. As part of this, we aim that pupils become fluent readers to enable them to access the wider curriculum, we aim that pupils develop a rich vocabulary and learn to communicate effectively. We also aim to secure a fluency in maths so that pupils are able to manipulate number, reason and to solve mathematical problems.
To enable pupils to develop knowledge, acquire skills and understand concepts across all subject areas.
To provide equality of access for all pupils to make progress.
To provide opportunities for pupils to develop a range of skills which will enable them to become an independent learner.
To support pupils knowledge and understanding of their local community, (relating work to the immediate environment where possible) so that they gain respect for and further insight into their locality.
To ensure that children understand how to keep themselves safe and healthy, both physically and mentally, to support their long-term wellbeing.
To enable pupils to develop a sense of self-worth and moral sensibility through our identified values.
To support pupils in making positive life choices and help prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.
To promote spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and develop an understanding of, and respect for, the beliefs and cultures of people in our wider society.

Curriculum implementation

Over each academic year, every child has the opportunity to experience the full range of National Curriculum subjects. Our curriculum is planned to motivate and engage the pupils, whilst developing their resilience and confidence to take on new challenges.

We make good use of the local environment and our wider community, and encourage the children to take pride in their local area. We have links with outside agencies such as the local church where we arrange educational visits to further enrich our curriculum. In addition, visitors support learning in school on a regular basis, whether they be sports coaches, other professionals or other members of our community.

Long term overviews map out the topics taught within each year and medium-term plans and knowledge progressions map key concepts broken into smaller parts across the 4 years to ensure coverage and progression of a subject. These documents inform short term planning or ‘learning journeys’. Through a learning journey, the intended learning is mapped out and sequenced so that it builds on previous knowledge and understanding. Learning journeys are adapted to the needs of the current class. We aim for our curriculum to address typical gaps in pupils’ knowledge and skills.

All units of work are planned to ensure that the National Curriculum 2014 Statutory Guidance for Key Stage 2 is included in our school curriculum. To ensure the integrity of each subject most subject areas are taught as stand-alone units of work. However, where meaningful links can be made to other subjects that will enhance learning, these will be followed during the ‘topic’ duration.

See our cultural capital overview below:

Cultural capital overviewV2

Core subjects: Maths and English lessons are taught 4-5 times a week and Science is taught weekly. Both Maths and Science are taught following planning and guidance from Hampshire Inspection and Advisory service.

The RE curriculum follows the Hampshire Agreed Syllabus – Living Difference IV and is taught weekly.

For a copy of the syllabus, click here

Foundation subjects: PE follows the scheme Get Set4PE and French is based upon the scheme from Primary Languages Network. Both of these schemes are adapted to suit the needs of the pupils at Grange. Our curriculum is mainly organised into half termly units or ‘topics’. French, Computing, PE, Music and PHSE, are all taught weekly.

History and Geography are taught alternately in half term blocks. Art and DT are also taught alternately in half term blocks.

Teaching and learning policy

Curriculum overviews for each year group