Subjects

We know that we can only achieve our vision through the ongoing support of our children, parents, staff and governors working with us to build the futures of our children. To implement our curriculum our leaders have ensured that we have designed a careful slowed down sequence of learning. We believe the key to learning is automaticity. We believe this can be achieved through focusing on 5 key elements.

The Importance of Knowledge

DESTINATION: Learning for life! We have planned our knowledge-based curriculum extremely carefully to ensure that pupils achieve broad and deep subject expertise. Through our research and development projects and our language rich environments we aspire to widen our pupils’ knowledge-base through developing their ability to recall and build upon previous learning. We want our children to be creative and to enable this they need to have knowledge to enable this. Our curriculum is built around quality fiction, and non-fiction core texts. By increasing the amount of reading throughout the day, pupils develop a wider vocabulary and deeper knowledge. Research has shown that a students’ background knowledge is the strongest factor that develops comprehension ability. By the end of year 6 pupils will have read a wide range of texts, with a wide range of structures and diverse language. Texts include: Australian, Norwegian and British folk tales; Oliver Twist; A Christmas Carol; Macbeth; Oranges in No Mans Land and many others. We have also devised a list of recommended reads for every year group to further enrich their love of reading.

As we continue to work through and re-establish as a school community from COVID-19 [in line with our 7 Towers of empowerment and engagement with our learning] for pupils in Key Stage 2 we have prioritised identifying gaps and re-establishing good progress in the essentials (phonics and reading, increasing vocabulary, writing and mathematics). Staff identify opportunities across the curriculum so our children read widely, and develop their knowledge and vocabulary across subjects. Our children work towards becoming;

1. successful learners who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve (Our head and body: what we learn)

2. respectful residents who are fully rounded characters, with a clear understanding of complex values like equality, friendship and trust (Our heart and character: Who we are when we learn)

3. resilient individuals who develop behaviours and habits to become effective learners (Our actions and attitudes: How we act when we learn) 

4. responsible citizens motivated by a strong personal sense of morality, who own their own destiny (Our moral compass helping us navigate our place in the community and wider world: Who we are)