Basic principles

 

Learning is a change to long-term memory. Our aim is to ensure that our pupils experience a wide breadth of study and have, by the end of each key stage, developed a long-term memory of an ambitious knowledge and skilled based curriculum.

 

Intent

 

Our school mission “Anything is Possible” is central to everything we do. We deliver our curriculum with creativity and purpose to engage all children including disadvantaged and those with Special Educational Needs so they make good progress whilst enjoying themselves at school.

 

Our Curriculum drivers shape our curriculum breadth. They are derived from an exploration of the backgrounds of our pupils, our beliefs about high-quality education and our values. They are used to ensure we give our pupils appropriate and ambitious curriculum opportunities and the necessary Cultural Capital to prepare them for the next stage of their education and for life.

 

Our curriculum drivers are:

 

Well-being

Growth Mindset, Possibilities and Aspiration

Community

Enterprise including language

Eco and the Environment

Diversity including British Values

 

These drivers are linked to all our medium term theme plans ensuring that these crucial life skills are practised and incorporated regularly and consistently.

 

Planning is from the National Curriculum 2014 and the Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework.

 

As a school, we value the importance of early reading skills by creating a positive reading culture, a strong approach to phonics and the teaching of reading, a strong focus on teaching vocabulary and discussion through regular book talks and our class novel linked to our themes.

 

We also develop and extend our pupils with a focus on language skills and vocabulary through our work with the Voice 21 project.

 

We foster key learning behaviours to support our pupils to become successful learners through 5 key “Secrets of Success” that lead our Teaching & Learning and Behaviour policies. The characters used reflect our local natural community and are:

 

Monty Mole                                                               Being Curious

Bertie Boar                                                                Being Resilient

Austin the Butterfly                                                   Improving

Danny the Deer                                                         Concentrating

Betty & Benny, the Lydbrook Beavers                     Being Co-operative

 

Entwined throughout our school curriculum are opportunities to develop the pupil’s social, moral, spiritual and cultural development.

 

Implementation

 

Our curriculum design is based on evidence from cognitive science which shows that working memory is limited and that cognitive load is too high if pupils are rushed through content. This limits the acquisition of long-term memory. Cognitive science also tells us that in order for pupils to become creative thinkers, or have a greater depth of understanding, they must first master the basics, which takes time. The main principles that underpin it are:

 

• Learning is most effective with spaced repetition.

• Retrieval of previously learned content is frequent and regular, which

  increases both storage and retrieval strength.

 

 

Our content is subject specific. We make intra-curricular links to strengthen understanding. Continuous provision, in the form of daily routines, replaces the teaching of some aspects of the curriculum and, in other cases, provides retrieval practice for previously learned content.

 

Our long term curriculum plan is coherently planned and sequenced. The learning is mainly centred around the knowledge and skills of History and Geography and uses local context, as regularly as possible, to support understanding. 

 

The writing process is linked to each theme allowing for an engaging, motivating and purposeful application of the skills. The process is also very much linked to the reading audience.

 

The foundation subjects of Art, Music and Design & Technology are also integrated into our creative themes whilst Maths, Science, PSHE, MFL, PE and computing are taught as separate subjects. 

 

Impact

 

As learning is a change to long-term memory, it is not always possible to see impact in the short term. Our core subject areas are assessed using the expectations as laid down in the National Curriculum and both formative and summative assessments are used to inform end of year judgements. Pupil progress meetings are held three times a year to explore whether each child is on track for their end of Key Stage target.

 

For the foundation subjects, Milestones are used to provide a progression model. Assessments are the responsibility of the class teacher and monitored by the subject leader.

 

The school uses the “Insight” tracking tool to monitor and evaluate progress.