Our curriculum is designed around discrete subjects. We have not tried to find tenuous links or overarching termly topics. There are some occasions where we feel there are good links that can be made for good reasons and in these cases we have exploited them. We believe children enjoy variety and we want them to enjoy subjects for what they are.

Within subjects there is a progression of skills which often involves the revisiting of previously taught concepts and knowledge. We have planned to deliver subjects in terms of 'factual knowledge' and subject skills sometimes referred to as 'process knowledge'. We have summarised these for each subject in the curriculum map documents below.

We do however see a strong link between the various humanities and science topics and the teaching of English. Staff will therefore use these subjects as a vehicle for creative and non fiction writing. In these cases children will learn the facts and key skills in the subject but may draw on this information when writing a creative response.

Teachers create knowledge organisers for history, geography and science. These are used with children as a long term reminder of the key knowledge learnt in a unit. They record the key facts and vocabulary we want children to retain in the longer term. Children will learn far more than this in a unit and experience far more entertaining and engaging stories and explanations but it is this information that forms the building blocks for subsequent learning.

Over time children can look back in their books and use knowledge organisers to remind them of learning they have undertaken in previous years. The example above shows a typical knowledge organiser.

It is our aim to build a curriculum that meets the needs of our specific schools. Our children live in small villages that do not have significant diversity. For some, rural life can be isolating and lacking in experience of the wider world. Our communities do not benefit from the facilities urban areas take for granted. In response we are focusing on two areas we believe are particularly important for our pupil’s:

• A curriculum that fosters confident articulate communication.
• Knowledge taught will encourage children to be outward looking global citizens.
• Develops critical thinking

These are our overarching statements of intent that run through our curriculum. In the case of communication there are opportunities in every subject to place value on the way children respond either in writing or speaking aloud. Global citizenship has particularly strong links to some subjects but again there are opportunities throughout the curriculum.

Voice 21

We are working with Voice 21 to meet the aims of our communication intent through the teaching of oracy as a key life skill

Thinking Matters

The school has started to work with 'Thinking Matters' to teach staff and children about how to maximise learning. This work will teach children about themselves as learners and provide staff with training on how to design lessons that use knowledge about how learning best occurs and to promote critical thinking. This project supports our curriculum intent of critical thinking but also links closely into our aim of improving communication and understanding of the wider world.

This project started in Autumn 2022 and includes a programme of staff training through the year delivered by 'Thinking matters' consultants.

We have created our 'Meta Learner' target using the values of both schools and considered the learner attributes we feel are most appropriate to helping our children.

Read Write Inc

We teach phonics using the Read Write Inc programme developed by Ruth Miskin. Both schools access training for staff through the English Hub. 

We have invested in the full range of resources including those for delivery of the lessons through to the home reading books that follow the same progression of sounds. This means that in the early years your child will take home a reading book with the same phonic sounds and blends that they have been taught in school.

Coram SCARF

We teach PSHE and RSE using materials from Coram SCARF.

SCARF stands for:

Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience, Friendship

Following consultation with staff and stakeholders during 2020, we have identified some specific ways we will adapt the SCARF plans to meet local needs. Please see the policy page for the RSE (Relation and Sex Education) policy which identifies aspects we have decided to omit in certain year groups.

For more information about Coram and SCARF use the link below.

We use Kapow Primary curriculum plans to deliver ICT.

Sports and PE

We have used Val Sabin Planning materials to deliver PE historically however we are now moving over to new materials provided by 'Get Set 4 PE'. This won't change the long term plan much but offers a more detailed progression within units.