Our Curriculum

Intent

 The breadth of our curriculum is designed with these goals in mind:

• To give pupils the appropriate experiences to develop as confident, responsible citizens of the future – social responsibility with all members having a voice (democracy) and to feel a valued and vital member of our community
• To give pupils as many opportunities as possible – all pupils have well-planned opportunities to participate in the full breadth of the curriculum that lead to a better understanding of the world 
• A coherent, structured, academic curriculum that leads to a deep level of understanding based on pedagogies that are based on evidence in cognitive science

We do this by offering a broad range of learning experiences in the classroom, outdoors and in the wider community, across a wide variety of curriculum subjects. 

Community

We have developed four curriculum drivers that shape our curriculum, bring about the aims and Christian values of our school, and respond to the needs of our community by basing learning in the local community:

Community

Wisdom

Dignity

Hope

As a school, we are privileged to be situated right in the heart of Gainsborough. We want to ensure that our pupils learn about their local community and it's history and we have designed our curriculum to do this. The pupils will learn about:

• The Gainsborough Old Hall
• The Historic All Saints Parish Church
• The River Trent

Opportunities

• The school plans the curriculum to allow for sustained periods of time studying subjects. As well as the National Curriculum, there are experiences from the wider curriculum based on the curriculum drivers that are thread through the full curriculum for pupils. 
• Pupils will build their cultural capital – the background knowledge of the world pupils need to infer meaning from what they read – as well as new vocabulary, which, in turn, helps pupils to express themselves in a sophisticated, mature way. 
• Opportunities will extend to providing a curriculum that will prepare them for life whatever their circumstances. The school aims to support pupils to value their education.

Success

Underpinned by our four drivers, our academic curriculum sets out:

• a clear list of the breadth of topics that will be covered;
• the ‘threshold concepts’ pupils should understand (this is both knowledge and procedural knowledge);
• criteria for progression within the threshold concepts;
• criteria for depth of understanding.

Implementation – How

Our curriculum design is based on evidence from cognitive science; three main principles underpin it:

• Learning is most effective with spaced repetition.
• Interleaving helps pupils to discriminate between topics and aids long-term retention.
• Retrieval of previously learned content is frequent and regular, which increases both storage and retrieval strength. 

In the subject curriculum, teachers ensure pupils embed key concepts in their long-term memory. It is sequenced so new knowledge builds upon prior knowledge and work towards clearly defined end goals.

Teachers check pupils’ understanding effectively and identify and correct any misunderstandings through the use of pre-learning tasks to establish starting points. Teachers also use assessment to check pupils’ understanding to inform future teaching and to help pupils embed and use knowledge effectively rather than memorising a range of random facts.

Impact

The following evidence is used by the school to assess the impact of the curriculum:

• The progress pupils are making in terms of knowing more, remembering more and doing more.
• National data indicators
• Internal data that shows how pupils are progressing from their starting points
• First hand evidence such as observations, pupil interviews, work scrutinies, drop-ins, governor monitoring visits and listening to pupils read.
• How well SEN and disadvantaged pupils are prepared for the next stage of education.

Pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

The curriculum is adapted as appropriate and in line with the SEND Code of Practice guidance, to find out more please visit our SEND section of the website here.  

EYFS

Children in EYFS have access to activities and experiences shaped by the educational programmes that are set out under the seven areas of learning:

• communication and language
• physical development
• personal, social and emotional development
• literacy
• mathematics
• understanding the world
• expressive arts and design

The Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage ..."sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe."  

Intent - Build Communities

"To provide a curriculum which is relevant, exciting and motivates children to love learning."

Implementation - Provide Opportunities

" We incorporate the Characteristics of Effective Learning (CoEL) into our teaching and learning experiences and use the language of these behaviours in our conversations with the children."

Impact - Enjoy Success

Through the delivery of a relevant, flexible and exciting curriculum we aim that the children will leave EYFS as independent learners with the behaviours, attitudes and transferable skills needed for Year 1 and beyond.