Wider Curriculum

This academic year (2023-24), we launched a hugely ambitious and exciting new trust-wide curriculum for Art, Design Technology, Geography, History & Science.  The curriculum has been reviewed, refined, and successfully tested over the years and provides children and staff with a powerful and unapologetically ambitious start to their educational journey. Our interdisciplinary curriculum ensures that explicit links are made between the different subject areas as children move through the curriculum, maximising both retention of learning over time and the understanding of how knowledge is used in the wider world to solve problems.

We are offering a dedicated and bespoke approach to our curriculum, ensuring that children are inspired and equipped to join a world being transformed by the work of the STEM careers which continue to drive innovation and change across the world.  The new curriculum has been designed to revolutionise teaching and learning in our school: the children work collaboratively each term towards creating a final project outcome, utilising the knowledge and skills that have been developed during the learning journey.

Our curriculum, which is based on and adapted to our needs from the GLF Primary curriculum, is designed to establish logical and meaningful connections between various disciplines (Art, DT, History, Geography, and Science). A coherent curriculum ensures that content, skills, and learning experiences are aligned and integrated, enabling children to develop and embed their learning in long-term memory.

The very intent and core purpose of our curriculum is to empower children. We recognise that children’s language development significantly impacts all curriculum areas. Therefore, oracy serves as the golden thread that connects every subject. The ability to speak eloquently, articulate ideas and thoughts, collaborate with peers, and have the confidence to express one's views are essential life skills that contribute to success in both learning and life in general. To foster these skills, we provide a robust foundation through direct instruction of vocabulary and a wide range of oracy experiences.

We believe that a focus on oracy will enable us to:

•              develop a high level of vocabulary in children to expose the depth of their acquired knowledge and composite skills;

•              ensure that all children, irrelevant of starting points or barriers, make strong progress and are ambitious in their pursuit for excellence and achievement;

•              ensure that there are specifically designed, taught, and experienced opportunities for all children to work on their oracy skills and vocabulary retention.

Through our curriculum we teach the disciplines of the Arts, Design and Technology, Geography, History and Science. Through our education offer, we empower children to acquire and internalise disciplinary behaviours; there is a constant interplay between knowledge learnt, skills acquired and the ability to effectively express oneself.

The Art

Fine art disciplinary knowledge and skills are built on year on year. Children build up their skills of drawing, painting and working with 3D media and use these to produce pieces of work linked to the curriculum taught within the term. This knowledge is deepened and developed through the subsequent Key Stages where children explore line, pattern tone and texture.

Design and Technology

Design and technology skills and knowledge are built on throughout the primary age in the areas of construction of products, textiles, and food technology. Our youngest children explore skills such as how to attach materials together using everyday objects and this is built on in later years with children investigating permanent and semi-permanent joins. Throughout our design and technology lessons we are teaching the children:

•              how to develop, plan and communicate their ideas;

•              how to work safely with different tools and equipment to make quality products;

•              how to evaluate products and processes.

Geography

Our geography curriculum develops the children's curiosity and fascination about the world and its people. As the children progress through the curriculum, they will deepen their understanding of the diverse nature of the planet in both the physical processes and the communities that exist on it. Locational and place knowledge is built upon from our earliest years, where the children learn about their local area, and then this knowledge is broadened and deepened to look at each of the continents in more detail. For example, in Y3 Developing geographical skills and field work is also a focus within our geography lessons.

History

Historical themes are explored as the children progress through the curriculum. For example, in Year 4, the children learn about the effects of power through settlers and invaders. The curriculum builds on historical skills and knowledge such as how the past has contributed to our life in the UK and the wider world.

Science

Science comes first in our curriculum and as a golden thread this runs throughout all learning. When working towards our project outcomes, the children, individually or as a whole class, will be working scientifically. They will be making observations, generalising, researching, planning, testing and evaluating. Science knowledge and skills are built on and deepened throughout the Key Stages through a cohesive and connected curriculum. Enquiry skills and approaches are explicitly taught to the children to help them question the world around them and how to find the answers to these questions.

For each of the disciplines, we have detailed progression documents of skills and knowledge from year 3 to year 6.