Curriculum

OUR SUBJECTS

VISIONS, COVERAGE AND PROGRESSION

CURRICULUM OVERVIEWS

OUR INTENT, IMPLEMENTATION AND IMPACT

PRIMROSE INTENT

PRIMROSE LANE PRIMARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM INTENT AND RATIONALE

At Primrose Lane Primary School, we value each child as an individual with a unique potential for learning. Our aim is to enable each child, regardless of need, to participate fully in current and future society as a responsible, self-confident learner. We believe that an effective curriculum offers knowledge, skills, understanding and progression. At Primrose it is ambitious as it enriches and enlivens the standards set out in the National Curriculum.

Our curriculum is designed to reflect the background and experience of our pupils who live in a semi rural town; it celebrates our diversity but looks to develop understanding of other cultures in Great Britain and globally. Our curriculum is rich, exciting and diverse, but most importantly, it is accessible to all because we ensure all children have the skills they need to engage with their learning at every level.

CURRICULUM DESIGN

KNOWLEDGE ENGAGED APPROACH

Knowledge underpins and enables the application of skill. We strive for children to learn skills alongside knowledge, ensuring that both explicitly are developed. At Primrose Lane Primary School we see knowledge and skills as intertwined. We believe that this is important for making the curriculum relevant and meaningful to pupils and for putting knowledge into context.

Following discussions with staff we have identified the key concepts in our curriculum design;

Balance of time, subject content and skills development
Breadth across a full range of subjects
Subject Integrity– each unit will have a discrete subject focus
Interweaving of discrete subjects through appropriate cross curricular links
Relevance to pupils’ needs and local contexts
Coherence so that content inter-relates
Equitable Delivery for all pupils regardless of need
Progression to extend learning, knowledge, skills and understanding
Continuity that links existing with new subject knowledge
Knowledge linked to learning in and across subject divides
Conceptual learning applied in a variety of contexts across the curriculum
Skills development in relation to accessing learning, deepening learning and ensuring progression
Deepening understanding by using the Mastery approach
Attitudes to learning and attitudes about learning
Subject vocabulary will be discretely taught allowing pupils to access knowledge

CORE LEARNING VALUES

Every unit of work addresses three core learning values

INDEPENDENT LEARNER

Self-questioning: ask questions and identify problems which need to be solved.
Self-confident: persevere; manage risks in order to master new skills, knowledge and concepts.
Self-reflective: identify misconceptions; assess progress; recognise misconceptions; evaluate experiences; identify next steps.

CONFIDENT COMMUNICATOR

Empathetic: recognise emotions and motivations of self and others.
Participate in discussion, dialogue and debate – active listening together with explaining, describing and questioning, valuing their own and others’ contributions.
Present ideas accurately through written and spoken forms.

GLOBAL CITIZEN

Understand issues affecting themselves, the global community and the environment.
Respect themselves, the global community and the environment.
Proactive: seek to improve themselves, their community and the environment.

PRIMROSE IMPLEMENTATION

CURRICULUM LEADERSHIP

Curriculum leadership at Primrose Lane Primary School is distributed to subject leaders who oversee, develop, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of their subject within the school and across all year groups. Our leaders are carefully chosen because of their expertise and experience. This ensures deep subject knowledge and effective leadership. Subject development is clearly identified through our school development plan. It is a requirement for leaders to present subject progress and change to governors though termly meetings. Leaders enable curriculum expertise to develop across staff through carefully planned on-going professional development. All leaders oversee a budget to purchase curriculum resources that enhance our school’s curricular intentions.

MASTERY APPROACH

The Mastery-learning model forms the basis of our approach to our teaching. This involves spending greater time going into depth within each subject. We aim to ensure children have a solid, concrete understanding of subject knowledge and skills as well as being resilient learners prepared for secondary school.

In short, this means working towards:

Teach less, learn more: less teacher talk and more evidencing learning and progress.
No child left behind: all children are enabled to keep up every day.
Space and time to experience and apply, with all children entitled to additional support to ensure they do not fall behind or to go deeper
Understanding real life applications wherever possible to make learning relevant and not abstract; nothing should be taught without a purpose.

A Mastery approach should also enable our children to become good problem solvers. We believe that subject specific problem solving has three main elements as explained in the diagram below. These elements will be reflected in all of our teaching and learning.

CURRICULUM VOCABULARY PROGRESSION

We have developed a clear progression of vocabulary for history, geography and science. This vocabulary will be identified in teacher’s planning and will be taught discretely in lessons. There will be an emphasis on using the correct vocabulary in all verbal and written activities.

PRIMROSE IMPACT

PUPIL PROGRESS

Impact of pupils’ learning will be assessed in the following ways:

Formative assessment through teacher feedback
Pupil responses – this may be evidenced in class floor books and will give an indication of children’s understanding.
IMPACT end of unit activities that allow children to collate and present their learning in independent and creative ways.
Summative assessment will identify children who have reached expected standards and those working either above or below.

CURRICULUM REVIEW

Subject leaders regularly complete book and planning scrutinies to ensure there is no mismatch between the planned and the delivered curriculum.

Book, planning and pupil questioning will demonstrate whether pupils successfully ‘learn the curriculum’ and are using specific subject specific vocabulary effectively.
In KS1 subject specific ‘floor books’ will provide evidence of our wide ranging creative curriculum as well as recording individual pupils’ thoughts and understanding of their learning.
In KS2 floor books will complement and celebrate the range of activities completed.

Please click on the link below if you would like to know more about the National Curriculum guidelines.

Primrose Lane Curriculum Overview

National Curriculum Overview