Curriculum Statement

Aylburton C of E is a small school with a strong sense of community and we aim to deliver a curriculum that truly meets the needs of all our children. The curriculum celebrates the local area and its community.

Intent

Our curriculum intends to be creative, inclusive, inspiring and nurturing, providing an education where all children can achieve their best. 

We want to ensure that all children are able to achieve the best possible educational outcomes, as well as being prepared effectively for life outside of school. We want all children to have equal access to a curriculum that is experiential and creative which nurtures the whole child and develops a lifelong love of learning. We believe in a broad and balanced curriculum, set within a Christian context, which recognises the uniqueness of every child and which serves to prepare them for their future. As a school, we follow the EYFS Profile and KS1 & KS2 National Curriculum 2014 to provide the framework for the knowledge, skills and milestones that are taught within our classes.

Our curriculum is underpinned by 5 key drivers that we believe provide our children with the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to succeed. 

World Aware 

Our curriculum is based on a range of experiential opportunities to help our pupils understand the world they live in.

We recognise that many of our children do not have exposure to experiences that children in other areas would take for granted; as such our curriculum is planned to provide these experiences. We ensure children’s learning, where possible, is based on hands-on experiences; meeting visitors that can inspire children’s learning and visiting places of interest that ensure children have first-hand experience of the knowledge they are being taught.  We make links to local, national and international places and events, making links to provide equality of opportunity for all. 

Belonging  

Our curriculum intends to educate children about their place in the world. We want our children to develop an understanding of their place in society; within school, their local community, our country and the wider world. Through this, they will learn about inclusivity, diversity and equality of opportunity. 

Well-being  

Our curriculum intends to raise self-esteem and self-confidence.

Throughout all aspects of the curriculum, the school promotes a Growth Mindset attitude and celebrates the successes of children and the progress that is made. Children learn how to be fit and healthy individuals with the resilience to succeed in the world they grow up in.   

Spirituality 

Our curriculum provides children with opportunities to explore the big questions in the world. We want our children to grow spiritually, morally, socially and emotionally during the time they spend at our school; to explore the awe and wonder of life and the universe. 

Possibilities 

Our curriculum intends to raise children’s aspirations and set high expectations for ALL pupils.

Our curriculum recognises that a large proportion of our children are from backgrounds where the long-term aspirations may be hindered by previous educational experience or understanding. As such, our curriculum sets high expectations for all pupils and explicitly raises awareness and expectations for future aspirations.   

Implementation

We begin with the world that is familiar to our children, staff pay particular attention to children’s starting points, building on children’s prior knowledge in order to draw out and extend each child’s learning. A broad and balanced curriculum is delivered creatively using both skills and knowledge-based approaches, underpinned by the National Curriculum. We ensure that our children use and apply their learning across a range of subjects, allowing them to deepen and embed their subject knowledge as well as make connections within and across their learning. 

In line with the Church of England and Diocesan vision (John 10:10), we use groupings so that no child’s learning is capped. Further direct support and teaching is deployed accurately and efficiently to allow every child to flourish.

In our Church School this is supported by our strong Christian values. Through this and our continued focus on courageous advocacy we ensure that our children are fully ready for the demands of life in modern Britain.  We further develop these skills through the leadership opportunities we offer School Council, Play Leaders and Librarians. This introduces them to the art of decision making as well as supporting their personal development, and helps our community ethos become a reality in our schools.

We are committed to providing an inclusive environments where tolerance and respect for others are embedded into daily life.

The basic skills of English and Maths lie at the heart of our curriculum and are an important part of our further curriculum teaching. Opportunities for reading, writing and maths in the foundation subjects, require children to apply the skills they have been taught.

Subjects are taught discretely so that children recognise the skills needed to be a historian, scientist etc, but are mapped carefully to enable children to make links and connections between curriculum areas and develop their understanding whilst adding new knowledge to their current understanding.

Our curriculum is based on a two-year cycle to ensure the progression of skills and knowledge throughout our mixed-age classes. We aim to ‘hook’ children in when introducing a new unit of learning, to excite and engage them, and to make it meaningful and relevant. Where possible, learning is supported and enriched by visits, workshops, field studies and other ‘hands on’ experiences.

Subject leaders plan and monitor the progression and skills within their curriculum subject.

Knowledge organisers are designed and shared with pupils to show the key facts and essential knowledge they will learn in a unit of work or curriculum subject. They incorporate prior and future learning to ensure the curriculum is inclusive. The knowledge organisers allow children to take responsibility for their own learning and encourage them to be active learners on their learning journey.

Our teaching practice is underpinned by Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction which supports an understanding of how children acquire and use information, how they can use their short-term and long-term memory and how we can provide scaffolds and models to support effective learning.

Impact

We have very high expectations of our children and expect rapid and sustained progress for all. We aim for pupils to be at the very least in line with national data.  British Values are embedded in the life of our school through our distinctive Christian character and demonstrated through our core values of Thankfulness, Perseverance, Compassion, Trust, Courage and Respect.

We provide an engaging and fulfilling curriculum where pupils are supported enabling each individual to reach their full potential ready to take their place for the next stage of their school career.