Our Curriculum

Work Together

Our curriculum is rooted in the geographical and socio-economic context of our two small schools.

We live our vision statement: Work together, Grow together, Flourish together in that our children benefit from two schools working and sharing together towards the benefit of all of our children.

As a school we aim to have a curriculum that achieves the following:

• A curriculum where high levels of literacy and oracy are paramount towards supporting all children to access their learning at all levels
• Strong foundations in numeracy across the curriculum; through a maths mastery approach
• Offers a wide and multi-cultured view of all learning experiences wherever possible
• Contrasts our relatively rural and small town context to other areas of the country and world to give opportunity to compare and celebrate differences
• To challenge levels of aspiration across all areas of the school community to ensure our children strive for the best possible outcomes
• To celebrate local history, people, and geography so that we understand where we come from and what makes us unique
• Inspires and motivates our children to engage in their learning across all classes
• Engages our children with the outdoors in all aspects of the curriculum
• Prepare our children for life beyond the classroom
• Engage with our parents to bring them along with their child’s learning
• To develop a sense of ‘Growth mindset’ across our school communities to support a life of learning
• To give our children an entitlement to opportunities that that might not experience at home
• Performance – compete and perform in front of a wider audience

 

Grow Together

As small schools, we often arrange our themes on a two-year rolling cycle to ensure that our mixed-year classes benefit from a balance of learning and experience across their time in the primary phase of learning. This two-year cycle is complimented by a spiral approach towards curriculum knowledge and understanding to embed long-term learning.

We deliver the curriculum through:

• First-hand experience
• Rich experience
• Vocabulary development
• Oracy development
• Readers across the curriculum
• Raising the awareness of our multi-cultural position in society
• Incorporating technology – 1:1 iPads incorporates this into all aspects of learning
• Regular outdoor learning experiences

 

Flourish Together

We believe in fostering an intrinsically motivated love of learning. We celebrate success points along each child’s learning journey through:

• Weekly celebrations of learning
• Displays – both in and out of the classrooms
• Social media – our school Facebook feed is an active recognition of ongoing learning
• Purposeful outcomes and tangible ends that children can be proud of
• Critical evaluators - what we have done and how to improve next time
• Celebration and recognition of ‘Positive Learning Behaviours’ this includes the elements of resilience, growth mindset, meta-cognition and emotional well-being.