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Christ Church CE Primary School
'Let your light shine' Matthew 5:16
Curriculum
CURRICULUM INTENT - We aim to ................
At Christ Church we offer children ambitious, exciting and enjoyable curriculum which instils a love of learning and develops life-long skills. We encourage children to be independent learners who have their own voice and who are well rounded and confident, both in school and in the wider community. We offer children the opportunity to learn through a rich curriculum, in a variety of learning styles, learning from committed, diligent and enthusiastic staff as well as from each other. Our teachers bring lessons alive, ensuring children go on an adventure whilst travelling along their learning journey.
In the last few years we have explored our local area, created artefacts from clay, searched for treasure as a pirate on board The Matthew, climbed to the top of the quarry, discovered the origins of the universe in a space dome, solved engineering challenges with the Royal Navy and sang alongside thousands of other children at the NIA in Birmingham.
Our knowledge rich curriculum encompasses the National Curriculum and its Programmes of Study. Units of work are subject specific to ensure progression of knowledge, skills and vocabulary within that subject. Links between subjects are made where relevant. Children are taught what it means to be a Geographer, Historian, Mathematician, Artist, Scientist etc and learn the skills that they need for each subject.
Reading will always be at the heart of our curriculum. We believe that learning to read is a magical experience. It opens the doors to endless possibilities and lifelong learning. For us, reading well, and for pleasure, is the foundation for learning and allowing every child, from all starting points, the opportunities to succeed and love learning. Additionally, we believe music combines the development of ideas and concepts, through to exploration and education of feeling, thus helping to educate the ‘whole’ child emotionally, spiritually, intellectually and socially. We are also passionate about children leading healthy lifestyles, being proud of their background, culture, school and local area, achieved through our PE and PSHE curriculum alongside enrichment opportunities. Our ambitious curriculum is focused on ensuring our children leave Christ Church knowing more and remembering more with skills to equip them for their future.
Implementation: How do we achieve our aims?
At Christ Church our ambitious curriculum is taught through the discrete curricular subjects. Whilst most content is subject-specific, there are regular opportunities for interconnected approaches. The curriculum is carefully designed to ensure progression of knowledge and skills, and sequential links are made between themes to consolidate and strengthen understanding. Units of work may be further enhanced by way of educational visits, visitors to the school or WOW activities. We use a variety of published schemes as part of our curriculum delivery, including Teach Computing, Charanga for music, Complete P.E and Jigsaw P.H.S.E.
These schemes ensure progression of skills, coverage of knowledge and development of vocabulary across the school in the same way that our own planning for other subjects does. We view the local community and outdoor environment as fundamental elements to our school curriculum and so we thread these links into our projects.
Our well-planned lessons are delivered through our pedagogical tool kit developed through evidence-based research – we have included Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction aided by the Walkthrus coaching model. New learning is meaningful, builds on prior learning, we ‘teach to the top’ and scaffold in small steps so that all children can achieve.
At Christ Church, our inclusive curriculum is designed to be inclusive of the needs of each individual child. We endeavour to ensure that appropriate provision and challenge is in place for every child irrespective of their starting point so they make progress throughout their time with us.
Within our school community, we have many children with social, emotional and mental health needs. Our provision ensures that we can react to the changing needs of our children whilst also being proactive and anticipating adaptations and support that our children may need. Our pastoral support includes social skills support, mentoring, support for parents and carers and access to our dedicated inclusion team.
Our EYFS provides an excellent starting point for success. Our EYFS curriculum is carefully designed to ensure that children will be given the opportunity to learn key foundational skills and knowledge before progressing to the National Curriculum for KS1 & 2.
Subject leaders support colleagues to fine tune practice and support planning so that they can plan for the next steps of developments. Subject leaders are integral to the planning process and understand the pathway that their subjects take. Progression of knowledge and skills is carefully mapped across Key Stages.
We teach our children to read for pleasure by having a diet of high-quality texts read to them and a regular celebration of reading - our library is at the centre of our school - utilised by all children. We work with our parents to read with our children four times a week and our phonics matched reading scheme.
We are proud of our Church School status and teach our Christian Values and our British Values across our curriculum and through our Collective Worship. Spiritual, moral, social and cultural learning is linked through projects, taught and explored.
We use SMSC as a vehicle to promote Fundamental British Values
- democracy
- the rule of law
- individual liberty
- mutual respect for and tolerance
Cultural capital is the accumulation of knowledge, attitudes, habits, language and possessions that enables individuals to demonstrate their cultural competence and social status.
At Christ Church we play a crucial role in developing cultural capital through immersing children in debates, dance and music, school trips, quizzes, performing arts and by introducing them to literature and art from different cultural backgrounds.
Embedding cultural capital into our curriculum is a way of closing the gap between children from differing socio-economic backgrounds by ensuring that children form all backgrounds have the same opportunities in society to achieve their full potential. Thus, we have planned activities for all pupils to participate and experience as individuals, classes and key stages.
Curriculum research is always developing. As a school, we embrace new developments from evidence-based research; we will continue to adapt our curriculum to develop the best learning for our children. Our curriculum is not static and will change over time.