Our Curriculum
We aim to provide the children whom we serve with the very best possible education, within a safe, supportive and caring environment, where everyone is valued and where their achievements are celebrated. We aspire to instil a love of learning throughout our school community; as a school, by its very definition, is a learning organisation. This is true for every member of our school community.
Our curriculum comprises of all the learning experiences that we carefully plan for the children, to enable them to enjoy, learn and achieve, and which will subsequently give them a strong foundation for life beyond their primary school years. As a school, we place great emphasis and value on the children’s personal development. We want them to develop the positive learning behaviours and the right attitude and qualities, which will help them succeed. These qualities are enduring and will not only help them to succeed at school, but also as they journey through life.
To ensure that we achieve this, we have identified a set of key skills and learning behaviours that underpin our school curriculum and that we look to develop at every opportunity. These are:
It is also important for us that the children connect emotionally with the content of our school curriculum, so that they fully understand the impact of people, events and phenomena on the world. It is also important that they are able to develop empathy around the curriculum content and that they make links between the different areas of the curriculum, relating what they have learnt to their own lives. To help us to achieve this, we have identified key concepts that the children will learn about through our school curriculum. Our key concepts are:
Philosophy for Children
We have invested in Philosophy for Children training for our staff, which is an approach that encourages the children to think deeply about concepts and the contents of the curriculum. This approach develops the children’s critical thinking skills, it facilitates purposeful discussion in the classroom and it improves their ability to ask questions.
Through our curriculum intent we aim to ensure that the curriculum the children receive:
- reflects our high expectations and promotes our school values
- is broad and balanced, allowing pupils to develop a range of skills
- is sequenced effectively to enable the children to make the desired progress
- helps the children to understand, know more and be able to do more
- is enriched with exciting and enjoyable opportunities and experiences
- promotes spiritual, social, moral and cultural development
- enables children to develop their talents and interests
- thoroughly prepares children for the next stage in their education and for their future lives as positive citizens of the world
Organisation
At Sutton Veny CofE Primary School, we follow the Early Learning goals for the Foundation Stage, and the National Curriculum at Key Stages 1 and 2. This means that parents and carers can be confident that children have learnt core knowledge and developed their skills and understanding, within a wide range of subjects and topics, in preparation for their transition to secondary school.
The Foundation Stage
The curriculum for children in our Reception class is based on the following areas of learning. This is achieved through structured and self-initiated activities and adult led tasks.
- Personal, social and emotional development
- Physical development
- Communication and language
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding of the world
- Expressive arts and design
Key Stage One and Key Stage Two
Our curriculum is organised so as to ensure that all the National Curriculum subjects are taught. Subjects may be taught individually, or within a topic.
The subjects that the children learn are: English, Mathematics, Science, Art and Design, Computing, Design and Technology, Geography, History, Languages, Music, Physical Education, Religious Education (RE) and Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE).
SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural) development is a strand that appears across the curriculum and through all of the experiences we provide for the children in school. Staff make sure that these elements contribute positively to the children’s personal development, by planning for them appropriately.
Enriching Our School Curriculum
The Enrichment Programme
We take pride in offering a rich and vibrant curriculum with specialist teachers in French, Music, Voice Tuition, PE, Yoga, Falconry and Sports Coaching and Art. This means that all year groups have the opportunity to learn and develop skills in many different areas.
Blocked Weeks
The curriculum is further enhanced with blocked weeks and themed days to enable in-depth study in a particular area. Examples include, Arts Week, ESafety Week, Anti-Bullying Week, Science Week and Sports Week.
Themed Days
Themed days are planned to enrich and bring topics alive. This has included dressing up as a Victorian and experiencing life in a Victorian School, dressing as a knight or princess and experiencing life in Tudor Times. Other recent themed days include a Bastille-themed French Day and a STEM Day. Our newsletters will keep you informed of our plans for each term.
Visits and Visitors
We plan visits to enhance and consolidate the learning that takes place in school and we regularly invite visitors into school to share their expertise with the children. Throughout the year children have regular opportunities to take part in school trips that enrich their learning experiences.