A Curriculum Designed for Abbotts Ann Church of England Primary School

Our Curriculum Vision and Intent

We believe our curriculum should:

• Be purposeful with clear outcomes
• Offer appropriate pitch and challenge
• Be engaging, relevant and inject a spirit of enjoyment  
• Have a strong sense of coherence and clear learning links and pathways
• Be a creative journey where children can take risks and explore their ideas in a curious way
• Be a celebration of achievement and determination
• Foster self-belief and create a sense of ownership in our children
• Reflect the world around us and develop a sense of global issues
• Allow discussion and ‘talk’ to both build on, and challenge ideas
• Build on our Christian Values of Curiosity, Compassion and Courage – we aim for these to permeate all that we do
• Develop strong learning behaviours within the context of our Learning Gems:
  • Create a sense of independence
  • Foster Interdependence- team work, co-operation and collaboration
  • Support children in their organisational skills
  • Be enquiry based with problems to solve
  • Enable children to reflect and refine their ideas
  • Build resilience, ‘Bouncebackability’  and perseverance
• Foster a ‘Love of Learning’

Curriculum Coherence

For our curriculum to meet the needs of the learners in our care, we believe it is essential for our curriculum to embody a sense of coherence. We work hard to ensure the links and threads of each learning opportunity are woven to fit together into a ‘bigger picture’ so children know what they are learning and why they are learning it.  We recognise that our curriculum needs to be appropriately demanding to ensure deep learning takes place.

Subject  Knowledge

We believe it is important for children to be aware about the subject they are learning and we aim to be explicit about this. The substance of our curriculum needs to provide a strong and purposeful understanding of subject knowledge, concepts and overarching ideas. We therefore recognise the need to be subject specific in our purpose and aims, following the statutory guidance in the National Curriculum as our starting point. The learning behaviours and skills we aim to foster in our children do not stand alone from the knowledge they are being taught. It is therefore key that children are taught subject-specific skills and subject-specific terminology and are able to use them with confidence. We aim to provide over  learning of key concepts to enable children to achieve deeper learning and make purposeful connections and links.

Our Curriculum Implementation

Abbotts Ann CE Primary School is organised into four classes: YR/1, Y1/2, Y3/4 and Y5/6.  Each Year group has an annual Long term Plan which is followed and ensures appropriate coverage and progression for mixed age classes. There is an awareness of our Christian Values and opportunities for Global Learning across the year to ensure purposeful connections.  

Each subject has a progression of skills document across KS1 and KS2 to ensure coverage and appropriate pitch. These documents give further detail to what is taught and how it is delivered.

Phonics and Reading Curriculum Implementation

We teach phonics through the Little Wandle Scheme and resources. In Year R and Key Stage One, phonics is taught daily for approximately twenty minutes per day.  Phonic teaching is re-enforced throughout the curriculum through the use of sound mats and direct teaching. We use fully decodable books published by Collins as the school early reading scheme and we ensure a variety of both fiction and non-fiction books are available. The sequence of take home reading books children work through are designed to provide a cumulative progression in their phonic knowledge and reflect the teaching of phonics in our Early Years and Key Stage One classrooms.  As the children develop their reading skills they are offered a wider selection of books from our well-stocked library.  We aim to provide a rich and wide-ranging choice of texts for our children to have access to including stories, poems, rhymes and non-narrative books. Reading books are taken home and parents are encouraged to support daily reading at home. Parents are supported in this through reading and phonics workshops.

At Abbotts Ann CE Primary School all class teachers are responsible for providing a curriculum (DfE National Curriculum on gov.uk ) that is suitable for all pupils in the class, including those with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND) with support from the SENCo. We have high expectations for all pupils and are committed to ensuring our curriculum complies with the Equality Act 2010 and the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014. Our inclusion statement emphasises the importance of providing an inclusive learning environment for all pupils including those with SEND. Additional information on this can be found in our Special Education Needs Policy and Equality Policy here.

Our Curriculum Newsletters and Long Term Plans for current academic year can be found on the Class Pages via the link below: