Our curriculum
Our children benefit from an exciting and engaging curriculum, closely following the National Curriculum, which has been developed to ensure that learning is irresistible for children. We ensure learning includes memorable experiences, is sequenced in a logical and progressive way, and is built upon a range of high- quality texts. We share the purpose of learning and provide an audience for the children’s outcomes wherever possible.
The aim of our curriculum is to develop:
- Avid and fluent readers
- Ambitious and curious learners
- Confident writers
- Resilient problem solvers
- Effective citizens who nurture and support others
We do this by providing children with:
- An Early Years curriculum that provides the foundations for future learning
- Knowledge that interconnects and is closely linked to the area we live in
- A commitment to developing the best teaching and support, with equity for all at its heart
- A rich variety of memorable experiences, that challenge, engage and inspire
- Access to books and literature that will nurture a lifelong love of reading
- Opportunities to write across a wide range of meaningful contexts and audiences
- Learning and challenges that create fluent mathematicians
- Ensuring maths mastery enables children to reason mathematically and solve problems
- Exposure to the arts and opportunities to create high quality art, music, dance and drama
- The chance to be leaders, and become fluent and articulate speakers
- Experiences that foster curiosity and a thirst for scientific and technological discovery
- The opportunity to develop an understanding of how to care for their bodies and minds
- An environment that is inclusive and celebrates diversity
- A Charter for Living and Learning, advocating the rights of every child
- Embracing and delivering upon British Values: democracy, the rule of law, tolerance, mutual respect and individual liberty
To support high quality teaching of all subject disciplines, we use the following approaches:
English: Early reading is taught through daily Phonics lessons (using Read Write Inc). Whole class reading is taught daily with a focus on fluency to support reading for meaning. Our curriculum is underpinned by carefully selected high quality texts. Children are taught to produce high quality writing outcomes across a range of genres and for a variety of purposes and audiences.
Maths: Mathematics is taught daily. We resource our mathematics teaching principally from ‘White Rose Maths’, alongside the ‘Ready to Progress; documents, with a ‘Mastering Number’ led focus in the younger years.
History: We use a bespoke History curriculum, developed by our History leads
Geography: We use a bespoke Geography curriculum, developed by our Geography leads
Science: We use a bespoke science curriculum, written by our science leads
Art: We have a bespoke art curriculum written by our art specialist teachers. Art links, where applicable, to topics and focuses on skills and processes of art and the importance of sketch books to support this.
Design and Technology: We use Projects on a Page from the D&T Association.
Computing: We use schemes of learning from Teach Computing to teach and explore the computing curriculum with our children.
PSHE: We use SCARF to deliver our PSHE and RSE curriculum along with regular Circle Time in class, and high-quality assemblies.
PE: We use a bespoke PE curriculum, written by our PE leads.
RE: We use Discovery RE to teach RE. Children explore two religions in depth, one being Christianity, each year.
MFL: We use Language Angels in Key Stage 2 to support our teaching of French.
Our wider curriculum is carefully curated to support the development of the whole child, including:
- A rich play curriculum at playtimes and lunchtimes
- School Parliament and leadership opportunities, such as Sports Leaders, Ambassadors
- Elections to Trowbridge Youth Parliament
- Weekly celebrations assembly
- Extra-curricular clubs, visits and visitors to extend the children’s opportunities
- Author visits
- School performances in theatre venues
- Sports fixtures across a wide range of sporting opportunities
- An outdoor and adventurous curriculum, including residentials
- On-site forest school and a focus on maintaining our Green Flag eco statu
Our assessment is through key approaches, including:
- Elicitation
- Individual and class conferencing / feedback
- Pre-teaching
- Responsive teaching, the routine checking of children’s understanding and remembering
- Regular checking of books by teachers and leaders
- Discussions with children about their learning
- Summative (standardised) assessment twice a year (more frequently for phonics and maths fluency)
We measure the effectiveness of our curriculum by checking:
- Children know more, remember more and can do more
- Teachers have the knowledge and skills to effectively deliver the planned curriculum
- Children are respectful and supportive of each other, and value difference
- Children are highly motivated and strive to achieve their very best
- Children develop confidence, talents and interests
These checks are done through:
- Trust Education Reviews and Partnership Visits
- Pupil Progress reviews (PPRs)
- Moderation within the Trust and with local schools
At all times, our curriculum is guided by the following principle: ‘Children get one chance to experience childhood. It should be precious and memorable.’
And in the words often attributed to the poet William Butler Yeats: “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”