Curriculum Leaders: Celia Salter and Natalie Smith (maternity leave) 

Creative Curriculum

Our Creative Curriculum is engaging, purposeful and stimulating. Links are made across the curriculum, particularly English, Maths and Computing. The use of drama and speaking and listening is central to ensuring children have a deep understanding of their topic and can transfer their knowledge in a variety of ways. Visitors and trips also ensure the work is brought to life, with members of the community involved as much as possible.

Knowledge and skills are built upon from the Early Years to Year 6. Children are able to experience a broad and balanced curriculum which enthuses all through hands on and practical tasks, giving children the opportunity to make real life links and understand their place within the world at large.

Our vision, as a Federation, is for all children to understand the world around them and to have a desire and ambition to find out as much as possible about the past, present and future. Children will be active learners who are interested and motivated to find out as much as possible about the world’s different cultures, religions and societies.

Aims

History

• know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world

• know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind

• gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’

• understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses

• understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed

• gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts: understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales

Objectives

In order to fulfil the above aims it is necessary for us as a school to ensure:

• a continuity of experience throughout the school both within and among year groups

• the systematic progression through Early Years, KS1 and KS2

• that National Curriculum programmes of study and their associated strands, level descriptions and attainment target are given appropriate coverage

• that all children have access to a range of resources

• that children’s experiences are monitored and evaluated

• that resources are used to their full extent

• that resources and equipment are kept up to date as much as possible

• that staff skills and knowledge are kept up to date