Curriculum Statement
At Shaw Cross School we are committed to ensuring our children feel, and are, safe and secure as we recognise this is vital to them being able to thrive. We have a curriculum that supports, encourages, excites and challenges the enquiring minds of our children. We strongly believe in providing opportunities for our children to become confident, independent, successful learners who demonstrate resilience and make good progress. We aim to embed a sense of pride in the journey that a child takes as well as the outcome, and encourage children to reflect on this and build their knowledge and skills over time. We focus on the need for children to respect themselves, others within the school and wider community and the resources within it. This philosophy towards learning is embedded throughout school with our core values of ‘Respect, Resilient, Reflect,’ which underpin all our teaching and learning across the curriculum. Our PSHE curriculum supports the spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding that threads through each area of the curriculum. Our whole approach to the curriculum and our wider offer nurtures the personal development of each child as an individual.
We provide a highly inclusive environment where learners can enjoy their education, build their self-esteem and achieve without limits. Regardless of their starting point, pupils at all levels have opportunities to achieve their potential. For some children, this may mean that learning is broken down through adult support to scaffold language and thought processes, or through additional use of resources to ensure that there are no barriers to learning. Through a supportive and challenging approach our children embed knowledge and skills to become deeper learners. We strive to instil high aspirations for pupils and their families, and encourage children to make a positive contribution to their community and the wider society both now and in the future. In a forever changing world we aim to equip our children to be well prepared to contribute positively to life as a British citizen.
Our curriculum builds on the ethos that every child has a right to access the statutory Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum and Key Stage One National Curriculum. We provide children with rich, diverse and memorable learning experiences where they are able to learn, embed their knowledge into their long-term memory, and transfer skills to other areas of learning. We also facilitate the deepening of this learning both within an activity, and as they move through school. We work hard to ensure that learning is set within a meaningful context and in doing so ensure that our children have a clear purpose and motivation to know more, do more and remember more.
General Principles
At Shaw Cross we are committed to working with our children, families and external agencies to create a school community that we can be proud of. Through our curriculum offer we focus on the following principles;
- Providing a curriculum which is driven by the school’s core values ‘Respect, Resilient, Reflect’.
- To learn within a coherent and progressive framework which focuses on children being able to do more, know more and remember more as they progress from Nursery to Year 2, and be KS2 ready.
- Providing a curriculum which is rich in high quality vocabulary.
- Deliver a curriculum that reflects the school community and value the uniqueness of each child, to inspire them to be the best that they can be and prepare them for the world in which they live as British citizens.
- For children to have the opportunity to learn in an exciting, challenging and creative way.
- For children to experience a broad and balanced curriculum that is rich in cultural capital.
- Work creatively within the curriculum to ensure that all learning has a purpose and that children will be motivated and engage with their learning.
- To enable literacy and numeracy to be applied within other subject areas, and vice versa.
- To promote reading for both enjoyment and as a key to lifelong learning.
- To scaffold learning for all pupils to ensure there are no barriers to making progress.
- To provide a curriculum where cultural diversity is celebrated.
- To create an environment where positive attitudes and approaches to learning are praised to the same extent as academic attainment.
How is our curriculum planned and delivered?
We have developed an ambitious curriculum that is carefully designed to give ALL pupils the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. We ensure that children study the full curriculum and in no way is this narrowed. Children have the opportunity to study a broad range of subjects that are outlined in the national curriculum. We ensure that pupils can learn through a wide range of learning styles, and provide opportunities for children to work individually, in small groups or as a class. The majority of this learning is through quality first teaching in class, but may also involve booster/intervention work to accelerate the learning of small groups and/or individuals.
We have carefully considered our curriculum design and use the structure provided by schemes of work to facilitate sequential teaching and learning throughout school from nursery to Year 2. We ensure learning is carefully tailored and pitched appropriately to ensure that it is suitable to the individual, whilst also keeping a focus on age-related expectations. Teaching and learning has both challenge and support to meet the needs of all learners.
- Maths is delivered using the structure of the White Rose scheme.
- Literacy is delivered using the structure of The Oak Academy.
- Phonics and Reading are delivered through the structure provided by Essentials Letters and Sounds.
Our foundation subjects are delivered through schemes of work which provide a context for learning. Individual subjects are taught discretely through EYFS areas of learning or through KS1 curriculum subjects so that children understand what it means to be a ‘scientist’, ‘historian’ etc .
The delivery is built upon a 4-stage pedagogy of;
- hooking the children and provoke curiosity with a memorable experience or through a text and provides a context for the learning to come.
- teaching the knowledge, skills and vocabulary needed to deepen children’s understanding of a particular concept.
- enabling children to apply their knowledge and skills, develop independence and facilitate opportunities for investigating and problem solving.
- opportunities for children to reflect on and show what they have learned.
Whilst we ensure that children are able to access the statutory requirements of the EYFS and KS1 National Curriculum, we are constantly reviewing how we deliver the content. As new technology, research and resources become available we are evolving and implementing new initiatives to improve and enhance learning, whilst maintaining the clear objectives set out in the curriculum.
Extended Opportunities and Enrichment
Within school we have an extended school provision in which children can access a breakfast club. In addition to this we provide a number of clubs during lunchtime and after-school where children can develop their physical health, well-being and creativity through sport and music, as well as reaching wider interests such as gardening, construction (lego), arts and craft club etc.
High quality visits and visitors into Shaw Cross provide cultural capital opportunities to enhance and deepen our learning. This not only provided memorable experience, but facilitates learning in a more meaningful way and beyond that of what can be provided within the day to day school environment. We also strive to utilise our outdoor environment to enable our children to gain first-hand experience of the world around them and their immediate community. The inclusion of theme days/weeks, such as Active Week, a biscuit Enterprise challenge, RSPB Bird Watch further raises the profile of specific subjects, and enhances knowledge and skills through an enriched experience.
We provide regular opportunities for parents/families to join their children in their learning and strengthen our home-school links for the benefit of our children. In doing so we make strong steps towards fulfilling our mission statement of ‘Working together to value and nurture children’.
Pupils have opportunities within and beyond the curriculum to share their ideas, thoughts and opinions and have a significant role in making decisions. They are actively encouraged to share their pupil voice through forming school/class rules, school council, and roles of responsibilities within class. As part of their learning, they are regularly asked to share their knowledge, skills and opinions within curriculum subjects, and express their thoughts and opinions through age appropriate discussions on current affairs, such as Newsround and Picture News, as well as through PSHE circle time responses.
