Curriculum Information

Curriculum

Intent, Implementation and Impact

2023 – 2024

Curriculum Intent

Our curriculum is driven by the need to prepare our children for lifelong learning.  At Almeley, we offer a rich and vibrant curriculum which is ambitious for all learners.  Through our curriculum, we develop the essential knowledge, skills and understanding which are the building blocks for later life.  Our curriculum encompasses not only the formal requirements of the National Curriculum, but goes beyond the experiences of the classroom to ensure that our children are exposed to the richest and most varied opportunities that we can provide.  Our aim is to enrich every child's school experience by creating an environment where they are encouraged to succeed and be the best they can be.  At Almeley cultural capital prepares children with the essential knowledge and skills for their future.  The exploration of new skills and experiences help to nurture resilience, curiosity and creativity.  The curriculum is further enhanced by our commitment to Values-based Education (including British Values) and, through this, we provide learning experiences which promote confident, self-motivated pupils, that are responsible and independent thinkers.

The aims of our school curriculum are:

• to foster the children’s understanding of ‘becoming independent and responsible thinkers’ through a challenged based curriculum approach. This encourages children to become critical thinkers and develop the confidence to ask questions that challenge and deepen their understanding that build the foundations for life long learning.
• to promote a ‘go-for-it’ attitude towards learning, so that all children enjoy coming to school and embrace new challenges and possibilities; pushing their own boundaries
• to promote the teaching of values so children take responsibility for themselves and their actions, are respectful and develop resilience
• to fulfil all the requirements of the National Curriculum and the Locally Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education.

Curriculum Implementation

Almeley Primary school is a small rural school with varying class sizes. Our class structure can change with each year’s new intake; therefore, our curriculum needs to be flexible thus taught through a rolling programme. Our rolling programme strives to be ambitious, consistent and enriched with a variety of learning experiences that ensure that skills and knowledge are embedded and built upon each year– making it stick! We follow a challenge-based approach. This starts off with a “Wow” moment to enthuse pupils and encourage them to ask questions, for example setting up a scene from a WW2 kitchen that develops the element of wonder.  The prime learning challenge is expressed as a key question, such as “How does the post person know where I live?”.  Pre-learning tasks (mind maps, discussions, home tasks- encouraging parents/carers to be involved in their child’s learning) are directly involved in the planning process therefore ensuring we build upon prior learning, addressing misconceptions and allows us to plan subsidiary learning questions.  These questions have been planned with the children’s needs in mind, ensuring that the local community plays a part alongside the wider world.  In order to broaden the children’s experiences, visits and visitors are carefully planned to support and inspire the learning. We encourage pupils to ask their own questions and these are included throughout the topic and referred to as the learning progresses. Thus, allowing pupils to take ownership over their learning.  These questions also allow for curriculum coherence and motivates the children to seek patterns across subjects and make links to previous learning.  Where links cannot be made, the subject are taught discretely. As part of our planning, we ensure regular recaps of subject content and opportunities to deepen the children’s understanding of their learning.

Curriculum Impact

Our challenged-based curriculum places the learners at the centre and allows them to make connections in their knowledge, skills and understanding that are vital across all subjects.

At Almeley, we strive to ensure that our children’s attainment in core and foundation subjects is in line with or exceeding age-related expectations.  We intend that our children will be fully prepared for their next stage of education; ready to contribute positively to society as a whole.

Our work on promoting social skills, including values, resilience and well-being enables the children to become the very best version of themselves.

Please Click the PDF to read all about our Curriculum.