Our Curriculum 

Curriculum Intent 

We want our children to learn to be able to think well and feel well so that they can contribute and belong to a better world. We want them to leave our school feeling prepared for their next adventures at high school, equipped with the academic knowledge, love of learning and a  wider sense of themselves.

We value the spiritual and moral development of each person, as well as their intellectual and physical growth.  We provide our children with rich opportunities to learn knowledge that is meaningful, that will be valuable, and will allow them to be active members in our local and global community.

At Ashwicken Primary School, we have structured our curriculum using the national curriculum as a starting point for a wide and varied learning experience. Our curriculum ensures that every child makes progress from their starting points and that they develop a love for learning and a determination to make a difference to others. 

We offer a curriculum which develops a thirst for knowledge and a deep intrinsic motivation for learning. We follow a core knowledge curriculum, which has been methodically sequenced so that children can build their knowledge cumulatively.  This approach is based upon cognitive psychology and theories of working memory which support the acquisition of knowledge and vocabulary.  

Here at Ashwicken as we planned our curriculum overview, we were determined to ensure that we had included a broad range of experiences to help develop cultural capital and a wide knowledge that will help them to success in life. We have tried to enhance the experiences using our own historical locality and environment to take the pupils beyond their own experiences. Our children do not live in a diverse community, our curriculum provides them with respect for the way in which all children are unique, it promotes tolerance for the views of others, as well as for people of all cultures and communities.

We use a variety of approaches to support learning, for example, high quality texts are threaded throughout the curriculum so that all children develop a love of reading and have access to a rich vocabulary to enable them to access the wider curriculum.  Through our collective worship, we teach about global issues and how communities might be affected. Forest School supports the children in our school to assimilate their learning and to think about what they have learnt in different contexts. We ensure that This prepares our children to be nurturing citizens who are able to solve a wealth of problems with both confidence and creativity.

Implementation

At the heart of our curriculum is a holistic approach that develops the whole child by securing essential knowledge, skills and by valuing their personalities and differences.

The curriculum is taught in discrete subjects with vertical, horizontal and diagonal links made across the subjects. Our curriculum aims to provide the correct balance of procedural and semantic knowledge. Key subject schemas have been created (knowledge organisers) for each subject. These are subject specific and are based around a ‘big idea’. These are the key concepts which underpin the subject. i.e. the key concepts we are aiming for the pupils to master. Then in each big idea there are knowledge categories which further strengthen the schema. Pupils return to the big ideas many times over and gradually build a sound, strong understanding of them The knowledge organiser is proactively used to enable pupils to embed and deepen understanding progressively and to make links between different topics of work.

We recognise the crucial role that adults at home play in their children’s education and we are always seeking ways to encourage and support this.

Our community is embedded within our curriculum and we use it to enhance and adapt the learning opportunities.  We utilise our local area, particularly Kings Lynn Museum, St Nicholas’s Chapel, local geography, the coast amongst others, to support our pupils’ learning, providing them with opportunities that will enhance their memory of key concepts; and allow them to use their knowledge and skills in real world settings. 

Impact

Learning is a change in the long term memory and our children will leave us knowing more and remembering more across a board range of curriculum subjects.

They will have strong communication skills, both written and verbal, and will listen respectfully and with tolerance to the views of others.

They will take pride in all that they do, always striving to do their best.

They will demonstrate emotional resilience and the ability to persevere when they encounter challenge.

They will develop a sense of self-awareness and become confident in their own abilities.

They will be kind, respectful and honest, demonstrate inclusive attitudes and have a sense of their role in our wider society.