The Greatfield Park Curriculum

Intent

At Greatfield Park Primary School, we want our pupils to develop as learners as they gain new knowledge, skills and understanding. We encourage children to have a positive attitude to their learning and to take pride in their achievements. 

Our DREAMS values are at the heart of everything we do and our Vision of every member of our community ‘Learning and thriving, to achieve our DREAMS’ underpins our ‘Greatfield Park Primary School curriculum’.

Determined -Having the resilience to ‘stick at it’ and persevere through challenges

Respectful - Show consideration for everyone and everything, appreciating all differences.

Excellent - Being the best that we can be.

Aspirational - Setting goals to follow and aiming to achieve our ambitions.

Mindful - Being thoughtful and reflective in our choices.

Supportive - Being helpful, encouraging and giving to others. 

 This is to ensure they are ready for the next stage in their education and for life in 21st Century Britain.

Throughout our Greatfield Park Primary School curriculum, we follow the National Curriculum and Early Years Framework. We ensure that learning is carefully sequenced across the whole school so that children are able to build on what they already know, understand and can do.

We are an inclusive school and provide support and challenge for all learners, including children with additional needs, children in receipt of the Pupil Premium grant, those who speak English as an Additional Language (EAL) and the more able.

Implementation 

We provide a full range of subjects to engage and enthuse our learners and run a range of clubs and opportunities to enrich the curriculum and develop the whole child. Where relevant, we make links between subjects and prior learning to enhance understanding. 

From the moment children join the school in the early years, they experience our commitment to experiential learning: visits and visiting experts are utilised to provide experiences and ‘hook’ our learners in and engage them. Children develop their knowledge, skills, understanding and vocabulary and then apply and innovate their learning in a real life context. We aim to express our learning experiences and outcomes with our families and our community.

Our curriculum is rooted in the National Curriculum and organised into projects that encourage experiential learning, building on personal experiences. Within these projects, subject knowledge progresses sequentially and is built upon. Projects will have a clear, purposeful learning journey, which begins with a ‘hook’ to engage learners and then progresses towards a meaningful outcome. Every class will experience 3 ‘Knowledge Rich Projects’ in a year. History and geography are the ‘driver’ subjects each term; there are two history projects and one geography project each year. When history or geography is not the driver, pupils receive revision and retrieval practice during the term.  

Timings of learning are flexible to ensure quality of provision. Therefore, some subjects will not be taught daily or weekly but rather be blocked into learning days or weeks if a teacher feels this would be better for the children’s learning process. Project learning is supported by Cornerstones. 

Each individual project is split into four stages of learning: Engage, Develop, Innovate and Express.

Engage- At the ‘Engage’ stage, children:

• gain memorable first-hand experiences, such as going on a visit or inviting a special visitor into school
• get an exciting introduction to the projects
• begin researching and setting enquiry questions
• get lots of opportunities to make observations
• develop spoken language skills
• take part in sensory activities
• have lots of fun to fully 'engage' with their new project. 

Develop-At the ‘Develop’ stage, children:

• improve their knowledge and understanding of the topic
• develop and practise their new skills
• compose, make, do, build, investigate, explore, write for different purposes and read across the curriculum
• research their own questions and those set by others
• Follow new pathways of enquiry based on their interests.  

Innovate- At the ‘Innovate’ stage, children:

• apply skills, knowledge and understanding in real-life contexts
• solve real or imagined problems using everything they’ve learnt
• get inspired by imaginative and creative opportunities
• revisit anything not fully grasped at the ‘Develop’ stage.

Express- At the ‘Express’ stage, children:

• become the performers, experts and informers
• share their achievements with parents, classmates and the community
• evaluate finished products and processes
• link what they have learnt to where they started
• celebrate their achievements!

We aim to provide breadth within our curriculum and a range of opportunities. Children’s understanding is enhanced through welcoming skilled visitors to school and the provision of carefully selected experiences, including both educational and residential visits. 

Reading is at the heart of our curriculum. We recognise that reading is vital for children to become lifelong learners. Children enjoy carefully selected high-quality texts linked to their projects, within a vocabulary-rich environment. Oracy is at the centre of being able to communicate successfully; we want our pupils to be able to express their learning experiences, as an inquisitive and deep-thinking learner. The value we put on spoken language is reflected in our approach to the teaching of writing. Our provision of high-quality texts supports their development as writers, enabling them to write for a range of purposes and audiences. Writing opportunities are also linked where possible.

We want our children to have a secure knowledge and understanding of all aspects of mathematics as an essential life skill. From the early years, we place an emphasis on fluency and recall of basic number facts. Children are then taught to apply these facts in order to solve mathematical problems. Developing oracy skills supports children in expressing their mathematical thinking and reasoning.

We are an outward-facing school. Global awareness and cultural understanding underpins our approach. We aim to teach our children about the world in which they live, learn from it and its issues and their place in contributing towards it, as British citizens.

More information on how we implement our curriculum can be found on our long term overviews for each year and on the relevant subject area documents. 

Impact

Children will:

• Have a rich knowledge and understanding of the wider world.
• Be confident in a range of skills, using and applying them in a range of contexts.
• Use their vocabulary and oracy skills in order to become effective communicators. 
• Be able to investigate, explore and question.
• Have the resilience to ‘stick at it’ and persevere through challenges.
• Show awareness, understanding and consideration for everyone and everything, appreciating all differences.
• Have a desire to be the best that they can be.
• Be able to set goals to follow and aim to achieve their ambitions.
• Develop the skills to be thoughtful and reflective.
• Be helpful, encouraging and giving to others.
• Be able to engage with others, develop understanding of communities and society, so they can demonstrate responsible and active citizenship.
• Have good outcomes, academically and as well-rounded individuals.

How will we measure this?

• Attainment and progress data
• Attendance data
• Project quizzes and tests
• Pupil voice
• Outcomes in books.
• Work and progress in books.
• Monitoring- lesson visits, work scrutiny
• Analysis of clubs and educational visits

Below is a link to the class pages. Here you will find the Learning Pathways, Curriculum Letters and Knowledge Organisers for each term, where you can find more information about our curriculum.