Boarshaw Community Primary School
Curriculum Intent Statement
At Boarshaw primary school, we believe that ‘Every Moment Matters’ and that our children deserve the best experiences curriculum and resources available. Our curriculum is designed to be inclusive to all our pupils and their families, utilising our local community and area to enhance our curriculum.
Intent
Aims
Our curriculum is designed to meet the needs of our pupils. The breadth of our curriculum is shaped by our Golden Threads, Cultural Capital and the National Curriculum and aims to:
- To give pupils experiences and opportunities to enable them to develop as confident, independent and responsible citizens.
- To provide a structure, progressive and challenging curriculum that ensures key knowledge is acquired, which leads to mastery for pupils and a deep understanding in all National Curriculum subjects.
- To ensure pupils have access to a rich, board and balanced curriculum that promotes ‘Cultural Capital’.
Golden Threads
‘Golden Threads’ shape our curriculum and are at the heart of everything we do. They are our values that help us to shape our pupils and prepare them for the future. These are weaved into the life our school and are developed through the curriculum and enrichments that we offer.
Our Golden Threads are –
- Nurture
- Compassion
- Tolerance
- Boarshaw Brilliant!
- Ambition
- Inclusion
- SEMH and wellbeing
Cultural Capital
Cultural Capital at Boarshaw Primary means to equip our pupils with the knowledge they need to be educated citizens, introducing them to the best that has been said and thought and helping to engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement. It will be achieved through all aspects of the curriculum and we will expose our pupils to a large variety of subject areas and arts; promote character-building qualities that lead to creating well-rounded, global citizens who understand and believe in British Values. Our curriculum will ensure that pupils receive an education that provides them with the knowledge that will open up doors to paths in later life.
Curriculum Breadth
At Boarshaw Primary we use a ‘Learning Challenge Curriculum’ that has been designed to support pupils’ acquisition of knowledge of National Curriculum subjects.
Our Learning Challenges are set out in half-termly units, with History and Geography being the driver subjects. Each learning challenge starts with a main question, which is linked to either History or Geography. The main question is then supported by other subsidiary questions (usually six to eight). These subsidiary questions would normally be the focus of a week’s learning. The other National Curriculum subjects are called enhancers. These are taught as separate lessons, making links to the Learning Challenges is applicable.
We ensure National Curriculum coverage, based on progression, teaching subjects as individual disciplines. The curriculum breadth ensures that there is clarity about what each year group need to be taught and assessed. We identify rich ‘sticky’ knowledge that will be acquired in each year, in each subject.
Our curriculum breadth promotes sustained mastery. Cognitive science tells us that working memory is limited and that cognitive load is too high if students are rushed through content. Nothing is learned unless it rests in pupils’ long-term memories and cannot be assessed in the short term.
Implementation
In designing our curriculum, we felt passionate about the science of learning;
- We understand that learning is invisible in the short-term and that sustained mastery takes time. That is, nothing is learned unless it rests in pupils’ long-term memories.
- Retrieval of previously learned content is frequent and regular, which increases both storage and retrieval strength.
We wanted our curriculum to ensure that pupils understood the different National Curriculum subjects and could recall key knowledge linked to these. As such, our pupils are taught in a subject specific way, making cross curricular links that are not tenuous.
Each topic begins with an opportunity for an assessment of prior knowledge linked to the driver subject. This allows the teacher to assess how well the pupils are coping with the curriculum content and how well they are retaining previously taught content and key knowledge.
Daily routines provide continuous provision to retrieval practice for previously learned content and knowledge. Teachers ensure that this time is built into the timetable.
Senior Leaders ensure that there is progression across all subjects, in terms of content and key knowledge. Subject leaders engage in monitoring activities to ensure that this is being implemented and to monitor the impact.
The education experience at Boarshaw will be implemented through;
- Educational visits
- Enrichment opportunities
- Residential opportunities
- Assemblies
- Visitors
- Extra-curricular activities
- Outdoor learning
- Themed weeks, themed days
- Pupils voice through our school community groups
Impact
The impact of the curriculum is judged termly. The goal is that the majority of the pupils will have sustained mastery at the end of each academic year, linked to the key knowledge for that year group. We aim that the pupils can remember what they have been taught and are fluent in the content.
Because learning is a change in long term memory, it can be impossible to see impact in the short term. Therefore, retrieval opportunities where teachers can assess from a distance are crucial so teachers can assess how well pupils are remembering key knowledge. We will engage in discussions with the pupils, and provide feedback to the pupils to check understanding and ensure progress is made.
Teachers are supported with assessment by Senior Leaders and subject leaders, engaging in monitoring activities, including moderation.
The impact of our curriculum is measured regularly through;
- teacher assessments
- observations of lessons
- learning walks
- pupil and parent voice
- professional dialogue
- monitoring progress over time
- pupils premium and sports premium
Our curriculum is a working document and will change to meet the needs of our children. We will review our curriculum annually to ensure it provides the best possible experience.
