Curriculum Introduction

Curriculum Statement: Intent, Implementation, Impact

Intent

Through our carefully planned, sequential and progressive curriculum we aim for all pupils at Great Doddington to have secured the skills and knowledge they need in later life and to be ready for the next stage of their education by the time the reach the end of Year 6. We want our pupils to:

• develop a lifelong love of learning and reading
• develop their communication skills through a broad vocabulary which enables them to ask questions and express themselves fluently
• know how to remain healthy, happy and safe
• understand, accept and respect diversity across the local and global community
• develop an awareness of opportunities beyond what they already know
• develop their confidence, resilience and become deeper, critical thinkers and decision makers

To enable us to ensure our curriculum provides the identified outcomes we have chosen three curriculum drivers which encompass what we want the curriculum to provide and which underpin the planning of the curriculum across all subjects:  

1. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion   2. Healthy Body, Healthy Mind    3. Reading and Oracy

Implementation

We know that learning happens when there is a change to long term memory. We have therefore planned our curriculum so that pupils have the opportunity to progressively build on their prior learning by linking what they already know to new knowledge and skills over time.  Across all subjects we plan for engaging learning opportunities through first hand learning experiences wherever possible, both in the classroom and beyond. In support of making learning ‘stick’, our curriculum plans also enable the revisiting of prior learning to support pupils in linking it to new, progressive knowledge and skills to support pupils in knowing and remembering more.

Based on what we know from cognitive science, we think beyond the notion of progression as moving quickly onwards from one topic or level. We value opportunities to discuss, explain and apply what has been learned in different contexts and probe and research particular issues which adds depth to the progression of learning and promotes the development of mastery.

Our curriculum planning enables pupils to share their learning across the school. Where classes are mixed age there is a progression of knowledge and skills mapped out for each year group. Each subject has its own Intent, Implementation and Impact statement to demonstrate how the golden threads of planned learning at whole school level are applied throughout all subjects the curriculum.

We teach the children about issues in the wider world and diversity through carefully planned assemblies and other experiences. This includes theatre visits, discussing and debating news items and participating in the community. We also develop our pupils’ cultural capital through carefully chosen resources and to ensure pupils are exposed to a broad range of experiences and opportunities.

Impact

We use various strategies to measure the impact of our curriculum which include:

• Ongoing assessment during lessons with regular reviewing the learning across a sequence of lessons
• Pupil voice to check if children can articulate what they have learnt
• Comparing books and children’s work over time to determine progress made
• Summative judgements made at the end of sequences of work
• Formal assessment which identifies gaps in knowledge and understanding to inform future planning
• Observing teaching and learning to identify strengths and needs to support teachers to become experts

Our curriculum topics at Great Doddington:

To find out more about our curriculum, please speak to your child's class teacher or contact Mrs Rodwell (Curriculum Lead).