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Our Curriculum

Curriculum

The National Curriculum

Our school curriculum includes the ‘National Curriculum’ and EYFS curriculum as well as RE, PSHE and sex & relationships curriculums.

The National Curriculum is a statutory curriculum document used by primary and secondary schools.  It covers what subjects are taught and the standards children should reach in each subject.

The National Curriculum is organised into blocks of years called ‘key stages’ (KS). At the end of each key stage, the teacher will assess pupil progress and outcomes.

Our curriculum is, broad, varied, relevant and exciting. We aim to inspire our children so as to develop a love of school and learning. While the National Curriculum is at the core of our provision, we ensure that we make learning experiences come alive, hooking the children’s imaginations with a wide range of hands-on experiences and inspiring visits and visitors!
 
Curriculum Intent
 
We ensure that our curriculum provides knowledge rich learning opportunities for all children in order that they become educated global citizens. We assure that learning will ignite aspiration and interest so that children reach their full potential in and beyond the curriculum. 
 

Please see the links below for detailed information on National Curriculum content.
 
Bearnes' Curriculum Statement

Our vision statement, mission, principles and purpose 

Bearnes prides itself on being a nurturing community where children’s voices are heard. Our staff, pupils and families are supportive of one another and are integral to our success. We celebrate successes of all sizes for all of our pupils individually.  

Our curriculum is, broad, varied, relevant and exciting. We ensure that we inspire our children to develop a love of school and learning. While the National Curriculum is at the core of our provision, we make learning experiences come alive, hooking the children’s imaginations with a wide range of hands-on experiences and inspiring visits and visitors. 

We value each child as an individual through our nurturing approach. 

The children at Bearnes will; 

 

  • Develop knowledge and skills through an exciting and creative curriculum which fosters a lasting enjoyment of learning 

  • Show respect and empathy towards others, enabling them to make positive relationships with a wide range of people 

  • Appreciate the natural world as a source of wonder and inspiration, and play their part in maintaining and improving their environment 

 

 

As a part of the Link Academy Trust, we want to be known to be nationally recognised for putting our pupils first by: 
 

  • Delivering educational excellence underpinned by strong moral values 

  • Each learner exceeding their aspirations in a quality learning environment 

  • Highly motivated, research-led, passionate teaching 

  • Schools being at the heart of and an integral part of their community 

  • Being a partner of choice 

Our mission is to deliver the best for our children, families and communities through: 
 

  • Innovative approaches to learning 

  • The development of partnership and collaborative working to create a cutting edge approach 

  • An uncompromising approach to health, safety, nurturing and inclusion 

We will achieve this by investment in: 
 

  • High quality provision for staff and their pathways to success 

  • School environments that provide stimulating learning spaces 

  • Strong business planning to maximise the Trust’s geographical range and collective expertise 

Our core offer and enrichment 

The Bearnes message is simply that we want all the children to feel the warm glow of success and be motivated individuals who are constantly striving to do exceptional things.  

 

A 5-star education and our 5-star pledge:  

During their time in our school, children will be offered the opportunity to: 

  • We will take part in a multi-cultural event 

  • We will cook and eat together 

  • We will take part in outdoor learning 

  • We will work in the local community and support charities 

  • We will meet inspiring people. 

 

We believe that a broad, balanced, creative curriculum will enable children to flourish. With this in mind we have implemented a programme of enriching activities, visits and memorable experiences which underpin our five star core offer. 

 

Enrichment:  

 

Whole School enrichment opportunities

Enrichment week

Children spent a week “off timetable” where they take part in enriching experiences such as local visits, love our school days, STEM workshops, author visits, crafting and learning new skills, sports, nature walks, farming and natural learning, Community day and more. 

Community Links

We spend a significant amount of time working in our local community which teaches our pupils many of the core strands of the PSE curriculum through hands-on experiences as well as an abundance of key life skills. This includes; Singing at the Rowcroft Light Up A Life event, litter picking, visiting residential homes and volunteering at the local foodbank. 

Sports

Many of our extra-curricular clubs offer children opportunities beyond traditional sports taught in PE such as Kabadi, 3 Ball and orienteering.  

The Arts

We take part in workshops with local artists and have gained skills in willow making, pottery, mosaic and pyrography to name a few. The whole school engages in an annual arts day exploring a range of techniques.We welcome local theatre companies in to work with the children and often go to watch local amateur productions. The children all get the opportunity to take part in a Christmas production on stage. 

‘Back To School’ sessions 

We invite parents into school on a termly basis to share in children’s learning and update parents on how subjects are taught in school. This features the children guiding parents through their learning journey. 

Experience events linked to the church calendar and national events

Harvest, Remembrance Day, Christmas Nativities & Carols in the community, Easter and leavers services. We also support various charities throughout the year and take opportunities where we can to engage in local and national events such as; Global Climate Change Day, Children In Need, World Book Day and Internet Safety Week.  

Individual class enrichment opportunity examples

 EYFS 

 Years 1&2 

Years 3&4 

Years 5&6 

Farm visits 

   

Visit a place of worship  

  

Plant, maintain and harvest in our school garden ~ cook for enjoyment.  

  

Wild woodland Learning  (mucky monsters) Plant, maintain and harvest in our school garden. Cook for enjoyment. 

 

Explore our local community and people who help us. 

 

 

 

 

Plant, maintain and harvest in our school garden. Cook for enjoyment. 

  

Visit a place of worship  

 

Give back to our local community 

 

Engage in local visits linked to learning. 

 

Visit a zoo. 

 

Meet a Roman centurion  

  

Visit a place of worship  

  

Plant, maintain and harvest in our school garden. Cook for enjoyment. 

 

Give back to our local community 

 

 

Engage in local visits linked to learning. 

 

 

 

Visit a place of worship  

  

Experience  a residential offering challenging outdoor activities: INCL: climbing, orienteering, caving, archery, mountain biking, kayaking, raft building, canoeing, stand-up paddle boarding and high ropes  

  

Plant, maintain and harvest in our school garden. Cook for enjoyment. 

  

Give back to our local community 

 

Engage in local visits linked to learning. 

 

 

Together with, and underpinning our core offer, we ensure that our curriculum has its roots in knowledge and skills. Alongside this staff ‘forensically’ analyse children’s written work to enable focussed targets, which result in accelerated progress. 

 

Our teaching of reading is well established and we have systems in place for ensuring that children secure basic skills at the earliest point possible. We teach writing through the Talk for Writing approach and use synthetic phonics to support skills children need to acquire.  

 

Our maths teaching is through a mastery approach. The children are exposed to discussions, vocabulary and CAPED (check it, another way (show), prove it, explain, draw your learning). This ensures children’s understanding of new concepts is both secure and challenged. 

 

The core curriculum at Bearnes is of a high standard and supports our creativity and nurture. It focuses on the necessary priorities for ensuring that all pupils make excellent progress in reading, writing and maths. It allows for progress within all groups of children across the school and results in high standards. We put children’s emotional development at the core of everything we do and use a wide range of strategies (Thrive, Restorative Approaches, Lego Therapy and Attachment-based Mentoring) across the whole school to ensure our children are happy, feel emotionally secure and are ready to learn.  

 

Curriculum Design 

 

Our Early Years curriculum is designed with the characteristics of effective learning and development matters at its core. Beyond EYFS, the curriculum ensures coverage of the statutory requirements of the national curriculum. The school’s curriculum builds on pupils’ prior learning and develops deep understanding of the material covered, introduces subject content progressively and constantly demands more of pupils embedding reading, writing and communication, and maths where appropriate, across all subjects. We aim to develop pupils who love the challenge of learning, are resilient to failure and are curious to seek out new information to deepen knowledge, understanding and skills. 

The curriculum has been designed making the best use of our unique staff and their varying experiences and skills, our children’s passions and interests and the passions of our families who often share their expertise with us. Through our curriculum design, we aim for our children to think and talk like historians, designers, artists, scientists (etc) being immersed in a subject which carries real meaning and purpose.  

Our two-year programme was created in 2019 in conjunction with Hennock Primary School to ensure children are being taught broad and balanced curriculum that has engaging and exciting content, linked to the requirements of the National Curriculum, and topics/themes that link to our urban locality, Hennock’s rural locality and the children’s interests.  

 

Long and medium term planning  

 

Both the long and medium term plans cam be found on our school website.  

 

Medium term planning is completed by all teachers and involves ensuring coverage of both the national curriculum objectives and the key skills that we want the children to develop – we aim to link learning across different subject areas as much as possible to give children a fully immersive experience. Our planning details the starting points for all topics, show how it will develop and outline any significant outcomes.  

Parents are kept informed about what their children will be learning each term via our website. 

 

Resources 

At Bearnes, the curriculum is brought alive by the range of quality resources used by the staff. ‘Hooks’/inquiry days are used to engage and enthuse pupils who inquire and use their curiosity to pose questions and design part of their own learning journey. 

The importance of inquiry learning is that pupils learn how to continue learning. This is something they can take with them throughout life -- beyond parental help and security, beyond a textbook, beyond the time of a teacher, beyond school -- to a time when they will often be alone in their learning. A tool for life. 

Resources we use may include: 

  • Forest School 

  • Vertically grouped themed days 

  • Local artists 

  • Farm visits 

  • Developing, growing harvesting and cooking 

  • Local businesses  

  • Visits to places of worship  

  • Visitors with specific skills, event programmes or from different cultural backgrounds,  

  • Educational visits linked to our topics,  

  • Parent expertise,  

  • STEM leaders,  

  • Museum visits,  

  • Zoo/wild life centre visits 

  • Residential centres 

  • Musicians 

  • Story tellers 

 

This list is not exhaustive, but is a sample of the many ways we engage and enthuse children, families and staff. 

 

Reviewing and evaluating 

Life at school is never dull; education is constantly changing and evolving in order to meet the needs of the world in which we live, and to prepare the children for the world in which they will live as adults. As a staff we never feel that we have quite finished planning our curriculum as we always want to create an even better product for the children in our care.  

With this in mind, we review our curriculum on a 2-year cycle. Through collecting the views of our school council, pupils - via questionnaires, and staff discussion we review its current impact and aim to continue to personalise our curriculum for Bearnes, making the most of our children, families, community and environment. 

We review and evaluate our curriculum and 2-year rolling programme; strategically planning our 5 Star Core offer and enrichment activities to ensure high levels of interest, enthusiasm, challenge and motivation. 

We will ensure 

  • Each topic is enrichment led – share ideas, develop what is in place now. 

  • Enrichment activities will underpin each block of learning. 

  • Make community links for events and people where possible. 

  • Ensure our pupils voice impacts on school curriculum 

  • Ensures our pupils horizons are broadened and prepares them to be global citizens and life-long learners. 

  • Design with our pupils in mind, to support them and to build on their skill and knowledge set. 

  • Extended better use of outdoor learning. 

  • Key vocabulary is clearly identified and taught to enable best outcomes. 

  • Our curriculum offers children opportunities to think and talk like an expert in each area of the curriculum. 

 

Throughout our curriculum design process, our principles and values stand strong. Through our enriched and broadly balanced curriculum, we offer every child the opportunity to unlock the very best of themselves.