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Curriculum
CURRICULUM INTENT
Our school vision is to Love, Laugh, Learn, walking with Jesus to life in all its fullness – (John 10:10).
Our curriculum develops the ‘whole child’ enabling them to flourish in a Christian community steeped in compassion and nurture. We want all of our children to shine brightly in all that they do and to have access to all that life has to offer, to lead positive and fulfilling lives and to harness a love of learning. Our vibrant and engaging curriculum has been designed to ensure children build strong foundations and secure knowledge necessary to prepare them for the next stage in their learning. This will, eventually, enable children to achieve their full potential and to have access to a wide range of opportunities in later life.
Our ambitious curriculum has been designed to take account of the legal requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum, the Primary National Curriculum for KS1 and the Warwickshire Agreed syllabus for Religious Education.
The key principles behind the design of our curriculum are:
A Christian community
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A warm welcome
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A magical curriculum
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Building solid foundations
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Every child a super hero
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CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION
A Christian Community
| A warm welcome
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Our Christian Values lie at the heart of our curriculum
Children learn about and live out our values through our curriculum. As children learn more about our Christian values, they are able to demonstrate this learning through the actions they take and choices they make.
We work collaboratively with our local Church in a community of practice. | Our curriculum is built on positive relationships and working together as a community. We involve parents in the learning process through good communication systems, regular information workshops and providing support to families when required.
Children learn in a nurturing environment, they feel safe and secure to take risks and to learn. They learn to develop their own positive relationships through our Thrive approach and positive behaviour policy. Our ‘Ready, Respectful, Safe’ behaviour characters help children to develop the key knowledge they need to learn and to behave in a positive way.
Our protective behaviours curriculum, helps children to build the knowledge they need to keep themselves and others safe both in school and at home. |
We have high expectations for all of our children by building strong foundations in all aspects of children’s learning and development. Our ambitious curriculum is informed by research and offers a rich range of experiences that supports children’s early childhood development.
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Early Language Development Our curriculum places high importance on early language development as a key building block from which all learning develops. We seek to ensure no child falls behind by supporting all children to achieve, providing additional support to those children with the lowest starting points. | Reading We prioritise reading in our school by building a positive reading culture. Our expert staff team support children to develop a secure understanding of the mechanics of reading through the Little Wandle phonics programme. Children build vocabulary and understanding through reading enrichment lessons culminating in confident readers by the end of KS1. | Writing Writing progress has suffered the greatest impact through the pandemic. As such, we have sharpened our teaching of writing through the Write Stuff programme.
| Maths Maths has a high focus in our school and is vital to building strong foundations in children’s learning. We apply a mastery style approach to the teaching of maths, making use of the White Rose scheme as a planning resource.
| Social and emotional development We are a Thrive school which enables us to successfully meet children’s social and emotional needs and helps our children to build positive relationships, recognise and manage their emotions and leads to better progress in all other areas of learning. We follow the Jigsaw PSHE/RSE curriculum which we link closely to our learning about our Christian Values. This further strengthens our practice in this area. |
Rich and engaging wider curriculum Teachers plan the wider curriculum as progressive learning sequences, taking account of past learning, making ongoing assessments to check understanding, building towards end of year group expectations. Opportunities for children to build key vocabulary and cultural capital are interwoven into the fabric of the curriculum. This leads to secure learning of the planned knowledge for all subjects. | ||||
A magical curriculum
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Our curriculum offers children plentiful opportunities to engage in high quality play-based experiences, practical activities and memorable moments which are matched closely to their age and stage of development. The learning environment that children are exposed to is carefully planned by teachers to reflect the knowledge they want children to learn, in this way children rehearse, reinforce and develop a secure understanding of the key concepts and knowledge required at each stage of their learning. Playtime is recognised as an essential and important aspect of every school day. Through the OPAL programme and forest school sessions, every child in school has opportunities to access high quality playtimes to support their physical and mental wellbeing and to support their healthy development.
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Every child a superhero
| We recognise and celebrate each child’s uniqueness and support everyone to make excellent progress through a broad range of subjects and activities and by meeting individual needs. Inclusion is an integral part of our practice. |
"I love learning, we use lots of different things."
"Learning is fun."
"Lessons are exciting."
"I like working independently because if I get stuck, I like asking my friends"
Quotes from children’s SEF Autumn 2023
CURRICULUM IMPACT
Our children demonstrate great enthusiasm, energy and a passion for learning.
Our children are able to form positive relationships, they live out our Christian values through their actions and in the choices they make.
Our children begin to develop emotional literacy by the end of KS1. They recognise a broad range of feelings and have strategies to manage them in a positive way. They show empathy towards others.
Our children make excellent progress in their speech and language development, as a result, they have a secure understanding of the knowledge taught within our wider curriculum.
Our children embrace difference and value living within a mutually supportive and diverse community.
Our children flourish as unique individuals having opportunities to access a broad range of subjects and activities.
Our children read with confidence by the end of KS1 whilst also developing a true love of reading.
Our children build strong foundations through all areas of the curriculum which ensures that they are well prepared for their next stage of learning.
Our children have a strong desire to learn and make progress and they know that this can be realised with hard work and perseverance.
Children are really proud of their achievements as reflected in the high quality of work in their books. The overall school outcomes reflect this success story.
At Abbey CofE Infant School, all teachers are responsible for providing an inclusive curriculum that is differentiated for those with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND). We have high expectations for all pupils and are committed to ensuring our curriculum complies with the Equality Act 2010 and the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014.
Our inclusion statement emphasises the importance of providing an inclusive learning environment for all pupils including those with SEND. Additional information on this can be found in our Special Education Needs Information Report and Equalities Policy