Curriculum Intent

Our curriculum is designed to provide children with a vast range of rich experiences that expose them to the wider world through books. It aims to inspire children to search beyond their local area for experiences that will enrich their lives. Through exploring a range of texts with varying contexts, themes, characters, settings and problems, children will explore the values that the school holds so dearly. In turn, children will enjoy a plethora of opportunities, linked to these books, that will allow them to master our school values as they move through the school.

With a firm foundation in literacy, the more creative areas of the curriculum will be explored in depth as a pivotal part of school life. Children will take inspiration from the books that are shared with them to: create works of art using well practised skills, perform to audiences dramatically as well as musically, and design and build using a range of materials.

As a growing school in the community, we intend for our curriculum to support as many children as possible in becoming the best versions of themselves that they can be, but also, through our Eco Schools Incentive, to demonstrate to the children the impact that humans have on the world and to educate them on how to protect our planet for future generations.

 

Curriculum Implementation

Implementing a truly book based curriculum relies on a huge effort from an extremely creative group of teachers who love books and love learning.

Our team have selected a range of books in consultation with our children, ensuring that the books that have been chosen are not only appropriately challenging for the children in school, but also in line with our children’s interests, experiences, emotional needs and aspirations.

Through links to the books that we share, we aim to meet the requirements of the wider national curriculum in most, if not all subjects. These are planned on a termly basis and can be viewed in the Book Curriculum tab on the school website.

The book based curriculum that we have implemented ensures that all children develop a love of reading and wide and exciting vocabulary which, in turn, will allow them to accurately express their views, opinions, feelings and needs so that words become their most important tool in getting what they want and need in life beyond school.

 

Curriculum Impact

Our book based curriculum is now in its third year of life. Throughout the last few years, we have seen some really major mind-set changes in our school community. The following points will hopefully help to give you a peek into the positive impact that our curriculum is having:

• Much higher proportion of children across the school reading for pleasure.
• Children speaking enthusiastically about the novels that they share as a class.
• Classrooms show the value of books in innovative and exciting book areas.
• Children across the school are now fully aware of the specific reading skills they need to gain to be fluent and effective readers.
• The use of contextual vocabulary has improved in both written and oral work.
• Children have been exposed to a much wider range of genres of writing.
• Shared class reading has provided the opportunity for Echo-Reading which has supported the development of fluent readers.
• Cultural capital and enrichment activities are very closely linked to the experiences that children are having in class which helps to bring their learning to life.
• Provided opportunities to ensure the history curriculum is delivered chronologically and supported by our chosen texts.