INTENT
Rationale for curriculum design
The rationale for the curriculum is based on the school’s shared vision:
CarBEile Junior School
BE Empowered
BE Courageous
BE your best, BElong
We aim to achieve this through our eight principles for curriculum design:
Creative – we use our imagination.
Aspirational – we aim high.
Rich – we deepen our understanding.
Balanced – all knowledge is valued.
Engaging – learning is exciting.
Inclusive – we are all learners.
Linked – our learning is connected.
Everlasting – we remember.
- Through the curriculum, we aim to prepare pupils for the opportunities, experiences and responsibilities of adult life and to lay a firm foundation for future learning.
- We seek to provide a Creative, Aspirational, Rich, Balanced, Engaging, Inclusive, Linked, Everlasting curriculum and offer a wide range of exciting, challenging activities and experiences to all pupils irrespective of ability, background, ethnic origin or gender.
- The CARBEILE Curriculum addresses disadvantage and provides equality of opportunity.
- The CARBEILE Curriculum also addresses any gaps in learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- We believe that learning is at its strongest where a child is either developing, progressing or mastering knowledge and skills and consequently able to retrieve core knowledge that is baked into the curriculum.
Our curriculum, intertwined with our Learning Powers of Resilience, Resourcefulness, Reflectiveness and Relationships, aims to enable all young people to become successful learners, who make progress and achieve. We want to educate confident and responsible individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives, with the attitudes and attributes, skills, knowledge and understanding necessary for their future.
Our core values of: Aspiration, Kindness, Honesty, Pride, Respect, and Endeavour underpin everything we do in the curriculum.
Aims for curriculum design
The Aims of the Curriculum, through our eight principles for curriculum design are as follows:
Creative – we use our imagination.
- Children express their learning through their own decisions.
- Children are aware of the importance of, and participate in, the arts and related cultural
- Curriculum Hub ‘Special Days’ promote pupil’s creativity in a range of curriculum areas.
Aspirational – we aim high.
- We promote ambitious, high standards in reading, writing and maths, and across all subjects of the
- STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Maths) is used to extend the learning and aspirations of the children.
- The teaching of the ‘hidden curriculum’ instils manners, good attitudes to learning, attendance and punctuality, and enriches the children’s conduct.
Rich – we deepen our understanding.
- Pupils access the content and make progress through the curriculum through planned skills progression across all subjects.
- Range of activities planned within every lesson allows every child to deepen their understanding, regardless of their ability.
- Through teachers’ outstanding subject knowledge, we deepen the children’s understanding.
- After school clubs develop children’s skills in different subject areas.
Balanced – all knowledge is valued.
- All subjects are considered important, and the curriculum is never narrowed.
- We promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
- We promote physical and mental development and an awareness of the importance of a healthy
- The personal and social skills of each child is developed through the whole school Jigsaw programme and 2020 RSE curriculum.
Engaging – learning is exciting.
- Our curriculum is relevant and modern.
- There is an ambitious variety of teaching approaches in lessons to ensure varied learning also.
- Our curriculum exceeds the ambition and breadth of the National Curriculum.
- We promote a love of learning.
- Our learning opportunities suit a wide range of learning styles.
- Topic launches and ‘Hooks’ inspire the children about every topic taught.
- Curriculum Hub days are planned to ensure engagement across a range of interests and curriculum areas.
- Educational visits and visitors enthuse the children.
Inclusive – we are all learners.
- We provide equality of access and the opportunity for all pupils to make
- ‘Cultural Capital’ is developed through a well-planned curriculum.
- Pupils develop moral sensibility through carefully taught
- We promote diversity at every opportunity in the curriculum and highlight the importance of equality.
- Intervention classes deliver personalised learning.
- We promote equal opportunities.
Linked – our learning is connected.
- Each subject is promoted as an individual discipline but enables pupils to make explicit links between the different aspects of their learning.
- Our curriculum prepares all pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of the next stage of their education.
- Lessons are sequenced, with recall opportunities across all subjects.
- No lesson is out of place!
- Pupils have a detailed knowledge of the expected ‘end points’ within each lesson and unit of learning.
Everlasting – we remember.
- We promote long term memory use, to ensure previous learning doesn’t ‘disappear’.
- KIRFS (Key Instant Recall Facts) ensure children remember facts, skills and concepts.
- Daily ‘Total Recall’ revisits previous learning.
- Pupils are prepared for the opportunities, responsibilities and experience of adult
- Pupils have the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to lead confident, healthy, independent lives and to become informed, active, responsible citizens, whilst promoting British
- We recover lost learning through a specific ‘Recovery Curriculum’, before new learning is introduced.
- Carbeile Junior School follows the basic standards set in the 2014 National Curriculum.
- We have invested a great deal of time and energy to ensure that our Curriculum is unique to Carbeile in that it is specifically tailored towards the needs and interests of the children in our school community and the surrounding locality.
- The CARBEILE Curriculum is planned effectively, providing continuity and progression of knowledge and skills.
- It promotes an enjoyment of learning and a commitment to learning and achieving. Through the provision of rich and varied activities, we aim to:
- Encourage the best possible progress and the highest attainment for all pupils;
- Enable pupils to make connections across different areas of learning;
- Help pupils to think creatively and solve problems;
- Develop pupils’ capacity to learn and work independently and collaboratively;
- Enable pupils to respond positively to opportunities, challenge and responsibility;
- Enable pupils to acquire and develop a broad range of knowledge, skills and
- Units of work are planned using the framework of the National Curriculum and the Progression Skills Ladders; RE follows LA Agreed Syllabus, and RSHE is taught throughout all year groups.
- The curriculum is taught through discrete subject teaching of English and Maths along with a Topic approach that embraces all other subject
- Reading is prioritised across the school day. There is also an expectation that reading is planned across other curriculum subjects to celebrate the diversity of different reading genre and to enable pupils to access the full curriculum offer. Based on research findings that disadvantaged pupils enter school with significant vocabulary gaps we have a focus on vocabulary in English and Maths and across each topic.
IMPLEMENTATION
- To ensure distributed curriculum leadership, each curriculum subject has a designated teacher who leads the subject.
- There are 2 ‘Curriculum Leaders’ who oversee the subject leaders and monitor the leadership of each subject.
- Subject leaders at all levels have clear roles and responsibilities to enable them to carry out their role in curriculum design and delivery.
- Subject leaders have the knowledge, expertise and practical skill to design and implement their subject within the whole school curriculum.
- RSE lead, STEAM lead and SMSC lead coordinate learning opportunities;
- Outstanding subject knowledge is an expectation in all lessons at Carbeile so as part of the half termly monitoring cycle, teacher and teaching assistant subject knowledge is assessed and commented on.
- As part of the regular curriculum review, subject leaders are expected to give detailed presentations to governors and senior leaders for each curriculum subject. Subject leaders outline all aspects of their subject including their action plan, planning and intent using skills progressions, the implementation of delivery, progression within the subject, how the subject is assessed and the subsequent impact shown in books.
- Reading skills lessons are taught at least 4 times a week, using VIPERS, to ensure relevant skills in Vocabulary, Inference, Predictions, Explanations, Retrieval, Summarising/Sequencing are taught to demonstrate outstanding comprehension of any text.
- Writing is taught using the Pie Corbett Talk for Writing (T4W) process, with the added expectation of topic-based writes in each unit that are cross-curricular, and which utilise the skills learnt in English lessons.
- Mathematical fluency and confidence in numeracy are regarded as preconditions of success across the national curriculum. Maths ‘Recovery’ is largely focussed on fluency and confidence, and the use of ‘Mathematics Guidance – non statutory guidance for the National Curriculum’, June 2020.
- Maths lessons are taught daily, covering all elements of the National Curriculum. Mastery techniques are used to ensure outstanding core knowledge and skills. Mathematical fluency lessons are also taught at least 4 times per week. These include an unwavering focus on times tables and developing techniques to secure facts in long-term memory.
- Senior leaders at Carbeile Junior School ensure ongoing professional development/training is available for staff to ensure curriculum requirements can be met and to ensure curriculum expertise develops across the school.
- Subject leaders attend relevant training and keep up to date with changes in their subject.
- NQTs shadow a subject leader in their final term in order to develop their knowledge and skills as a future subject leader.
- The CARBEILE Curriculum is planned so that all activities and challenges meet all pupils’ learning needs, irrespective of their ability, background, ethnic origin or gender.
- Following extensive internal data analysis some activities are aimed at different groups to raise attainment where gaps have been identified.
- All resources used aid learning, serve the school’s curricular intentions, and enable effective curriculum implementation for all year groups.
- The delivery of the curriculum is distributed across the 23 hours 45 minutes of teaching time for the week. This excludes registration, daily acts of collective worship, breaks and lunch. Time is allowed for special curriculum events, educational visits, sports day and SMSC/PSHE days.
- All curriculum delivery is fair and impartial for all groups at all times.
- There is an ongoing focus on developing long-term memory with KIRFs (Key Instant Recall Facts) for Maths, English and Topic given to all children. These are reviewed throughout the key stage to ensure the children remember their learning across the 4 years.
- Recovery lessons are planned into the learning process as required to address lost learning.
- Any interventions that are delivered are planned with the eventual end point of enhancing pupils’ capacity to access the full curriculum.
- All topics have a ‘wow’ launch planned to inspire attitudes and eventual learning outcomes.
- Curriculum ‘Hubs’ plan memorable and extended learning opportunities for the whole school and for identified groups (such as disadvantaged and iPupils).
- All subjects within the curriculum have depth of knowledge, skills and understanding and coverage of all expectations with the 2014 National Curriculum.
- All subjects have a model of curriculum progressions in the form of a progression skills ladder that is used to inform planning and to ensure skills are progressed in each subject through Key Stage 2.
- All units have been mapped from the National Curriculum to ensure sufficient coverage in all subjects throughout Key Stage 2.
- All subjects have a thoughtfully designed assessment system that is used to inform future planning and shape future learning. In line with our staff well-being focus, none of these systems are excessive or onerous.
- All assessments used are reliable. Through year group, whole school and cross-school moderation, all systems to check reliability of assessments are rigorous and accurate.
- Due to a rigorous and robust monitoring system that involves triangulation between teaching observations, data scrutiny and ‘book looks’, and detailed planning scrutinies, senior leaders can ensure that there is no mismatch between the planned and delivered curriculum.
IMPACT
- Pupils achieve above national average in all reported subjects.
- Pupils make outstanding progress from their starting points in Year 3.
- It is clearly evident through detailed ‘book looks’ and pupil conferencing that the curriculum is successfully implemented to ensure pupils’ progression in knowledge.
- Pupils successfully ‘learn the curriculum’.
- Pupils progress in knowledge, skills and understanding in all subjects throughout the key stage.
- Impact of the recovery lessons is monitored for effectiveness.
- Children find their learning enjoyable and memorable.
- Irrespective of ability, background, ethnic origin or gender, access to all aspects of the curriculum at Carbeile is equal for all to ensure parity for all groups of pupils.
- Some areas of the curriculum are adapted for children with different abilities or educational needs to ensure they can succeed.