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Curriculum Overview
Curriculum Intent Statement
At Cheam Park Farm, our curriculum aims to foster a lifelong love of learning through adopting a highly practical approach to learning and its primary purpose is the development of the whole child. We use the National Curriculum and Early Years Foundation Stage as a starting point for our curriculum and it is enhanced by our LEO Pupil Outcomes and our vision of Learning, Excellence and Opportunity. The academic achievement, wellbeing and character development of our pupils is at the heart of our ‘curriculum offer’ and we regularly review our provision to ensure that it is relevant, engaging and challenging for all. We ensure that our Curriculum is designed to prepare our children for a continually evolving world and hence our strong focus on technological advancements and using technology to enhance the learning. It is rich in progression of sequenced subject learning, knowledge, vocabulary and skills across every year group and it supports teachers’ subject knowledge with quality resources.
As Rights Respecting Schools, our curriculum design, assemblies and embedded high expectations, ensure children have an awareness and a clear understanding of their rights and responsibilities and are rewarded and recognised for demonstrating these values in our Celebration Assemblies. In addition, we also plan opportunities for the children to know about keeping safe, linked to the KCSiE document. We have many PSHE and Online Safety lessons throughout the year for every year group. Key Stage 2 also has an age-appropriate annual visit from the Education and Safeguarding and Well-Being Lead from Cognus. We also plan for and promote British values, (Democracy, Rule of Law, Individual Liberty, Mutual Respect and Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs). We have voting systems for the children to be elected to take on class and school roles and we have a Pupil Voice committee, who are invaluable in the shape, design and improvements of our curriculum.
Every child is recognised as a unique individual with their own unique learning journey. Children view learning as having no limits and that we are continually learning. We teach, celebrate and welcome the many differences within our school communities. We constantly provide enhancement opportunities to engage learning and believe that school should be happy, investigative and an inspiring time in every child’s life where there are no limits to curiosity. From our belief we are able to ensure that our pupils have a real thirst for learning, which is nurtured and embedded by the time they leave our school at the end of Year 6. We are passionate about providing our pupils with experiences in and out of school to engage and enhance their curriculum and schooling experience. These range from visits to: Residential locations (High Ashurst, Kingswood and Isle of Wight), local theatres, museums, sporting arenas, religious buildings including Wimbledon Synagogue, Morden Mosque, a Buddhist Temple and several local churches, Houses of Parliament, visits from our Local MP, book festival visits, authors and poets, visits from religious experts, our local vicar and many more. We also shape our curriculum by planning for themed topic days, where the children and staff relish dressing up in themed costumes. The children also explore and celebrate a key religious festival every half term in our celebration days. These are chosen to reflect the children’s beliefs and the children enjoy being experts in their own celebrations. Every area of our curriculum is valued and championed by passionate subject leaders. Subject leaders are equipped to manage school projects to deliver our bespoke curriculum and effectively align and assess our curriculum.
When designing our curriculum we recognised the very diverse social and economic backgrounds of our families. Within PSHE and citizenship account is taken of the socio-economics of the area and we recognise that the children need both a sense of valuing themselves and developing aspirations for their future and for their community. Our community involvement is an essential part of our curriculum as we celebrate local events; support our local Elderly care homes, contribute annually to the harvest food banks and local traditions. By taking an active role within their community, it enables the children to learn new skills and show how they can make a positive difference. We also support a vast number of charities and host fundraising events, such as: Comic relief, Children in Need and World Water Day to name a few. Children leave our schools with a sense of belonging to a tightly knit community where they have the confidence and skills to make decisions, self-evaluate, make connections and become lifelong learners. Our rich learning opportunities are shared publicly through social media to share and promote our learning journeys with our community, so that it gives an insight into the classroom. We are passionate that all our children realise that they can achieve anything, ‘Nothing is impossible: the word itself says ‘I’m possible’. This quote, along with many other Growth Mindset quotes, can be found along our corridors and in our classrooms. We aim to foster an awareness of the crucial nature finance plays in everyday life. Our ambition is to create a culture where our children can understand and respect the value of money whilst making sensible financial choices. As part of our curriculum offer, we will bring our finance lessons to life within many subject areas by linking financial learning to real life contexts, adapting teaching to the ever-changing financial climate the children grow up in. Learning will be delivered in line with our commitment to the LEO Pupil Outcomes by developing children’s financial literacy skills, enabling them to become leaders and life-long learners. We want to equip children with the awareness that having and spending money is not the root of all happiness. We want to prepare our children for a brighter financial future with an informed mind-set towards finance, leading to fulfilled, happy and purposeful lives.
Furthermore, our inclusive curriculum equips all children with the skills and personal qualities necessary to lead a fulfilling and rewarding life. As our curriculum is very practical, and has clear entry and exit points; this serves us well, as it engages all ability levels and can be accessed by children at different stages of English language acquisition. Our exit points provide opportunities for our local community with the learning that takes place at our school. Our learning involves many visits, and opportunities to learn in different environments. At every opportunity, we look to make our children’s learning experiences as authentic as possible. Where visits are not possible, the LEO Digital Strategy equips us with the technology to ensure these rich opportunities can still take place. An example of this is we have a classroom set of Virtual Reality and Now Press Play headsets. This brings each topic to life and makes learning as relevant and as real as possible; we also use video conferencing to link up with speakers and audiences from around the UK and the wider world.
At our schools we ensure we have strong relationships with our local secondary schools to enable a smooth transition and that our pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education. Similarly, our Subject Leaders and Teachers have a clear understanding of what the children need to know now and why and what the children will be learning in KS3 and beyond.
As a result, our children:
- are immersed in a rich inclusive environment
- develop a sense of belonging to, and play an active role in their community
- develop financial responsibility
- understand how to look after themselves, and their needs
- broaden their outlook on life
- become independent lifelong learners
- have deep regard and sound values for themselves and each other
Further information about the National Curriculum can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-primary-curriculum
