Our Curriculum
Our Aims and Values
Cusgarne School is a happy and safe place where children are at the heart of all we do. We ‘make the most of every moment’ and aim to provide the highest standards of education in an inclusive environment, through effective teaching and learning. We believe in the education of the ‘whole’ child and the promotion of the children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is at the heart of our curriculum. This is demonstrated in our school ethos, encapsulated by the 7Cs- Care, Commitment, Community, Consideration, Courtesy, Creativity, and Curiosity.
We believe that learning should be inspiring, engaging and challenging and we aim to achieve this through a curriculum which is broad, balanced and relevant. We aim to ensure they achieve their full educational potential by developing confident learners who make progress in their learning, have a positive attitude to learning, are proud of their achievements and are inspired to become lifelong learners.
Our Curriculum Intent:
At Cusgarne Primary School, the Reception children are welcomed into Robin class and the implementation of our EYFS curriculum ensures that our children can develop as independent, confident, and successful learners. Community is at the heart of our classroom practice; our children have high aspirations and understand the value of making positive contributions to the world around them. Our goal is to ensure that all our children are happy and engaged.
We provide an enabling environment that allows each child to display high levels of concentration, creativity, energy, and persistence. The rationale behind this is that high levels of well-being and involvement foster positive development for children and facilitate deeper learning. Our practitioners use ‘Development Matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage’ as their key guidance to support planning.
A vital aspect in the development of essential knowledge and skills is the use of continuous provision. This means that children are using and developing certain skills throughout the year on a daily/weekly basis. Continuous Provision practice and principles begin in Early Years Foundation Stage and support children to develop key life skills such as independence; innovation; creativity; enquiry; analysis and problem solving.
As an academy school we use the National Curriculum to plan everything that is delivered in Cusgarne school at KS1 and KS2. We wanted our curriculum planning to be tailored specifically to the needs of our children, our local environment, to the expertise of our teachers and to our mixed age classes which requires a special purpose-built rolling programme.
Moreover, we believe that our children deserve and need us to provide more than just the National Curriculum. Life has so much more to offer and our children have so much more to learn and experience. As a school we have identified three ‘curriculum drivers’ that are embedded in our curriculum and ensure it is enriched and personalised. These have been chosen through consultation with staff – identifying the needs and interests of the pupils at Cusgarne School.
They are:
Global Awareness - We believe our children need to know about and understand the world that is beyond their immediate doorstep. They need opportunities to experience the richness of its diversity and show they care about its management and sustainability.
Health and Well-being- We believe our children need to have a good knowledge of mental and physical health, fitness and wellbeing in order to grow up to be successful and valued adults. Across our curriculum, children will learn about what it takes to be safe in and out of school; how to live a healthy lifestyle and how to plan ahead with targets and positive thinking. They will also have access to a wide range of extra-curricular activities, both during lunchtimes and afterschool.
Skills for learning – We believe there are four key learning dispositions which are needed by our children to become successful and independent lifelong learners:
· Resilience- knowing how to absorb oneself in learning and persevere or stick at it.
· Resourcefulness- the ability to make good use of all kinds of things to aid learning.
· Reflectiveness- the ability to reflect or take stock of one’s learning and plan future learning.
· Reciprocity- being able to listen to and collaborate with others.
Curriculum Implementation:
Our curriculum provides daily teaching in English and Maths and we have a rolling programme for the delivery of Science and the foundation subjects: Physical Education, Computing, Art and Design, Geography, History, Religious Education, Modern Foreign Languages, Design and Technology, Music and PSHE. This ensures progression and balance throughout our school. Some subjects are taught discretely, whereas other subjects lend themselves to being taught in a cross curricular topic.
Topic webs are sent home at the beginning of each term which have clear learning intentions for every subject. Knowledge organisers are also attached which detail the knowledge and vocabulary that are taught in each term’s science topic. This shared knowledge and vocabulary, once learnt, is then assessed at the end of each term to enable the children and teachers to reflect on their learning and to assess the impact of our curriculum and to inform future planning.
The teachers, working in collaboration with the children, ensure that prior knowledge is built on and that learning is then sequenced to ensure progression. Teachers ensure lessons are differentiated to ensure that all children experience success and that challenge is provided to enable the children to achieve high standards.
We are a community of learners and we work together to maintain a stimulating environment, in which both subject specific and cross curricular topic displays in our classrooms display children’s’ work and include key vocabulary which is referred to by the teacher and used by the children in their writing.
The children share and celebrate their learning with each other, their parents and carers and other learners through school-based or external exhibitions, open afternoons, performances, competitions and events involving other schools so that parents can celebrate the children’s learning.
Curriculum Impact:
Members of staff meet regularly to discuss learning walks that have taken place, to conduct book scrutiny’s, to share the results of our assessments of the children, and to exchange ideas and experiences; in order to establish areas of strengths and weaknesses, and to ensure our curriculum is relevant to all learners and that our curriculum is having the desired impact on the children’s learning. This includes updating intervention programmes to provide targeted support, as well as offering challenges and opportunities for our more able children.
At Cusgarne School we have a team of dedicated, enthusiastic teaching staff devoted to delivering high quality teaching and learning. In doing so they are well supported by a team of experienced and motivated support staff. We are all committed to providing the best opportunities and guidance for the children and parents we work with.
