East Ward Community Primary School

Curriculum Implementation

“Research shows that the act of recalling information from memory actually helps to strengthen the memory itself.” Christodoulou, 2016

•  Our teachers ensure Mathematics, Writing and Reading are taught daily.
• Our curriculum design ensures the curriculum has planned units of work that revisit the key concepts for each of the curriculum drivers allowing children to make connections and deepen their understanding.
• The curriculum is designed so subject specific knowledge and skills are scaffolded within a thematic approach.
• Subject specific Learning Challenges ensure concepts are embedded and when cross-curricular links are made, they are done so in a way that strengthens children’s understanding through meaningful links.
• Pre and post learning tasks in the wider curriculum assist teachers in ascertaining what children already know and need to know.
• Enrichment opportunities enhance experiences children have and are used to develop their understanding of the learning that is or has taken place.
• Retrieval practice is a key element of lessons to ensure knowledge is repeatedly retrieved from long-term memory.
• Teachers plan and tailor units of work/programmes of study to address specific cohort and individual needs of children.
• All staff have high expectations of themselves and their children, imparting knowledge and teaching skills accurately with enthusiasm.

Curriculum Intent

“The cultural knowledge that serves as currency that helps us navigate culture and alters our experiences and opportunities available to us.”  Bourdieu, 1977

•  Core texts linked to the Learning Challenge provide purposeful opportunities for Reading and Writing.
• Curriculum drivers (Science, Geography and History) and enhancers (Art, Design and Technology) provide children with a broad, balanced, sequential and ambitious curriculum. Our curriculum goes beyond the National Curriculum by including learning that is relevant to our own locality and the children’s own experiences. 
• All other areas of the curriculum such as: Mathematics, Computing, Music, Religious Education and Physical Education are taught discreetly and are interwoven where appropriate. 
• By focusing on Cultural Capital, we provide children with knowledge that will be of use to them for the rest of their lives and close the divisions in society. Cultural Capital teaches children to understand and live British Values and learn more about the best that has been thought and said over centuries. 
• Cultural Capital, enrichment opportunities and subject topics ensure children are experiencing curriculum breadth. 
• Subject concepts are thread through all year groups and ensure that children revisit these concepts over and over, building conceptual understanding and knowledge each year. 
• Subject concepts provide a clear progression model and supports the planning, delivery and assessment of children in the wider curriculum; ensuring that learning is a change to long-term memory. 
• A clearly sequenced curriculum allows children to make connections, build on prior knowledge and their experiences and ensures there is challenge and a clear journey within and across year groups.
• The wider curriculum provides opportunities for children to build their academic and subject specific vocabulary, write across a range of subjects and apply mathematical skills in other areas of the curriculum. 
• We use restorative approaches to promote positive behaviours which reflect the values and skills needed for learning and future success. We nurture, encourage and develop empathy. 
• Parental involvement is an essential part of our curriculum as we celebrate the local area, learning new skills to enable the parents and children to take an active role in events throughout the year.