Clover Hill Curriculum Policy
Clover Hill Curriculum Drivers Our staff have identified 3 key drivers that we passionately believe should be developed in our Clover Hill children. The Clover Hill curriculum is an evidence-based curriculum, designed with the needs and aspirations of our children at its heart.
1.Long Term Memory We recognise that nothing has been learned until it is in the long-term memory. We are mindful that children need to have long term retention of learning. Learning that is carefully planned, learning that is rich and not random, deep and not just light touch.
By building in sustained mastery to all our subject planning we are ensuring our pupils learn better, remember more and become fluent. Our subject planning prioritises opportunities for spacing, interleaving and retrieval practice which together strengthen the long-term memory of our children, facilitating success in their longitudinal learning.
2.Enquiry Based Learning We have bright and inquisitive children and therefore need to ensure we challenge them appropriately. Ensure opportunities are fully maximised by incorporating higher order thinking opportunities in all subjects. We believe that by setting up an enquiry-based approach to our curriculum this will accelerate learning opportunities for all.
We ensure all our subjects are driven by effective questioning which are essential for good quality teaching.
Teachers provide substantive feedback to pupils in all subject lessons, resulting either from pupils’ questions or from answers to teachers’ questions. The types of questions asked are varied and clearly match the subject knowledge and skills to be mastered.
Using higher order thinking questions in our subject teaching also supports our work on the growth mindset and our aim to increase independence and resilience in our children. Children are developed to take ownership of their learning and by doing so are empowered partners.
3.Real Life Relevance Children need to see the relevance for the learning that is taking place – linked to their future education and in the outside real world.
We passionately believe that our children need to be genuine partners in their learning- they need to be motivated and empowered. In order to do this, we feel our children need to see the relevance of what they are learning…. Why… and How ……it can be used in later life and in the outside world. Children thrive on using and applying new knowledge and skills and being able to see the importance of what they are learning.
Cultural Capital Ofsted: Cultural capital is the essential knowledge that pupils need to be educated citizens, introducing them to the best that has been thought and said and helping to engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement.
Every child who joins our school will have their own knowledge and experience that link to their culture and wider family. This might include beliefs, traditions, culture, family circumstances, hobbies, travel and work. Research shows that when children and family backgrounds are valued the child’s experience of learning and progress can benefit.
Cultural Capital is the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours and skills that a child can draw upon and which demonstrates cultural awareness, knowledge and competence.
It is one of the key ingredients a pupil will draw upon to be successful in society, their career and life. Cultural Capital gives power. It helps children achieve goals, become successful and rise the social ladder without necessarily having wealth or financial capital. Cultural Capital is having assets that give children the desire to aspire and achieve social mobility – whatever their starting point.
At Clover Hill, children benefit from a broad and rich curriculum that builds on what they understand and know already. Widening children’s experiences as they progress through their subject teaching and learning.
We recognise that there are six key areas of development that are interrelated and cumulatively contribute to the sum of a pupil’s cultural capital:
1. Personal Development – finance education, employability skills, PSHCRE provisions, Growth Mindset, The Secrets of Success, transition support, opportunities to develop speaking skills and build self esteem, mental health and well being provision.
2. Social Development – PSHCRE provision, working with local charities, children responsibilities: School Council, librarians, apprentice caretakers, buddies, Sports Crew.
3. Physical Development – healthy eating policies and catering provision, anti-bullying and safeguarding policies and provision, health education as part of PSHCRE curriculum, after school and extra curricular activities related to sports and well-being, the celebration of sporting achievement including personal fitness and competitive sport, cycling proficiency training, activities planned and delivered for unstructured time during breaks, activity-based residentials, curriculum incorporating food preparation and nutrition, advice and guidance offered for all parents on all aspects of pupil lifestyle.
4. Spiritual Development – RE curriculum, collective acts of worship and reflection, support for the expression of individual faiths, inter-faith and faith related activities and visitors in school, visits to religious buildings, SMSC values
5. Moral Development – RE curriculum, behaviour policies and class charters, contributions to local and national charities
6. Cultural Development – PSHCRE curriculum, access to the arts, access to the language and culture of another country through the KS2 curriculum, promotion of racial equality and our diverse world through the school’s ethos which informs all policy and practice.
By exposing our children to a broad and rich curriculum we are promoting character building qualities that lead to the creation of thoughtful, well rounded global citizens. Individuals who are well educated and very knowledgeable about the world around them.
Culture, Climate and Aims of our Curriculum
Pupils at Clover Hill Primary School have access to a broad and balanced curriculum which is relevant to 21st century life and which encourages them to become lifelong learners. We recognise that primary school education is a vital stage in a child’s development, and it needs to be a hugely positive and rich experience. We want our children to enjoy their learning adventure: to be fit for the future -to possess the skills necessary for their future jobs and roles in society, to have positive attitudes and to be skilful and knowledgeable.
How children at Clover Hill will use and benefit from a creative personalised curriculum.
- Knowing what they are going to learn
- Knowing how to be successful;
- Use knowledge actively – as a cornerstone for creativity and problem solving
- Be able to assess their own work and the learning of others
- Receiving feedback that helps them identify what to do next
- Having time to reflect and review their work using assessment information with help from the teacher or peer.
- Link learning to big issues, international dimensions and community action.
- Independent learners
- Enquiring minds
- Sense of achievement
- Enthusiastic and motivated learners
- Experience a wide range of opportunities
- Confident in own ability
- Lifelong learners
Our Clover Hill curriculum has been carefully designed, planned and organised to ensure that what lies at the heart of our curriculum is visible and not just words in a curriculum policy! Our curriculum is relevant to the lives, knowledge and experiences of our learners building on their prior experiences and knowledge.
Our curriculum is not compartmentalised – life is not like this. Children are given many opportunities to see the relevance of their learning, they are motivated by the purpose and reason for needing to acquire new knowledge or a new skill and are given lots of opportunities to develop, practise and extend their learning through other subjects and lessons.
At Clover Hill, there is a strong culture of collaboration and team work, which has created an effective and creative learning culture. Sharing values and ethos with all the staff, learning from others, promoting teamwork and developing a distributed style has had a super effective impact on the shaping of our curriculum.
It is our firm belief that the substance of our education prepares children well for the challenges they will face in life and at the next stage of their education. Equipping our children with the skills and knowledge to innovate and meet future challenges underpins much of what we do. Our curriculum is based on one fundamental principle that every child will be supported to achieve the highest possible outcomes in their academic and personal development.
We make sure that our children are at the centre of our curriculum design and we believe that personal and social aspects of the curriculum are as important as academic aspects of the curriculum. Enriching the curriculum with first hand experiences, pertinent educational visits and expert visitors further brings learning to life for our Clover Hill children.
We have followed the three principals of Intent – Implementation – Impact when planning and evaluating our curriculum.
INTENT: What are we trying to achieve with our curriculum?
To create a lively stimulating school where every individual is encouraged to maximise their opportunities for intellectual, moral, spiritual, physical and social development.
Our curriculum strives to improve children’s basic skills and attitudes to learning. Learning needs are analysed and the curriculum is tailored and personalised to ensure that every child is engaged, inspired and challenged. The main aim of our curriculum design is to move children towards a deep level of understanding in every subject so that they will be able to use and apply skills and knowledge in different areas. Our curriculum should assist pupils to develop lively, enquiring minds with the ability to question and argue rationally and to apply themselves successfully to tasks, problem solving activities and physical skills.
We place equal importance on academic development and personal development as we understand children will not learn effectively or be successful in their lives if they are not able to handle their emotions effectively. We want our pupils to understand the world in which they live and to develop the ability to contribute as a member of a co-operative group and to recognise their responsibility within a community. We encourage our pupils to acquire values, attitudes and concepts which enable the individual to adapt to life in Britain and in a fast-changing wider world and encourage them to have a respect and understanding of various religions and cultures present in our modern society.
Our curriculum intent is not just about the National Curriculum- it goes beyond this including: Cultural Capital – SMSC – British Values. We truly believe these aspects of the curriculum need to be planned and delivered carefully to equip our pupils with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in life. We are genuinely passionate about supporting our children to become well-rounded individuals – helping to engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement.
IMPLEMENTATION: How do we deliver our curriculum?
Our curriculum is designed, organised and planned to ensure every child receives an appropriate mix of academic and personal development which means that in practice it places equal importance on core (reading, writing, maths) and foundation subjects (e.g. history, PSHE, PE, art etc.)
We also place a high priority on ensuring the physical and mental well-being of children is met, understanding that they will not be successful learners unless they are emotionally secure. We provide for this through our well-planned approach to social, moral, cultural and spiritual (SMSC) development.
Our balanced approach to the curriculum is not, however, at the expense of high standards in core subject areas. Enabling children to reach national expectations and above is of vital importance to us if they are to succeed at the next stage of their education and go on to achieve their aspirations
When planning each topic/area we start by looking at the standard we expect every child to achieve and what deep level learning looks like. Learning experiences are then planned to ensure that every child stands the best possible chance of achieving this.
Our curriculum is designed to meet the needs of every pupil in our school. We carefully look at the needs of every child/group and tailor the curriculum to deliver what best meets their needs and how they learn most effectively. Every child’s progress is carefully monitored/assessed, and action taken immediately if progress is not as expected.
Our curriculum is inspiring, challenging and exciting for all children. Teachers work hard to make learning vivid, real and meaningful with many first-hand experiences. Opportunities for children to be intellectually engaged are carefully planned in to ensure children are motivated to learn and achieve a deeper level of understanding in all subject areas. Children are given many opportunities to use and apply the skills they have been taught to ensure retention and fluency of the skill. Various opportunities are provided for parents to become actively engaged in the curriculum establishing a genuine learning partnership between home and school.
Teachers are fully involved in the design, planning and implementation of our curriculum giving them ownership and opportunities to use their knowledge and skills. Flexibility of timetables allows teachers to explore subjects in depth allowing the children to steer their learning and develop a deep level of understanding. Subject policies are written in collaboration with all staff to ensure that everybody understands that we are not merely covering content and filling children with knowledge, but developing key skills, knowledge and understanding which can be applied across the curriculum.
We are committed to building up long term memory and have invested staff training time and subject leader monitoring to include repetition of skills within our curriculum for all subjects. We do not believe in fast tracking or hot housing children to retain a wide range of facts that they soon forget. Our journey is slower and more structured- building on layer by layer- recapping, checking and consolidating.
IMPACT: What difference is our curriculum making to pupils?
Our curriculum has raised standards in all subjects and has led to a deeper level of learning due to our focus on depth and long-term memory and not merely coverage. Our pupils are enthused and inspired by our curriculum which has led to intellectual engagement and a deeper level of learning in all subject areas.
At Clover Hill we seek to ensure the crucial deepening of essential knowledge, skills and understanding through our curriculum design. We plan and organise our curriculum to ensure that children are not merely covering curriculum content but are achieving a depth to their learning which enables them to apply their skills and understanding across a range of contexts and subjects. We build in opportunities for repetition of learning, allowing children to gradually develop a deeper understanding of skills and processes within subjects. Furthermore, our curriculum is planned to move children’s thinking to a deep level of understanding rather than just acquiring new facts and knowledge.
At Clover Hill we are passionate about developing the whole child, test results are only a tiny part of what we work hard to achieve.
Everything we do at Clover Hill comes from our vision that every child can reach for the stars and shine, that they will be supported 100% to be confident, respectful and happy learners who have high expectations of themselves and others. We truly thrive on making our children reach their full potential and are confident, happy and respectful individuals who have a thirst for knowledge and a true passion to succeed. Happiness is a big part of our Clover Hill ethos and our children certainly seem to excel at this. Happy, confident, well behaved and well mannered, we feel Clover Hill Primary School certainly has a positive and rich impact on their lives.
If you would like any further information about our curriculum, that you cannot find on our website, please contact the school office.