Curriculum Intent

Our Vision for the Curriculum at Lawn Primary School

Lawn Primary School strives to be an inclusive community where children experience Aspiration, Adventure, Knowledge and Smiles together.  We value each child as an individual with a unique potential for learning.  Their natural curiosity is fostered through a creative and ambitious curriculum that excites and challenges; and enables all to be independent, resilient and successful learners.  Our curriculum nurtures and prepares children educationally, socially, morally and physically for their continuing learning journey.  Supported by a culture of equality and aspiration, we aim to remove disadvantage so that every child believes in themselves and can thrive.  Through the curriculum children develop an understanding of citizenship and are empowered to make valuable contributions locally and globally.

The design of our curriculum at Lawn Primary School

Our curriculum is designed to develop inquisitive thinkers who develop a love of life-long learning.  We understand that the curriculum, both within taught lessons and beyond them, should create an environment where questioning, academic risk-taking, divergent thinking, and the freedom to learn from mistakes are all encouraged.  Our intent is that our curriculum will develop in our children the qualities of responsibility and independence, and a sense that learning can excite and strengthen throughout your whole life.

Curriculum design is viewed by Senior Leaders, Governors and Teachers as an exciting, continuous and fluid process which takes into consideration the needs, characteristics and interests of our children; their prior learning and experiences; and the statutory curriculum (EYFS Statutory Framework and the NC).  It is constantly evolving to ensure local, national, and global contexts are topical; that approaches to our ever changing and often unknown world and technologies are embraced; and current educational research and best practice informs pedagogy.

Our curriculum is designed around a series of principles that reflect our schools vision and values, pedagogical approaches and needs, which clarify the vision of the curriculum.

• Sequenced: Carefully sequenced concepts, clear progression of knowledge and skills to ensure all children achieve well.  New knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before and sets the foundation for future learning.
• Appropriate: Matches challenge to each learner's knowledge and skill level, motivates and engages all.  Equipping children with the knowledge and cultural capital they need for future success.
• Focused: Teaches the most important knowledge, skills, and key concepts.  Strengthening children's capacity as a learner and developing their independence, initiative, determination, and love of learning.
• Rigorous: Disciplinary knowledge as well as substantive knowledge.  Encompassing a wide range of subjects and opportunities for academic, technical, creative and sporting excellence.  Supporting a culture of resilience and positive mental health and wellbeing where every child is safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible and included.
• Coherent: Explicit connections between subjects, units of work and experiences.  Promoting children's spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

The Aims of our Curriculum

We want children to develop a love for learning enabling them to become lifelong learners.  At Lawn Primary School we take pride in celebrating that we are all learners; and that every child can achieve their full potential.  Through a rich, broad and balanced curriculum, our aim is to make all aspects of teaching and learning exciting, engaging and motivating; ensuring all children have the best possible start to their school life.

Curriculum Implementation

How we achieve our Curriculum Vision

Knowledge underpins and enables the application of skills.  We strive for children to learn new skills alongside knowledge, ensuring that both are explicitly developed.  Recognising that knowledge and skills are intertwined, we constantly look at links across subjects, helping to keep the teaching and learning relevant.

Using the EYFS Statutory Framework and National Curriculum, age-appropriate progression in knowledge and skills for each core and foundation subject has been identified and mapped out across the primary phases.  Priority is given to the development of English and Maths skills of all our children.

We teach discreet subjects with an aim of preserving the unique nature of each subject and allowing children to gain a better understanding of each subject discipline, making connections where they are appropriate.  We give a great deal of thought to the difference between substantive and disciplinary knowledge.  We understand that there is more to a subject than the information, facts and concepts that are taught and learned.  These things are substantive knowledge.  Disciplinary knowledge focuses on what it is that historians, geographers, scientists, language speakers or programmers do to preserve the discipline in each subject and make it about more than substantive knowledge.  This ensures that our children are supported not just to 'know and remember' but also 'to do'.

The Overview of Research document provided in the 2019 Ofsted framework states that "learning is at least partly defined as a change in pupils' long-term memory."  The guidance also states that retrieval practice is an effective teaching tool for strong retention of knowledge.  Our curriculum supports schema development (a pattern of repeated actions, which will later develop into learning concepts).  We have chosen and put together our curriculum carefully to ensure that the children 'know more, remember more'.  The schemes for each subject are carefully sequenced ensuring important themes and knowledge are revisited, and built upon throughout our curriculum to Year 6.

Curriculum Impact

How we achieve our Curriculum Vision

At Lawn Primary School we strive for all children to achieve their absolute potential, by having high expectations across all aspects of school life.  Children make very good progress from Foundation Stage to the end of Key Stage 2.  Our curriculum prioritises core skills in English, Maths and PSHE whilst actively encompassing the acquisition of knowledge and skills across all areas of the National Curriculum.  This curriculum design ensures that the needs of individual and small groups of children can be met within the environment of high quality-first teaching, supported by targeted, proven interventions where appropriate.  In this way it can be seen to impact in a very positive way on children's outcomes.  The impact and measure of our curriculum is to ensure children not only acquire the appropriate age-related knowledge linked to the curriculum but also skills which equip them to progress from their starting points.  In shaping our curriculum this way, progress measured and evidenced for all children, regardless of their starting points or specific needs.  Enjoyment of the curriculum promotes achievement, confidence and great behaviour.

When our children leave us, as well as being ready for the transition into KS3 curriculum, they have a wealth of transferrable skills which have been developed throughout their time at primary school in an inclusive and nurturing environment.  Our children enjoy lessons, and we believe this early love of learning stimulates children to be come lifelong learners.  Our work on promoting social skills and character traits through our PSHE and Relationships curriculum along with links throughout the curriculum, enables children to become role models and aspire to be the best they can be.  Developing their independence, motivation and attitudes as learners, and their sense of responsibility as future citizens is at the heart of our teaching and learning.

We ensure quality-first teaching enables our children to develop their long-term memories and define their progress as knowing more, remembering more.  Teachers and staff work hard to plan a broad, balanced and ambitious curriculum which is expertly delivered to ensure a child's entire school experience enables them to develop a deep bank of knowledge which will see them through to further study, work and a successful adult life in whatever pathway they choose.

Assessment and Pupil Outcomes

Assessment should have a purpose, be meaningful, impact on outcomes and inform future teaching and learning.  We use a range of assessment strategies to build a clear picture of the progress our children make.  They are assessed within every lesson which helps the teacher plan the next steps of learning, and regular 'check-ins' take place to continue to shape our curriculum to meet the needs of our learners.  Assessment week takes place towards the end of each long term (3x a year), with assessment data being gathered, analysed and interpreted with the support of SLT in Pupil Progress Meetings.  Day-today teacher assessment and moderation, from a range of evidence also helps to inform overall termly judgements being made.  Children are expected to make good or better progress in all subjects and this is tracked and reported to parents at Parents' Consultation Meetings.  Bespoke support and interventions are put in place to accelerate the progress of any children who are identified as 'at risk' learners.

Subject Leadership

Subject Leaders play an important part in the success of the curriculum by leading a regular programme of monitoring, evaluation and review and the celebration of good practice contributes to the ongoing commitment to evolve and improve further.  All subject leaders are given access to training and CPD opportunities to keep developing their own subject knowledge, skills and understanding, so they can support curriculum development and the professional practice of colleagues.

The role of the subject leader and/or team is to:

• Provide a strategic lead and direction for the subject.
• Support and advise colleagues on issues related to the subject.
• Monitor children's progress in that subject area.
• Provide efficient resource management for the subject.
• Keep up to date with developments in their key area of learning at both national and local levels.
• Monitor how their subjects are taught through monitoring the curriculum plans, looking at books, talking with the children to ensure that appropriate teaching strategies are used.
• Reviewing curriculum plans for their key areas ensuring there is full coverage of the National Curriculum and that progression is planned for.
• Review the way the subjects are taught in the school and plan for improvement linking to whole school priorities.
• Lead sustainable improvement through supporting colleagues and others.
• Judge standards within their subjects so they indicate the achievements of children at each key stage and indicate expectations of attainment.
• Evaluate teaching and learning, and assessment within their subjects.
• Have a secure awareness of the schemes of work for EYFS, KS1 and KS2.
• Lead pupil consultations to gain feedback about areas of the curriculum.
• Report to the headteacher and curriculum lead on the strengths and areas for development of the subject and the strategies for improvement.

It is the role of each Subject Leader and/or team to keep up to date with developments in their subject, at both national and local level.  They review the way the subject is taught in the school, and plan for improvement - development planning links to whole school objectives and priorities through the school's development plan and linked to individual appraisal targets for leadership and management.  Each Subject Leader reviews the curriculum plans for the subject and sees that knowledge, progression and acquisition of skills is planned into schemes of work.