At Colden J and I School, our Curriculum has been designed to ensure each and every child can be healthy, happy and achieve their full potential. It is bespoke to the needs of our pupils, not only by focussing on appropriate subject specific knowledge, skills and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum, but by also providing experiences which go above and beyond this such as Philosophy for Children, Forest School and active promotion of understanding of diversity through partnering with a local school which serves a predominantly Asian community. When considering our curriculum design, we consider everything that we do in and outside of school hours: it is not just what we teach in timetabled lessons, but the experiences we give our pupils, the provision we have for assemblies, the clubs we offer and the home learning tasks we set. With this in mind, our entire curriculum provision is always evolving as we react to the changing needs of our pupils and the changing nature of the world we live in.
Each subject area’s curriculum is designed so that our pupils know more and can do more with a clear progression of knowledge and skills. Where appropriate, logical links are made across subjects and the explicit teaching of vocabulary features across all curriculum areas. Within the school’s agreed framework, our teachers have the freedom to design long term plans to meet the needs of their class to ensure that all pupils, including those with SEND, benefit from a rich and broad curriculum which nurtures learning, development and passions. We value the importance of excellent home-school links and use the Google Classroom to ensure learning is recorded and shared with families to support further work at home.
For each curriculum subject, staff and pupils worked together to consider what a Year 6 Colden Pupil ‘looks like’ – what attitudes, skills, knowledge and understanding will each pupil have developed by the time they leave for the next stage in their education. Our curriculum plans have captured these discussions. These have been driving our curriculum development work as we seek to provide the best possible education for our pupils.
As a whole school community, we value fun, creativity, empathy and aspiration. These underpin our curriculum as do our Vision Statements.
At Colden School:
· pupils will enjoy and care for their environment
· pupils will develop the ability to express themselves and communicate with others effectively
· pupils will develop empathy and good personal relationships with others
· pupils will become confident, optimistic, ambitious, and resilient in order that they can make a positive contribution to both the local and global community
· pupils will gain a life-long love of learning and the skills to crucially evaluate information
· pupils will learn to use technology safely and sensibly to prepare them to contribute to and shape a changing world
· pupils will be healthy, happy and achieve their full potential.
In summary, our aim is that when our pupils leave Year 6, they are well-rounded and knowledgeable, they are proficient in the basic skills needed to succeed in life, they are imbued with a desire to achieve, and exhibit the self-belief that they can make a positive difference in the world.