Our Curriculum

Whole School Curriculum Intent

The curriculum at Acomb Primary School is based around reading, writing, mathematics, great literature and essential knowledge embodied by different subjects.  We bring the curriculum to life through the arts, drama, stories, outdoor learning, visitors to school and visits out of school, enterprise education, charitable work and more.  We believe that through real hands-on experiences, children will remember more of the curriculum and be able to apply this to future learning.

When planning our curriculum, we ask three key questions:

• What do our pupils need to know?
• What skills will our pupils need in the future?
• What personal qualities do we need to promote in our children?

We teach children the ways in which they can make a difference to their community, their country and the wider world.

Our curriculum is made up of:

• Explicit curriculum: subjects that are taught and the knowledge and skills that the school expects children to acquire
• Implicit curriculum: lessons that arise from the culture of the school and the behaviours, attitudes, and expectations that characterise that culture
• Hidden curriculum: things which students learn but are not openly intended or planned

Implementation

We follow an ambitious long term plan, devised in school and based on the National Curriculum.   We teach a two-year cycle of topics and themes and year groups work together to plan, teach and assess these in phases – EYFS (Reception), KS1 (Y1 & Y2), LKS2 (Y3 & Y4), UKS2 (Y5 & Y6).

Whilst we do teach the full range of subjects, they are not often taught in isolation.  We group key knowledge and skills in our themes and base our learning around real experiences for children – including going on trips or having visitors in school to talk to us.  For example, when studying Vikings, we visit the Jorvik Museum, when learning about plants we go to Harlow Carr Gardens, when learning about Islam we invite a muslim teacher to talk to us about their faith, when learning about politics we go to the Houses of Parliament and the council chambers.

Our Two Year Cycle works as below: