Our Curriculum Vision
Intent:
At Kessingland Church of England Primary Academy we aspire to deliver a broad and balanced engaging curriculum. We want our pupils to become life-long learners with powerful knowledge and experiences that take our pupils beyond their everyday experience. Our vision is deeply Christian, with the golden thread of Jesus’ promise of ‘life in all its fullness’. We believe that everyone is a child of God and should be supported to flourish and reach their full potential. We are committed to developing the whole child and have high aspirations for everyone to ‘Be the Best they can be’. Through our curriculum, we want our children to live:
- Life in all its fullness through positive and loving relationships with compassion and respect for ourselves and others in the diverse world we live in;
- Life in all its fullness through persevering and growing as learners developing curiosity, resilience and problem-solving skills;
- Life in all its fullness through a knowledge rich curriculum with high aspirations for all;
- Life in all its fullness through a sense of community and responsibility;
- Life in all its fullness through spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
Our curriculum drivers:
In order, for our children to ‘be the best they can be’ and live ‘life in all its fulness, we want our children to aspire, believe and challenge themselves and others.
Aspire: We aim to provide rich experiences which show children the wide range of possibilities available for their future. We want them to be challenged to imagine possibilities beyond their own experience.
Believe: We promote ambition, high aspirations and foster pupils’ capacity to see the possibilities within the diverse world we live. Championing a Growth Mindset, pupils believe in the power of ‘yet’.
Challenge: We strive for children to learn skills alongside knowledge, ensuring that all pupils have a secure platform to reach the next step in their learning journey and their full potential so they can ‘be the best they can be’
Aims:
- To ignite a love of learning in all pupils and nurture a Growth Mindset, knowing that it is okay to make mistakes.
- For our pupils to know they are valued and have the capacity to grow, learn and play a full role in the wider world.
- To ensure the statutory entitlement of every pupil to a balanced provision of all subjects within the National Curriculum is met.
- To facilitate children’s acquisition of ideas, knowledge, skills, mindsets and qualities of character, which will help them to develop intellectually, emotionally, socially, physically and morally.
- To develop self-esteem and confidence, so that pupils make personal progress that fully prepares them for their next stage of education and the wider world.
- To encourage empowering and respectful partnerships between all learners in school, where achievements are celebrated.
- To provide opportunities to develop opinions in order that our pupils become worldly wise, have strong British values and are able to challenge perceptions.
Implementation:
‘The main purpose of curriculum is to build up the content of long-term memory (the Schema) so that when students are asked to think, they are able to think in more powerful ways because what is in the long-term memories makes their short-term memories more powerful. That is why curriculum matters.’ (Wiliam 2018)
Our curriculum is carefully planned to combine knowledge and skills, ensuring that every child is empowered through knowing. Pupils are challenged to not only develop their understanding, but to master it. In order to do this, our curriculum is designed to be remembered, developing deep understanding so that it can be built on year on year.
Our knowledge-engaged curriculum is planned progressively so that key concepts and vocabulary are revisited and reinforced, making them unforgettable. Teaching and learning opportunities have been thoughtfully sequenced to ensure pupils revisit, apply and deepen their existing knowledge within and across subject areas. We work hard to ensure our curriculum is language rich and vocabulary is practiced and embedded through subject-specific learning.
We aim to develop pupils’ understanding of the world around them and learning experiences beyond the classroom, such as visits, clubs and visitors enrich our curriculum. By gaining knowledge through purposeful and meaningful experience, pupils develop an enduring understanding that goes beyond retrieval. Our curriculum allows pupils to acquire cultural capital as they move through the school, supporting pupils to develop a deep and connected understanding of where they came from, who they are and what they might become.
Impact:
Our curriculum is interesting and current, with the intention of developing a wealth of knowledge to prepare children for future learning. From different starting points, all children make good progress academically, emotionally and socially. Pupils have high expectations and are determined to maximise their own learning potential, as well as make positive contributions to the school and the wider community. It is our belief that children should leave Kessingland equipped with the ability to take part in academic discord at any level.
The sequenced curricular framework supports teachers to organise, teach and test knowledge systematically. Lessons build on prior learning and provide opportunities for guided and independent practice. A core principle is that all pupils know why they’re learning, how they’re doing and where they are heading. Ultimately, the test of our curriculum is the experiences of the young people in our classrooms.
