Middleton Church of England Primary Academy

Curriculum Statement

Through our Christian Faith, we acknowledge our responsibility to all, to enrich lives and show love and respect within our school family. We believe in lifelong learning aiming to equip our children to live life today and for tomorrow rooted in Christian love.

Ready, Respectful, Safe.

Together being the best that we can be in mind, body and spirit!

 “In everything, treat others the same way you want them to treat you”

Matthew 7:12

At Middleton Church of England Primary Academy we work together in a Christian community to be ready to learn, respectful of everyone and safe to flourish. We challenge and support each other to be the best that we can be in mind, body and spirit to achieve more than we ever thought possible.

Intent:

Our Curriculum has been designed to ensure each and every child can ' live life in all its fullness' by offering stimulating and awe-inspiring learning experiences with Christian values at its heart.

It is bespoke to the needs of the pupils at Middleton Church of England Primary Academy, not only by focussing on appropriate subject specific knowledge, skills and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum, but by developing individual and collaborative learning experiences, a positive growth mindset, a sense of responsibility and challenges that take them beyond the classroom.

We are a small rural school with a constantly evolving curriculum which responds to the needs of learners and their interests by enhancing learning experiences and raising awareness from the local area to national and global arenas. Thus, we will develop outward looking pupils who are able to engage in learning about themselves and have an understanding of the wider world and its diverse cultures.

Ultimately our curriculum is:

• a curriculum that is ambitious for all pupils;
• a curriculum that is coherently planned and sequenced;
• a curriculum that is successfully adapted, designed and developed for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities;
• a curriculum that is broad and balanced for all pupils

Implementation:

Through quality teaching of knowledge, skills and vocabulary across core and foundation subjects, all children will be challenged to be inquisitive, compassionate, courageous and creative learners. They will have opportunities to influence their own learning through age appropriate and progressive themes and topics. Effective learning characteristics including being ambitious, reflective and imaginative will drive teaching and learning.

Impact:

Our children will have a confident set of skills, knowledge, norms and Christian values which can be used to get ahead in education and life more generally. In short they will learn more, remember more, enjoy more and develop more spiritually, socially and emotionally. Thus enabling them to be ready for their next stage in education.

To find out more about our curriculum, please speak to your child's class teacher and explore the subject and class pages on our website.

Do the children experience a wide and engaging curriculum? Yes! From educational visits off site, to places like Gressenhall, Hunstanton, Sandringham and Castle Rising Castle, to in-house workshops and guests, such as our science focus days/weeks and history workshops, the children enjoy a school day designed to engage, challenge, allow for thinking and encourage reflection. 

How do we enrich the children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding, as well as their personal development, in matters of health, economics and well-being? The children experience a fully-integrated curriculum of collective worship, enrichment days and charitable activities. As well as special days to celebrate national and global events such as PRIDE month, Black History month, National Poetry day, Book Week and support for Ukraine. We follow the JIGSAW curriculum for PSHE and RSE which includes learning about protected characteristics, online-safety, fairtrade, anti-bullying delivered throughout the year; we revisit important concepts such as personal safety, resilience, friendship, teamwork and responsibility again and again, to ensure that all children have opportunities to broaden their understanding of the community and develop confidence in how to care for themselves, stay safe, and maintain a thirst for learning about the world and their place in it.

How the wider curriculum works

Curriculum Design

We have designed schemes of work for each subject to ensure coverage of the National Curriculum. Each subject is taught discretely through the course of year. Sometimes subjects are blocked into a half term to help the children become involved in their learning. This usually happens through rotations of Art and Design Technology and History and Geography.

Points that have influenced our curriculum design:

• Coverage of the National Curriculum
• Maintain a balance of strands within subject across each school year
• Develop knowledge, skills and understanding over time

Within units of work we aim to:

• Engage all children in their learning
• Develop children’s vocabulary and language
• Broaden the children’s experiences and horizons
• Promote the children’s personal development through good behaviour for learning

Because we are a small school, we have a rolling programme to accommodate our mixed age classes. This means that, over time, the children cover the whole curriculum and avoid repetition. This does present some challenges, such as not teaching history chronologically and having to consider the complexities of some science concepts.

We place a high emphasis on the development of early reading skills and generating a love of reading. Our English curriculum is text based to generate an interest in books and to promote language and vocabulary.

Coverage of each subject is mapped out through units of work. These reflect statutory requirements or specific strands. Across the course of a school year the children will be taught the full range of strands within each subject. For example, in Geography location, human and physical and field work skills are covered within each year and in Art children will have experience of a range of media such as drawing, painting modelling, printing and collage and in DT food, textiles and structures.

Strands within subjects are repeated within and across years to embed and build upon knowledge, skills and understanding.

Activities within units are chosen to support the needs of our children within our small rural school. We want to engage our children’s interests, develop their vocabulary and language and broaden their horizons.  

Assessment

After each unit of work and at the end of each term teachers will review the progression of knowledge and skills and make judgements about whether the children have met the expectations of their year group, are working towards these expectations or have exceeded the expectations. This will be recorded on a tracker sheet which also captures how teaching needs to be shaped in the next unit of work. This allows us to respond to any gaps in learning or coverage and compensate for these later in the year.

Teachers work together to moderate their judgements to ensure an accurate view of learning is captured.

Reading and Phonics:

We teach phonics based on the Little Wandles scheme of work. The books children are given to read are closely matched to their phonetic knowledge so that they can confidently read the words in the book. They will have several opportunities to explore this book in school before taking home to read independently ensuring all children can be successful. For each book, children will learn to decode (read) the words, learn new vocabulary, learn how to read with expression and discuss what has happened in the book to develop comprehension.

When children have finished the phonics programme, we have a range of books to enable them to continue to build their vocabulary and fluency. This will ensure that children are then able to access any book they wish to read, allowing them to acquire a love of reading, and to read at a speed which supports their understanding of the text.