Curriculum Intent

At Pinders Primary School our ambitious curriculum is designed to reflect the children’s interests, engaging pupils and building on prior experiences.

Our curriculum has been carefully designed to reflect our community, whilst knowledge and skills are built upon in a progressive and sequenced way. 

As a staff and community, we value the importance of books and reading as the vehicle to stimulate and feed our pupils imaginations, opening up the world of learning. Literature is at the heart of our curriculum, a golden thread which weaves throughout their journey.

“Reading is the gateway skill that makes all other learning possible”

Barak Obama

We recognise that all our children have different backgrounds and starting points, therefore in order for our children to be successful and lifelong learners, three main drivers underpin our rich literature-based curriculum;

• Communication and language
• Personal Social and Emotional Development
• Health and Well Being

Through our focus on Communication and language.

• The relentless promotion of the acquisition of Language and vocabulary.

Throughout school, our children are immersed in vocabulary, language and literature. The school environments promotes, a love of reading, development of spoken language and key vocabulary. Which is utilised as an essential tool to unlock learning opportunities across the curriculum.

Through our focus on Personal, Social and Emotional Development

• The promotion of independence, resilience & perseverance in all aspects of school life.

Our children are taught and encouraged to develop enquiring minds, to ask questions and follow their personal lines of enquiry. They are given the tools and strategies to solve problems. With independence comes responsibility, so children are given roles and responsibilities across school and take an active role in the school community. The learning environment encourages pupils to grow as independent learners, developing their skills of perseverance and resilience.

Through our Health and well-being

• A culture of health and well-being

Pastoral care is at the root of our school and intertwines into everything we do. The mental health of our children is paramount and opportunities to support and promote health minds, as well as develop our understanding as a staff and community are at the forefront of our school way of life.  Through our bespoke curriculum, assemblies, cultural capital are taught the importance of staying healthy and safe within school and the wider community.

How is our Curriculum planned

At Pinders Primary School, we recognise our key responsibility of teaching our children to be competent and confident speakers, readers, writers and mathematicians. These subjects, along with our key drivers of Communication and Language, PSED and Health and Well-being, underpin our curriculum design.

The senior leadership team lead on the planning of the curriculum across school, working with subject leaders. Subject leaders ensure that their subject is carefully planned and sequenced. This ensures consistency, as well as, progressive learning, skills and knowledge development across all year groups within a two year cycle.

Each subject leader produces a skills and knowledge overview, based upon the National Curriculum (2014). Our Early Years curriculum has been carefully planned so that our children are ready and have the prior knowledge and skills needed, before moving into Key Stage 1. 

Our bespoke 3D curriculum is designed within ‘themes’, chosen to reflect the children’s interests, engaging and inspiring them. Each theme provides a context for learning, allowing subjects to be interwoven where appropriate, so that knowledge is built upon, allowing the children to strengthen their working memory and embed prior knowledge and skills.  Carefully chosen, key texts provide a starting point to drive the learning.

Some individual subjects are taught in blocks this teaches our children what it means to be a ‘geographer’, ‘historian’, ‘scientist’ etc. It ensures progression in skills and language development and allows them to take on the notion of experts in different subject areas. 

Every subject area has an overview of the carefully selected books and the rationale for choice. Throughout all children are taught to challenge stereotypes and are educated to value and respect differences, including those reflected within the nine protected characteristics.

How is our Curriculum delivered?

Based on research, we have an agreed teaching structure to ensure quality first teaching across all subject areas.

• A recap and review of prior learning
• key vocabulary so that children can start to make links in their learning and teachers can check children’s understanding before moving them on.
• Skilful questioning  to check understanding and as well as provide further challenge.

• Modelling in small manageable steps.
• Guided Practice, where children are supported with some element of scaffold. 
• Independent practise.
• Reflection on learning

Classroom learning environments are designed to support teaching and learning opportunities. Key vocabulary is displayed and reinforced and working walls are used to promote thinking and independence.

Shared areas display and celebrate pupils learning, whilst promoting our school’s values and ethos.