Curriculum
Curriculum: Intent, Implementation & the Impact
At Little Parndon School we are developing a curriculum which:
· Develop our learner’s learning (Our head and body: what we learn with equal importance given to all subjects)
· Develop the character of our learners (Our heart and character: Who we are when we learn)
· Develop behaviours and habits to become effective learners (Our actions and attitudes: How we act when we learn)
· Develop the moral compass of our learners (Our place in the community and wider world: Who we are with particular emphasis on relevance to a "Harlow child")
Our curriculum has a clear purpose and is focused around excitement and love for learning. We aim to ensure that learning is bespoke to the needs of our learners and demonstrates a strong understanding about specific needs to succeed in life.
Intent - What are we trying to achieve here with, and through, the curriculum?
Intention 1: Develop our learner’s learning (Our head and body: what we learn)
To develop the appropriate subject specific knowledge, skills and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum, Our personalised Curriculum and beyond, so that children can flourish, reach and exceed their potential academically, physically and artistically.
Intention 2: Develop the character of our learners (Our heart and character: who we are when we learn)
To develop learners to have a holistic set of values that prepares them for life in the modern world in a diverse and ever changing community and work place.
Intention 3: Develop behaviours and habits to become effective learners (Our actions and attitudes: how we act when we learn)
To develop the behaviours learners need to succeed in the world such as concentration, perseverance, resillence, reciprocity, imagination, co-operation, resourcefulness, the enjoyment of learning, self-improvement and curiosity. To develop and maintain a positive growth mindset. We aim to promote skills that are trasnferable to adult life and give the children the skills they need to suceed in whatever path they take. We also intend to give children an impressive range of vocabularly which will help them in future roles.
Intention 4: Develop the moral compass of our learners (Our place in the community and wider world: who we are)
To understand spirituality in themselves and others, develop social skills and understand society, build a firm set of personal morality, and to engage in the culture they live in and understand the cultures of others. Our curriculum is relevant to being a "Harlow" child. We celebrate Harlow, we learn about our local community and environment and how this then translates into the wider world.
Curriculum Implementation
Our curriculum will be implemented with our intentions as the drivers behind our actions. By ensuring we think about what we learn, who we are when we are learning, how we act when we learn and who we are in the world, we build happy, resilient, successful, good citizens. Our implementation plan ensures our curriculum keeps us focussed on these areas.
We have the National Curriculum, which we use as a starting point, and embellish and deepen further as a school but at the heart of this is learners being exposed to quality experiences and lessons with a large element of choice and need for independent thinking. Educational visits, “Hooks”, Wow days and enrichment clubs allow learners even greater opportunities to find and develop their individual interests and personal talents. Visitors and parents coming into school to help at regular opportunities strengthens our offer and deepens experiences further.
Intention 1: Develop our learner’s learning
Our promise to our learners: Over and above any of our national curriculum learning, we promise holistic childhood experiences throughout their journey at Little Parndon Primary School. These are promoted through Community Values Passports that start in the Early Years and progress through to Year 6. Examples include: Den building; flying a kite; jumping in a puddle; learn an instrument; complete charity work and many more.
We use White Rose material for our daily maths lessons and we assess using test materials alongside teacher assessment. Alongside this we use Classroom Secrets and Times Tables Rockstar to support the love of learning for maths.
In writing we use in-depth planning based around specific books and aspects of the creative curriculum.
Primary Foundation Subjects
Our teachers plan foundation subjects using progressive skills and knowledge. All our subjects are of equal importance to each other as we value all skills. Learning is checked against these to ensure progression and understanding. Teachers keep a record of how leaners are achieving and intervene effectively and collaboratively to close any skills or knowledge gaps they do this through a system called Target Tracker. Regular progress meetings are held where the children's learnding is evaluated with certain interventions and targets put in place to make sure that children all progress to the best of their abilities.
Our teachers plan a wide variety of offsite educational visits, including residentials. Visitors are also invited into school as a way of enhancing subject knowledge and providing the learners with real life experiences.
Intention 2: Develop the character of our learners
At Little Parndon we believe values are essential to aid our learning and who we are. We have six core values of; Respect, Responsibility, Perseverance, Honesty, Trust and Empathy. These values are linked and taught alongside values that are critical for us to understand in modern Britain and beyond. Each day, our school community models, teaches and promotes a range of values that we need to demonstrate in order to become good citizens of the world. We think carefully about the value, explore it in learning and demonstrate this whenever we can.
As a school we encourage the children to use learning powers. This creates a culture in classrooms – and in the school more widely – that systematically cultivates habits and attitudes that enable young people to become better learners; face difficulty and uncertainty calmly, confidently and creatively.
Children who are more confident of their own learning ability learn faster and learn better. They concentrate more, think harder and find learning more enjoyable.
Our teachers ask learners to undertake positions of responsibility around the school, as we believe that children understand values by seeing them in action in others. These include: School council; Head Boy/Girl; Buddies; Play Leaders; Sports Leaders; Reading Mentors, a Well-Being team and Eco Leaders. All positions given are errant fairly by the children. The position is advertised, they can then apply and will be intervened for the post. This is a way of preparing children for the wider world equipping them with skills and responsibilities.
Intention 3: Develop behaviours and habits to become effective learners
Teachers design learning opportunities that look for ways to develop good learning behaviours, children are encouraged to help each other in the classroom through group work, peer marking and partner talk. At Little Parndon, we understand that learning about learning helps us to be better learners! In our curriculum, we ask learners to look for ways to develop concentration, perseverance, imagination, co-operation, the enjoyment of learning, self-improvement and curiosity.
The staff at Little Parndon, notice when learners are showing great learning behaviours. We award certificates for this in our regular celebration assembly. When children work as a team, they get to move a star above their classroom door and the class who reaches the end of the star system first gets rewarded with school trips. Our Headteacher conducts an Outstanding Behaviour assembly half termly and issues books to children who have made Outstanding behaviour choices.
We also have a ClassDojo system that is a classroom communication app used to share reports between parents and teachers. It connects parents and teachers on a student's conduct and performance through real-time reports as well as a feed for photos and videos during the school day. The gamification style system teaches developmental skills and creates a portfolio for the children so that a parent can be aware of activities ahead of meeting with teachers.
Intention 4: Develop the moral compass of our learners
When planning the curriculum teachers think not just about what learners should learn and how they should learn it, but also how they can bring in an understanding of morality and the wider world. They do this through:
· SMSC is planned for and highlighted to us by our teachers across the curriculum. We learn about new beginnings in life, going for goals, getting on and falling out, changes and relationships. This helps us understand our place in the world.
· We have a half termly Culture Vulture celebration to explore different faiths and cultures from around the world. We work with lots of local religious groups to get a good understanding of the beliefs of others.
· We work with local community groups such as visiting the local residential home, working with local charities, collecting and raising money for charities.
· We aim to increase our learner’s engagement with activities that benefit other members of the community and beyond.
· We teach the children about being a "Harlow child" and about their local community and surrounding areas.
Impact
What do we hope will be the impact of our curriculum and how do we measure it?
At Little Parndon our curriculum is beginning to produce learners who must and can, think for themselves, be resilient and face challenges with strategies to overcome and progress.
Intention 1: Develop our learner’s learning
We strive to ensure that our children’s attainment in core and foundation subjects are in line with or exceeding their potential when we consider the varied starting points of children. We measure this carefully using a range of materials, but always considering Age Related Expectations. We intend that the impact is that children will be academically and physically prepared for life in secondary school and in Modern Britain and the world.
Intention 2: Develop the character of our learners
The impact will be that our learners will have fully rounded characters with a clear understanding of complex values like equality, friendship, trust and many others. Only by really learning what these mean will our learners be able to develop a character that prepares them for living in the community demonstrating tolerance and equality. We measure this not just by the work our children produce, but in the behaviours we see each and every day in all learners on the playground, in corridors, and in the many roles we give them. The impact of this intention is seen in the daily interaction of all members of our community, including staff and children.
Intention 3: Develop behaviours and habits to become effective learners
The impact we intend to achieve by developing this intention is seen by how the children approach challenges every day. This could be on the playground, in a game or disagreement, or in class in a complex learning challenge. The impact should be that children don’t give up, are highly motivated to succeed and achieve and are equipped with all the personal skills to do this.
Intention 4: Develop the moral compass of our learners
Our learners will be motivated by a strong personal sense of morality. They will make decisions for the right reasons and in the best interests of their community. They will be able to decide what is right and what is wrong, and will be resilient to the influence of others. They will go out into the world and make a difference in their own life and to others. Our learners will be the owners of their own destinies.