At Howden Church of England Infant School, our primary objectives are to fulfil our school vision and to live by our Christian values of curiosity, family, nurture, respect and joy. Our school vision outlines our hope that our children will ‘grow, flourish and bear much fruit which they will take with them as they travel through life and out into the wider world’. These words have been at the heart of all conversations had and all decisions made whilst creating and continually developing our whole school curriculum.

 

Our curriculum construction began with conversations around our hopes for our ‘end of phase child’. What do we want our children to learn, what attitudes do we hope to nurture, what experiences will they have with us and how will we instil in them a lifelong love of learning? From these conversations, the following curriculum aims were identified.

 

Through our curriculum, we aim for:

• Our pupils to be well-rounded individuals who find joy in learning and are curious to find out more.
• Our pupils to develop the knowledge, skills and vocabulary they need across a carefully sequenced curriculum so to achieve well and be suitably equipped for the next phase of their education.
• Our pupils to think creatively by applying disciplinary knowledge, e.g. reasoning in Maths, enquiry in Science and tactics in sport.
• Our pupils to develop a sense of community, family and belonging during their time with us.
• Our pupils to be confident in who they are and aspirational for their future.
• Our pupils to marvel at and nurture the world around them, knowing ways they can make a difference and advocate change.
• Our pupils to develop spiritual, moral, social and cultural awareness.
• Our pupils to be tolerant of and respectful towards different faiths and beliefs.
• Our pupils to be mentally and emotionally happy, and resilient.
• Our pupils to champion healthy lifestyles.
• Our pupils to feel their voices are heard and to be involved with the development of the curriculum, so as to engage their interest and motivate them to want to learn.
• Our pupils to have regular opportunities to share learning across year groups, with family and the wider community.
• Our pupils to have their learning brought to life through visits, visitors and theme days.

Using the National Curriculum, Development Matters guidance and our curriculum aims, we then identified knowledge, skills and vocabulary that the children would need to acquire to progress through a carefully sequenced, well balanced and relevant curriculum. In the words of Dylan William’s (2013), what the children ‘Need to Know’. Our curriculum model intertwines this core academic learning with pupil personal development. As such, there is also some inbuilt flexibility to allow our children to be partners in their learning and to feel some curriculum ownership; the ‘Nice to Know’. Challenge is from the sequencing of knowledge, engagement and motivation is from its delivery. Our principles of curriculum delivery are shown below:

- Purpose (the children understanding why what they are learning matters)

- Interest (taking the children's interests into account)

- Ownership (the children being partners in their learning with their questions playing some part in directing the learning journey)

- Community (planning opportunities to share learning with the wider school community)

- Creativity (planning engaging activities)

 

Each half term has a whole school overarching theme, core value and host subject for learning. They are as follows:

Autumn 1 - I’m an Explorer - Curiosity - Geography

Autumn 2 - I’m a Detective - Curiosity - History

Spring 1 - I’m a Scientist - Family - Science

Spring 2 - I’m a Global Citizen - Respect - Geography

Summer 1 - I’m a Courageous Advocate - Nurture - Sustainability/RE

Summer 2 - I’m a Creator - Joy - Art

 

Whilst these host subjects form the main framework of each half term, the Big Ideas taught within individual year groups are cross-curricular and other subjects are taught alongside them with meaningful vertical, horizontal and diagonal links having been identified as part of the planning process. Clear sequencing of topics leads to clear connections between different topics, fewer things for children to remember, and therefore more effective learning (Williams, 2013). Encountering curriculum content and concepts in different contexts also allows for children to build stronger mental models.

 

Big Ideas are directed by a guiding question which needs newly acquired knowledge in order to be answered. Each Big Idea is built around a spine of well sequenced, building blocks of knowledge identified in subject progression maps to ensure children know more and remember more. Children’s questions also help to form the learning journey. Each Big Idea culminates in an end goal, giving purpose to learning and the children the opportunity to share their knowledge with other pupils, their parents and sometimes with the wider community.

 

Some subjects are taught discretely to ensure robust coverage and to avoid creating tenuous links. For example, Phonics is taught through the Little Wandle scheme alongside whole class reading lessons which develop comprehension skills and immerse children in higher level vocabulary. PSHE is taught following the Jigsaw scheme of learning and the White Rose Maths planning sequence is used for Mathematics.

 

We use knowledge organisers to expand on subject progression maps and to provide pupils with key knowledge and vocabulary throughout a Big Idea. The key knowledge contained within them is what the children learn and is continually revisited in order to help transfer the knowledge into the long term memory so to reduce the 'forgetting curve'. Knowledge organisers are also shared with parents to allow key vocabulary to be reinforced at home and new knowledge to be discussed. The vocabulary included in our knowledge organisers is taken from a series of vocabulary lists for each year group in each subject, which help to ensure that subject specific words are taught systematically with the aim of closing the knowledge gap.

 

Memorable experiences are used to both capture children’s interests and to add a real-life context to their learning. These experiences include visits to different places, visitors coming into school or in school experiences planned and led by our teaching staff. We believe such experiences are fundamental to ensuring the children have a balanced education.

 

Working together with our curriculum offer, is the expectation that all of our teachers deliver quality first teaching and learning to all of our children. Our subject progression documents ensure that learning is well-sequenced from year group to group, with teachers understanding the cognitive science behind how children learn. Our assessment procedures also ensure that pupils’ knowledge is appropriately built on, secured and retained. 

 

Whilst we recognise the importance of reading, writing and maths within our curriculum, we also believe in a broad and balanced curriculum offer. We therefore ensure that depth of planning and time allocated to other areas of the curriculum is suitable, progressive and robust so our children leave us having had an education that will allow them to become well rounded members of society in the 21st century.