Curriculum

Kindness-Integrity- Tenacity

 

At Bridgewater Park Primary School we offer a broad curriculum, based on the National Curriculum in England The national curriculum in England - Framework document (publishing.service.gov.uk), which is vocabulary rich, and well-balanced, providing a challenging educational journey for our pupils. Pupils meet topics within subjects on a two-year cycle because most of our classes are mixed in age.

Our curriculum is underpinned by our own progression document, which sets out the disciplinary knowledge and substantive knowledge that is to be taught in each year group.  When learning in a mixed age group class, lessons are adapted to ensure that pupils are taught the disciplinary knowledge and substantive knowledge that is relevant for their year group. 

Curriculum Intent

We believe that every child has the right to 'LEARN' and that all pupils receive an education that provides them with the knowledge and skills for life beyond the classroom. Our aim is to provide our pupils with a high-quality curriculum that emphasises the development of both disciplinary knowledge and substantive knowledge, as well as exposing pupils to a wide range of vocabulary. We use a meta cognitive approach as a vehicle to deliver curriculum lessons, this offers pupil to opportunity to revisit prior knowledge, retain and re-apply across the curriculum.

Learn both disciplinary and substantive knowledge.

Enhance and Extend vocabulary.

Apply within lesson and across various units and other subjects

Remember and retain knowledge.

National Curriculum and more.

 

Learn both disciplinary and substantive knowledge:

Our curriculum allows children to retain knowledge. Our curriculum also enables pupils to use their skills to develop knowledge. We specify the knowledge we expect our pupils to retain in out medium-term plans. This substantive knowledge is relevant to both the subject and unit being taught.

Enhance and extend vocabulary:

Our curriculum is designed to give pupils a rich vocabulary. Our curriculum is carefully planned to ensure pupils are exposed to subject specific vocabulary and have a good understanding of meaning in context.  We aim to close the vocabulary gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils. By closing this gap, we offer pupils a vital tool for success in school, alongside the capability to communicate with confidence in the world beyond our school gates.

Apply within lessons and across other curriculum areas:

Our curriculum allows children to develop knowledge and enhance vocabulary throughout. The metacognitive teaching vehicle supports children to acquire the knowledge that will support them for the rest of their lives. Knowledge that pupils retain can be applied and revisited in the same and different subjects across their time at Bridgewater Park. Progressively planned learning enables children to constantly apply prior knowledge and build upon it.

Remember and retain knowledge:

The metacognitive approach that we use as a vehicle for delivering curriculum lessons lends itself well to retaining knowledge. In each lesson, pupils begin with a retention task where pupils retrieve previous knowledge and understanding. Pupils also add knowledge to a mind map which is then used as a retention tool throughout lessons.

National Curriculum and more:

We ensure that all children gain a wealth of experiences beyond learning facts in the classroom. We want our curriculum to inspire children to want to learn more, to provoke children’s intellectual curiosity and to create experiences of awe and wonder. We aim for all children to take part in memorable experiences that will expand their cultural capital.

Implementation of Our Curriculum

We have carefully designed a progressive curriculum that provides opportunities for accelerated progress. Knowledge grids provide pupils with an insight into the specific knowledge we want the pupils to access and understanding. This also acts as a planning and assessment tool to use throughout each unit, providing teachers with an understanding of the knowledge pupils have retained and the areas of learning which need to be refines.

Mind maps are a central part of learning throughout our curriculum. Mind maps provide pupils with the opportunity to gather all of the knowledge which has been retained and acts as a tool where pupils can revisit previous knowledge.

The following planning documents set out what is to be taught and when. The planning documents also set out the specific disciplinary knowledge and substantive knowledge that is to be taught during each unit.

1. Yearly whole school overview
2. Disciplinary knowledge document
3. Medium-term plans
4. Vocabulary progression document

Each lesson throughout our curriculum follows a metacognitive approach to allow pupils to think carefully about how they learn and what steps they need to take in order to reach the desired learning aim. Each lesson that is delivered, whether that be core subjects or foundation subjects, follows a Connect, Focus, Pratice and Check approach, allowing pupils to revisit previously taught skills and learn a new skill before having the opportunity to apply this independently. 

Subject	Connect	Focus	Practice	Check
Read, Write Inc. Phonics	Review previously taught sounds	Introduce new sounds	Apply understanding to new words	Reading application
Focused Reading	Revisit previous taught reading skills	Focus on a new skill linked to the National Curriculum content domains	Model and guide pupils on how to approach the new skill	Independent application
Pathways to Writing	Gateway Key (revisiting previous skills)	Mastery Key (New learning)	Model and guide pupils to understand the new writing skill	Independent application
Maths No Problem	Explore	Master	Guided Practice	Independent Practice
Trust Curriculum	Revisit: Start with a quiz Mind map knowledge	Aim: Key vocabulary Key knowledge	Structure activity through modelling and guiding techniques	Application task

Impact of Our Curriculum

The impact of our curriculum directly links to our belief that every child has the right to 'LEARN'. Our curriculum supports our pupils to: 

Learn and remember both disciplinary and substantive knowledge: pupils have the knowledge and skills to support them in school, out of school and in their future life.

Enhance and Extend vocabulary: pupils have a good understanding of vocabulary.

Apply within lessons and across various units and other subjects: pupils have the opportunity to apply knowledge and skills across various areas of the curriculum.

Remember and retain knowledge: pupils remember the specific knowledge that is set out in our medium-term plans.

National Curriculum and more: we provide our pupils with a range of opportunity.