Intent

We follow the National Curriculum and Early Years Foundation Stage. At Uplands, we have also designed and created our own ‘PRIME’ curriculum.  which is explained in more detail below. The PRIME curriculum is our driving force behind all of our planning for our curriculum.

PRIME stands for:

Purpose:

We want our children to know the purpose of what they are learning, and understand how it will help them in life. We want our curriculum to strike a balance between knowledge and skills.

Relationships:

We want to build meaningful and explicit links between subjects and topics, and help children create relationships between skills taught, as well as places and events in time. Children can then use their skills and knowledge in a range of situations and topics. This includes the interconnectivity (relationships) between different subjects and learning (e.g. History links with Art/Music or geographical locations of events).

Impact:

We want our children to understand the impact of what we are learning in relation to:

• us, as children and adults, as well as our community;
• our country; and
• our culture, as well as other cultures.

Metacognition:

We want our children to:

• think about how they learn in different situations;
• develop strategies to overcome barriers and build resilience (Growth Mindset culture); and
• monitor and evaluate their own learning.

Experiences:

We want our children to be given the opportunity to have rich experiences which motivate and inspire them, and shape future interests and learning. We want to equip pupils with the knowledge and ‘cultural capital’ to succeed in later life. At Uplands, Cultural Capital means the skills, knowledge and connections acquired from a range of different experiences that allow pupils depth of understanding in a variety of areas.

Under each subject heading, you will find links to the long term plans for each year group. You will also find links to our ‘Curriculum Offers’ which set out in more detail how each subject is taught at Uplands.

Implementation

We will teach and assess our subjects with a clear rationale:

• All teachers undertake high-quality CPD in order to deliver an engaging, personalised curriculum.
• Assessment (including the use of low-stakes assessment and teacher judgement) is used effectively to:
  • know children’s starting points;
  • personalise their learning; and
  • inform future planning.
• Teachers model their own thinking and thought processes in order to help children better understand theirs.
• Subjects will be taught discretely to ensure clarity, but will have meaningful and explicit links to other subjects and topics.
• Lessons will follow our drivers (intent) and provide pupils with rich opportunities and experiences within a subject or topic.
• Children are taught key concepts and knowledge, as well as skills; links are made to prior knowledge, concepts and skills to ensure fluency and progression over time.
• The key concepts, knowledge and skills are revisited over time to ensure they are securely embedded.
• We know our end points (for each unit, year group or subject as a whole) for all subjects and what we want the children to achieve.
• Children will have opportunities to monitor and evaluate their learning of key concepts, knowledge and skills.

Impact

• Lessons are high quality and engaging, and progression is clear.
• The curriculum is broad and rich, with a range of opportunities and experiences for pupils which:
  • creates cultural capital;
  • develops positive, thoughtful young citizens who take an interest in their community and the world around them;
  • allows them to apply their learning in a range of situations in the ‘real world’.
• Pupils make greater sense of their life experiences, and deeper connections within their learning. This includes between subjects.
• Teachers are highly skilled, knowledgeable and confident to teach the curriculum.
• Pupils can verbalise their learning and understand its context.
• Pupils enjoy coming to school and are passionate about their learning.
• Pupils are ambitious and are inspired to achieve.

Our curriculum results in high pupil outcomes for all, regardless of starting points.

Specific subjects

Please see the left hand side of this page, under the ‘Curriculum’ tab for the drop-down arrow and tabs for each subject, including Curriculum Offers and Long Term Plans.

COVID-19 and the Curriculum

For COVID-19 information and curriculum, please visit our COVID-19 page.

Equality and Diversity

Uplands follows guidance on Equality and Diversity as laid out in the Equality Act 2010.