Curriculum

A Curriculum for OUR School

At Uplands Primary School our curriculum places high importance on subject specific teaching. This ensures that there is a clear progression of knowledge and skills throughout the many areas of the curriculum.

The curriculum is based on a spiral, with the following key principles in mind:

✓ Cyclical: Pupils return to the key areas and skills again and again during their time in primary school.
✓ Increasing depth: Each time a key area or skill is revisited it is covered with greater complexity.
✓ Prior knowledge: Upon returning to each key area/skill, prior knowledge is utilised so pupils can build upon previous foundations, rather than starting again.

We see the importance in each subject and provide subject leads to each field. In some of our subjects we have incorporated published curriculums which have been specifically written by experts. All areas of learning are organised clearly and have a clear focus on national curriculum links and progression.

Language and Oracy will be taught through all subjects and vocabulary development plays a key part in the curriculum and the way it is structured.

We aim to provide contextualised learning for children where possible, encouraging them to make links across different subjects and broaden their knowledge and understanding. We also aim for our children at Uplands Primary school to develop a good understanding of how they learn, not just what they learn. We approach this through sharing with our younger children the different characteristics of effective learning, which builds into metacognition strategies as they move throughout the school.

Intent

The curriculum at Uplands Primary School is constructed in a way that is engaging and ambitious and is designed to give all learners, particularly the most disadvantaged and those with SEND, opportunities to deepen their knowledge and understanding in all subjects.

Every child will experience a broad and balanced curriculum that promotes their spiritual, moral, cultural and physical development. Lessons are planned to ensure high levels of engagement and are innovative, hands-on, and provide opportunities for challenge to ensure good progress is made for all children.

The lessons and progression of skills through year groups are coherently planned and sequenced so that children have sufficient skills and knowledge for future learning. Lessons will be planned focusing on the skills and knowledge children need to be successful in each aspect of the curriculum. All teachers have high expectations for all learners, to ensure that every child is meeting their full potential and supported to make good progress where needed.

Staff work hard as a team, reviewing progress and exploring new strategies to capture the energy and enthusiasm of young learners in order to inspire them to develop a love of learning that will last a lifetime.
Leaders at all levels play an important part in the success of our curriculum by undertaking a regular programme of monitoring, evaluation and review. As a school, we are continually evaluating the curriculum to ensure that it is tailored to meet the needs of individuals, groups, and cohorts.

Implementation

Teachers are trained and have good knowledge of the subjects that they teach. In areas where expertise is not as strong, published curriculums have been brought in to ensure that it is the best that we can provide for our children. These schemes are used as a basis of planning and have been chosen have been carefully to ensure they fit with our curriculum rationale and have the best coverage and experiences for children to learn from and be enthused by.

At Uplands Primary School, we believe that high-quality teaching and learning is achieved by:

• Having consistently high expectations of all pupils. Inspiring pupils to love the challenge of learning and to be increasingly resilient to challenges.
• Planning lessons effectively, making maximum use of lesson time and coordinating lesson resources well.
• Checking pupils’ understanding systematically and effectively in lessons, offering clearly directed and timely support.
• Providing adequate time for practice to embed the pupils’ knowledge, understanding and skills securely.
• Providing high-quality continuous professional development for all staff to ensure deep knowledge and understanding of the subjects they teach.
• Using highly effective questioning which allows pupils to demonstrate understanding of subject content and to identify misconceptions upon which to act.
• Providing pupils with incisive feedback, in line with the school’s assessment policy, about what they can do to improve their knowledge, understanding and skills.
• Setting home learning, in line with the school’s policy and as appropriate for the age and stage of pupils, that consolidates learning and prepares pupils well for work to come.
• Challenging stereotypes and encouraging pupils to value the diversity of pupils’ experiences and provide pupils with a comprehensive understanding of people and communities beyond their immediate experience.
• Providing parents with clear and timely information on how well their child is progressing, how well their child is doing in relation to the standards expected, and providing guidance about how to support their child to improve.
• Children have opportunities to record their learning in a variety of different ways, including books, display work, performances, and using technology.
• Teachers continually assess children and use these assessments to inform their future teaching. Staff and leaders work together to ensure that assessment is used correctly and that it does not create an unnecessary burden for staff.
• The environment that surrounds the children should enable learning by ensuring that displays are meaningful and are an aid to learning rather than a distraction.

Curriculum Impact

We can measure the impact of a successful curriculum by seeing children enjoy learning and are keen to learn more, asking questions and acquiring skills to independently build on their own understanding.

Lessons are exciting, engaging and innovative, and all children can access the learning and are making progress. Children are set up and ready for their next step in education with the foundations from Key Stage One, through into Key Stage Two and onto Secondary School.

At Uplands Primary School we strive to ensure that our children’s attainment in core and foundation subjects is in line with, or exceeding national expectations when we consider our children’s varying starting points. We measure this carefully using a range of strategies:

• Through the children’s own work; this is clearly shown in Sways, exercise books and through talking to the children. Where relevant, this is also depicted in formal assessments carried out in school.
• Subject leaders will routinely monitor their curriculum areas through pupil and staff voice questionnaires; lesson observations; book looks; lesson planning and curriculum attainment levels.
• Rigorous monitoring of the implementation of the curriculum by leaders at all levels
• Feedback from all key stakeholders

Subject Curriculum Overview