Davyhulme Primary School

Curriculum Statement

The curriculum at Davyhulme Primary School comprises all the learning and other development opportunities that pupils experience in our school. Our mission statement is, ‘Reaching for the Stars!’ and this is something we encourage all our pupils to do in order to reach their true potential, wherever their talents may lie.

At Davyhulme Primary School, we offer a curriculum which is broad and balanced and which takes account of prior knowledge by building on the knowledge, understanding and skills of all children, whatever their starting points, as they progress through each Key Stage. Our curriculum incorporates the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum 2014 and this document forms the basis of our intent when designing the curriculum for our pupils. The aim of our curriculum is for pupils to have the requisite skills to be successful, independent and motivated learners in readiness for their next stage of education. It is important that our curriculum considers the development of the whole child, and does not only concentrate on academic success. We are a values school and a set of core values underpins our entire ethos and curriculum.

At Davyhulme Primary School, we also believe that:

• Every pupil is entitled to receive the best education possible and to achieve the highest standards that they are capable of.
• Our curriculum should be ambitious and must prepare children for secondary school and beyond, creating life-long learners.
• Our curriculum should meet pupils’ individual needs. We are an inclusive school where opportunities are provided for everyone to succeed and make personal progress.
• Pupils learn best from a broad and balanced, enriched curriculum.
• The curriculum should involve first-hand experience and be taught in ways that make sense for pupils, for example through trips, visiting speakers, experience days etc.
• Our curriculum should take account of prior learning and build on this by providing carefully sequenced, progressive learning experiences for our pupils.
• Our curriculum is unique to our school and our setting – we believe strongly in making links with our community and using our locality as a rich source for learning.
• Our curriculum is question driven: we encourage our pupils to ask questions and follow lines of enquiry.
• We know that pupils who have a positive attitude towards their learning will make good progress and be successful – we are committed to instilling our pupils with ‘growth mindsets’ in all areas of learning. This includes encouraging our pupils to relish challenges, embrace their mistakes as part of the learning process (without the fear of failure), value the importance of effort, respond carefully to feedback and take inspiration from others. This is what we call ‘learning to learn.’
• Our curriculum intent is to develop the whole child by instilling our core values and creating responsible, caring, kind and polite citizens. We are strongly committed to our pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
• We aim to encourage and develop high standards of behaviour, promote good manners, mutual respect and empathy.
• Our curriculum will encourage children to develop a healthy lifestyle and look after pupils’ general well-being e.g. through yoga classes, nurture groups and a focus on mindfulness.
• Our intent is for our pupils’ to be aware of their place in the world and to know about current affairs and issues in the news that go beyond what is happening in our local area e.g. national and global events.
• Our curriculum does not only focus on the academic subjects as it includes a strong emphasis on enriched educational experiences such as Forest School, extra-curricular clubs and enrichment days.
• Our curriculum design includes a strong focus on our pupils’ cultural development by ensuring that all of our pupils have achieved our ‘10 Things… Cultural Capital Pledge’ by the time they leave Year 6.
• Our curriculum will encourage children to appreciate and take care of their environment. We place great importance on children enjoying the ‘great outdoors’ by taking full advantage of our superb outdoor learning environment. Children are also encouraged to complete a passport of outdoor activities of ‘10 Things to do before I Leave Year 6’ such as: climb a tree, dance in the rain, make a piece of wild art etc.
• Finally, with all that we do to provide a rich and inspiring curriculum, we still want our pupils to carve out the time to ‘stop and stare’ in order to develop an appreciation of the beauty of the natural world and for the simpler things in life. This belief runs through the whole of our curriculum.

We aim to teach our broad and balanced curriculum in an engaging, interesting and inspirational way primarily through a topic approach in Key Stage 1 for the foundation subjects. As pupils move into Key Stage 2, our curriculum tends to be subject specific as we seek to create scientists, historians, geographers, programmers etc. We use this subject specific language with our pupils, for example by saying, ‘ We are scientists’ and encourage our pupils to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding in these specific areas of learning. Where possible, however, cross-curricular links are made with other subjects to create a well-rounded educational experience for our pupils. Carefully selected books/novels are used throughout all key stages to provide a rich stimulus for learning in English and other subjects. This is a strong feature of our curriculum at Davyhulme Primary School – for example, in Year 5 the children are reading the retelling of Beowulf by Michael Morpurgo in English as this links with their history topic, the Anglo-Saxons.

 Our pupils lie at the heart of the learning process and play a large part in planning what they would like to learn as well which is a continuation of the excellent practice established in EYFS. When beginning a topic of work, we always encourage our children to ask questions and to talk about what they would like to find out through use of K.W.L. grids and mind maps. Mind maps are used throughout the school to record prior learning and to demonstrate progression in skills, knowledge and understanding at the end of a unit of work. Mind maps are also an excellent tool for engaging our visual learners and pupils with special educational needs.

Our curriculum intent is driven by the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum 2014. National requirements and school requirements are mapped out as a whole school and then individual year groups plan the curriculum for their pupils accordingly through the use of long term, medium term and weekly planning. The curriculum is underpinned by the school’s Core Values and these are taught on their own and through other areas of the curriculum, including assemblies. The spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of our pupils and their understanding of the core values of our school community are woven through the curriculum If you would like to find out more about our curriculum, please refer to the National Curriculum:

https://www.gove.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum

Parents can find out more about the curriculum for your child by accessing the Year Group Curriculum link and following the link for the relevant year group. Here you will find the curriculum overview for the year and also links to very useful half-termly curriculum newsletters.