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Plans and Overviews

Our Curriculum has been designed with an intention of building and sustaining knowledge. Learning that is rich and developmental.  We want the children to be aspirational, resilient, inquisitive and independent learners  who develop an understanding of the world and communities around them and are able to see themselves as adding positively to its continued growth.

What are our Curriculum Drivers?

At Blaydon West  we believe that our curriculum should offer children not only the National Curriculum but life skills and experiences beyond this.

Alongside teaching the requirements of the national curriculum, key drivers have been identified that match our aims that children become more fluent as they progress we want the children to be aspirational, resilient, inquisitive and independent learners who develop an understanding of the world and communities around them.

We have prioritised these key skills. We use these ‘drivers’ to underpin the learning and experiences we undertake in all areas of school life and to ensure our curriculum offer is enriched.  These key drivers are personal to our school and reflect the social and educational needs of our local area.

The following key drivers are a foundation throughout the school.

 

Aspiration

 Aspiration is the hope, desire and confidence to strive to achieve something.  To be the best they can possibly be and to challenge themselves as a learner. We aim that they  develop confidence of ambition and strive to produce work of high quality, take pride in themselves and always be the very best that they can be.

Resilience

Resilience is having the skills and resources to deal with challenges and barriers. Resilience measures of how much you want something and how much you strive to overcome obstacles to get it. Resilience centres around emotional strength.

We aim that our children develop the emotional and physical security needed to become resilient  and are able to take risks and deal with different challenges they encounter; not only in school but in the wider world by thinking positively and having the confidence to ‘have a go’

Inquisitive

Inquisitive means eager to learn or know and being confident to ask for information.

We desire for children to be curious about the world around them and ask questions. We encourage the children to be inquisitive and questioning through their learning and school life experiences.

This approach to learning enables inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning and nurtures problems solvers.

Independence

Independence is the ability  to live life to the full, confidently and to be self-sufficient.  We aim to  develop the necessary life skills of the children to work with growing independence and perseverance to become resourceful problem-solvers able to nurture aspirations for the future.

We aim to promote and develop the children life skills both with in and out of school

We will give our young people opportunities to organise themselves, show personal responsibility, initiative, creativity and enterprise.

Using the links on the left of this page  you will find our individual curriculum plans. These are organised both by subject and year group. At Blaydon West we believe that every child is unique. Every child deserves the opportunity to be happy, feel valued and experience success.

Cultural capital is the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours, and skills that a child  can draw upon and which demonstrates their cultural awareness, knowledge and competence;  it is one of the key ingredients we aim our children will draw upon to be successful in society, their career and the world of work.

Cultural capital promotes social mobility and success in our unique society.

Cultural capital gives a child power. It helps them achieve goals, become successful, and rise up the social ladder without necessarily having wealth or financial capital.

Cultural capital is having assets that give children the desire to aspire and achieve social mobility whatever their starting point.

At Blaydon West, we recognise that for children to aspire and be successful academically and in the wider areas of their lives, they need to be given rich and sustained opportunities to develop their cultural capital.

The school recognises that there are six key areas of development that are interrelated and cumulatively contribute to the sum of a student’s cultural capital:

Personal development

  1. Personal, Social, Citizenship and Health Education provision; Our use of Jigsaw Scheme.
  2. Pupil Voice; School council (annual election) Subject leader feedback
  3. The school’s wider pastoral work within the community- singing in community, Metrocentre. Working with local Business Provision. Artwork within the community. Collecting for charity work. Macmillan and Fair Trade days. Collecting, sorting and working at the local food bank
  4. Resilience development- not giving up; part of the schools drivers celebrated in a weekly assembly.
  5. Transition support; working with local secondary schools; External nursery partners.
  6. Work to develop confidence e.g. role play, assemblies, whole school productions (in school theatre provision).
  7. Activities focused on building self-esteem; Behaviour policy, Good to be Green, Awards assembly ( including digital House Point system shared live with parents) Schools use of Marvelous Me Positive Messaging platform.
  8. Mental Health & well-being provision.
  9. Career’s Education, including Higher Education Provision; Year 6 Aspiration visits to local Universities. Visits to local Business such as Nisan. Use of Developing Experts in science.

Social Development

  1. Personal, Social and Health Education provision;
  2. Social Responsibility – working within the community. Sustained links with local foodbanks and Churches.
  3. Volunteering and charitable work – eg choir singing at Christmas for elderly in a local residential homes. Harvest and Christmas collections. Links with Morrisons Community Champion.
  4. Pupil Voice
  5. Pastoral support from all staff

 

Physical Development

  1. The Physical Education curriculum;
  2. Healthy Eating policies and catering provision;
  3. Anti-bullying and safeguarding policies and strategies, including BIG Anti Bullying Accreditation
  4. The Health Education dimension of the PSHE curriculum, including strands on healthy eating, drugs, smoking and alcohol;
  5. The extra-curricular clubs related to sports and well-being;
  6. The celebration of sporting achievement;
  7. Activity-based educational visits;
  8. Design and Technology units related to food preparation and nutrition including the use of our allotment
  9. Opportunities to participate in community events eg Gateshead Dance Festival and other sporting events

Spiritual Development

  1. The Religious Education Curriculum;
  2. Our collective acts of reflection (including assemblies);
  3. Support for the expression of individual faiths;
  4. Inter-faith and faith-specific activities and speakers;
  5. Visits to religious buildings and centres;

Moral Development

  1. Assemblies to promote school values, human rights, global issues and special festivals and culturally important events.
  2. The Religious Education Curriculum;
  3. The school’s Behaviour Policy
  4. Contributions to local, national and international charitable projects.

Cultural Development

  1. Citizenship education through PSHE;
  2. Arts education including Music and Drama and our specific work with The Sage
  3. Access to the languages and cultures of other countries through the curriculum (both Foundation and Core subjects);
  4. Promotion of racial equality and community cohesion through the school’s ethos, informing all policy and practice.

Each curriculum area makes its own contribution to children’s cultural capital development and supports SMSC across the school.

 

 

Intent

Blaydon West’s Curriculum has been devised so that every child is given the opportunity to achieve and maximize their opportunities. Within our subject plans you will find a clear intent, how we will implement that intent and what impact this will have.

As our children progress through school and eventually leave to continue their educational journey, we want them to be confident, resilient, independent, inquisitive and mentally/socially robust learners who develop an understanding of the world and communities around them and are able to see themselves as adding positively to its continued growth.

Our curriculum is knowledge rich, taking our children beyond their own contexts and supporting our commitment for all children to have a deep understanding of the world around them. The curriculum introduces them; to new concepts, contexts and experiences so that they develop a rich cultural capital and become more socially aware, confident and reflective young citizens of the world. Knowledge for its own sake is not the goal. We want our pupils to acquire knowledge and then have the skills to best apply it for the benefit of themselves and the community around them.

Our Curriculum has been designed with an intention of building and sustaining knowledge. Learning that is rich and developmental.  We aim that our children become more fluent as they progress, Subject plans are planned to create foundations and then built upon to a mastery level.

Children at Blaydon West are polite, inquisitive and eager to learn. We therefore give them the opportunities they require by providing stimulating teaching where effective questioning and appropriate assessment allows skills and knowledge to be mastered.

Implementation

Curriculum maps have been produced for each year group ensuring clarity of coverage with a strong emphasis on progression of knowledge and skills.  Carefully selected enrichment opportunities are key to providing all pupils rich experiences to enhance their learning.  Developing an understanding of the fundamental British values infiltrates aspects of the curriculum and assembly themes.

Our curriculum design is based on evidence from principles of learning, on-going assessment and organisation and cognitive research. (EEF research)

We aim to start from a learner’s existing understanding and involve them actively in the learning process.

Curriculum organisation and timetabling enable learners opportunities for constant recapping of knowledge and skills with well-spaced reviews. (interleaving and addressing the forgetting curve).

We deliver a coherently planned curriculum with a progressive development and understanding of key knowledge, skills and concepts, which will be re-visited regularly.  Some of our content is subject specific whilst other content maybe combined into a cross-curricular approach enabling us to put knowledge into context.  The use of Knowledge Organisers provide transparency within the curriculum – Knowledge is revisited at the start of new topics. This regular revisiting enables knowledge to be committed to long-term memory.
Subject Leaders have carefully planned their curriculum areas to  ensure topic content is not repeated, the progression of key knowledge and skills is still maintained.

 Impact

The Impact of our Curriculum is measured in various ways and shows the extent to which pupils have developed new knowledge, understanding and skills and that they can use and recall this with fluency.

Pupils leave Blaydon West Primary School with a secure understanding of the academic content; with the understanding of how to be socially, morally, spiritually and culturally responsible and aware; They have made positive contributions to the local community and have endeavoured to be the best that they can be. We aim for all of our children to leave Blaydon West respectful, skilful, ambitious and with a thirst for life and looking forward to next steps in the education journey.

This will be measured by:

  • Outcomes in KS1 and KS2 tests
  • Knowledge Organiser assessment tasks
  • In school attainment tracking of both core and foundation subjects
  • Attendance data
  • Behaviour Logs
  • Engagement in enrichment activities
  • Pupil voice – questionnaires, pupil book reviews
  • Subject Leader monitoring – Lesson visits, scrutiny of books, assessment, pupil interviews and questionnaires
  • Governor monitoring