Curriculum

Curriculum statement

The aim of our curriculum is to ensure that children build the knowledge, skills and attitudes that they need in order for them to move on successfully to the next stage in their learning. Our aim is that our children will have built the cultural capital that they need in order to be proactive citizens within their world and to carry a love of learning with them wherever they go.

Through all aspects of our curriculum, our intention is to create meaningful and memorable learning experiences that engender a knowledge and love of the world and allow our children to be self-reflective and resilient young people. We value the uniqueness of every one of our children and the curriculum is aspirational in it's premise that all children are entitled to flourish through high expectations and exciting opportunities.

Our curriculum is being designed to provide the foundations of learning from day one in school, so that building blocks can be cemented through deliberate repetition and links to past and current learning.
We aim to provide a curriculum rich in vocabulary and knowledge and to ensure progression is secured and knowledge is retained.

Why is knowledge important?

In recent decades, cognitive scientists have confirmed the need for a knowledge-based curriculum for two reasons:

Knowledge frees up thinking space....

Cognitive scientists have found that our brain works at different speeds, depending on whether we have learned something already, or whether we are relying on our "working memory". We can only carry between 3-7 pieces of new information in our working memory. For example, if a child knows their multiplication tables off by heart, their brain is free to work out more complex calculations.

Connecting learning helps us to be innovative....

The way in which the brain stores new information makes inferences and new discoveries is by connecting to pre-existing knowledge. Without knowledge, we cannot have skills because we cannot evaluate something that we do not know anything about. When we have pre-existing knowledge stored in our brains, it enables us to make the jump to new ideas.