Developing independent, confident young people

The curriculum is designed to engage pupils and inspire them to become creative and independent thinkers with a love of learning and a thirst for knowledge.

We actively encourage pupils to get involved and contribute to the life of the school and the community by becoming active, respectful and caring members of the communities that they live in, as well as thoughtful members of the global community where they ‘Let their Light Shine’.

• Our Early Years Curriculum has been written to reflect the EYFS Reforms 2021. As an Early Adopter we have planned an ambitious curriculum that acknowledges the interests and needs of our children and the community we serve, a curriculum that offers depth in early learning and is carefully sequenced to help children build on their experiences over time. The curriculum is delivered via a story.
• language skills so that they become confident communicators; leaving the Early Years and Primary with a love of language that supports them in becoming enthusiastic readers and writers.
• A well-planned environment, indoors and out (including a Forest School) is an important part of our pedagogy.
• The curriculum is designed to: recognise and build upon children’s prior learning, provide first hand learning experiences, allowing the children to develop interpersonal skills, build resilience and become creative, critical thinkers.
• The curriculum in Key 1 and Key Stage 2 is designed around a series of questions. These questions deliver an enquiry based curriculum using Recall, Research and Reasoning questions. These are closely linked to the powerful knowledge and answer subject based questions to gain disciplinary knowledge of how a subject works. Children are encouraged to think as a ‘geographer’, ‘scientist’ etc.
• Evidence Enquiry Books are used to record key moments in an Enquiry and enable children to look back and remember more
• Enquiry Overview Sheets are used in the children’s books and displayed to outline the learning for each enquiry. Children can use these to assess what they may already know, plan what they will be learning and remember more once an enquiry is completed. They will also make links across subjects for children and staff.
• The curriculum we use and the teaching strategies employed must ensure children learn more and remember more. Using the Quick 5 and memory strategies shared with staff will help this. The use of quizzes, knowledge mats and end point documents support teachers with the assessment of subjects across the curriculum.
• Homework grids are closely linked to the enquiry questions and outline a range of activities across a range of subjects.
• Every child is recognised as a unique individual within our community. The ability to learn is underpinned by the teaching of basic skills, knowledge, concepts and values. We constantly provide enhancement opportunities to engage learning and believe that childhood should be an extra ordinary, happy, investigative and enquiring time in our lives; where there are no limits to curiosity and there is a thirst for new experiences and knowledge. We use Thrive Principles to strengthen our curriculum.
• Community involvement and Enrichment are an essential part of our curriculum as we celebrate local traditions, diversity and charitable giving by working closely with local community groups: learning new skills to enable the children to take an active role in events throughout the year. One of our aims is that children leave the school with a sense of belonging to a tightly knit community where they have the confidence and skills to make decisions, self-evaluate, make connections and become lifelong learners. Learning as a community is necessary so our curriculum involves our parents and carers learning alongside their children.
• We endeavour to support our parents in supporting their children and provide our families with a range of opportunities to find out how their children learn; including parent workshops, online support and leaflets.
• Our curriculum is vital in securing an understanding of financial education and promoting character education principles such as resilience, kindness, courage and reflection. In a community where borrowing and lending are a key factor we help develop a better understanding of money.
• Residential visits offered to Years 4, 5 and 6 develop their intellectual understanding, team building skills, confidence and self-care awareness.
• We have an extended offer for all KS2 pupils who access specialist STEM and PE teaching and also learn to play a musical instrument. From Y3 all children learn either a woodwind, brass, string or percussion instrument.
• Our curriculum helps children to build their knowledge, their skills and their vocabulary.

Our curriculum has a focus on skills and knowledge, direct focused teaching and child led exploration, literacy and numeracy and a broad and balanced curriculum, opportunities for the power and passion of specialist teaching and thematic teaching that makes connections between subjects and learning that introduces children to the big ideas and events from the past that have shaped the world and connects learning to the contemporary issues of our times, such as sustainability.

Please use the links in the drop down menu below to access further information about our curriculum. Alternatively, if you have any specific questions about your child’s learning in a particular subject area, contact the school office on 01670 844323 and a member of staff will be happy to assist you.

Building An Outstanding Reading School

Our intent: Why do we promote a love of reading?
As a school we believe in both the importance of developing children’s discrete word-reading skills and comprehension, the essential element of developing vocabulary and the need to engender their love of books and reading. We recognise that these elements are intertwined; each relies on the others if children are to become life-long readers.

How do we do this?
We place reading and books at the centre of our curriculum and recognise that being able to read well is a key life skill for all children.

We recognise that not all children will have had the opportunity to develop a love of reading at home, so this has to be taught and encouraged at school, in partnership with families

Like any other area of the curriculum, we build time for all children to read independently, read aloud and be read to during the school day.

We select and buy books and develop the school environment to support reading, including texts which celebrate diversity and equality, careers, poetry and different worlds, views and experiences.

We have core texts in each year group which all children have exposure to and will know well.

We believe that every teacher should be an advocate for reading and devote time to training staff so they are equipped to support children’s enjoyment of reading as well as skilfully deliver daily story –time.

We use special texts as a stimulus to whole school learning days, including our adopted school text ‘Once upon an ordinary School Day’ by Colin McNaughton‘Schools that take the business of reading for pleasure seriously, where teachers read, talk with enthusiasm and recommend books, and where provision for reading is planned carefully, are more likely to succeed with their pupils’ reading’ Excellence in English , Ofsted, 2011

We ensure we:

1. 1. Equip and Support staff.
   2. Teach reading across the curriculum.
   3. Engage and support parents/carers.
   4. Develop a reading environment.
   5. Target quality resources.
   6. Celebrate Reading.
   7. Promote a love of reading for life.

‘Making sure that children become engaged with reading from the beginning is one of the most important ways to make a difference to their life chances, whatever their socio-economic background. For this to happen however, children need to learn to read as fluently as possible and be motivated to continue reading’ The Reading Framework. Jan. 2022

Skills for success

Our curriculum has a focus on skills and knowledge, direct focused teaching and child-led exploration, literacy and numeracy and a broad and balanced curriculum. Teaching through enquiry allows children to make connections between subjects and learning.

Developing a love of reading lies at the heart of our curriculum. It is our ambition that every child can read by the end of Year 2. In key stage 1 we use use Read Write Inc. to support the delivery of phonics. Listening to stories and choosing books for interest and pleasure encourages our children to start a lifelong interest in reading. You can find out more about reading for pleasure in our dedicated Reading Corner!

Musical opportunities are extensive; all children in Key Stage 2 have the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument individually, as part of a small ensemble and as a whole class.

Bishop’s Primary promotes physical health and wellbeing.  A range of sporting events gives children opportunities to access a wide variety of sports after school hours and during lunch times.

Curriculum End Points

Music Development Plan