Curriculum
Curriculum Intent
The curriculum at Bradfield CE Primary has three main priorities:
- To build happy, resilient and empowered young people
Happiness, wellbeing and empowerment are at the heart of everything we do at Bradfield and we seek to make every child feel cared for, listened to and loved. We want our children to understand that challenges are part of life and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. We aim to develop young people who are mentally strong, teaching them the tools and habits needed to grow and take care of themselves no matter what comes their way. We teach them, through practical examples and opportunities, that they can be powerful agents for change in their own lives and communities.
- To provide children with the knowledge, skills and self-awareness needed for the future.
We recognise that the future is unknown and that we are preparing our children for a rapidly advancing world where transferable skills will be increasingly important. We seek to ensure that all children are able to express themselves articulately and that their knowledge is deep and long-lasting.
- To provide children with a sense of belonging, connection and social responsibility.
We promote a sense of belonging in our community and encourage our children to be themselves and feel proud of who they are. We aim to be a school with ‘No Outsiders’, where everyone is included and where inequality is challenged and diversity embraced. We actively encourage our children to stand up for what is right and to believe that they have the power to change the world on many levels.
Principles of Our Curriculum
Principle 1: Happiness First
Happiness and well-being come first for all children and staff. We place a strong emphasis on personal development and self-esteem and we treat children as individuals, providing bespoke support as needed.
Principle 2: Every Child A Reader
Reading is the lynchpin of our curriculum and we have the highest expectations for every child. We do everything we can to ensure that our children fall in love with reading and that reading supports the acquisition and retention of knowledge.
Principle 3: Learning Floats On A Sea Of Talk
Our curriculum actively supports the development of oracy and communication skills across all subject areas. This helps children to think critically, reason together and have the vocabulary and confidence to express their knowledge and understanding.
Principle 4: Knowledge is Power
Our curriculum is knowledge based and results in the acquisition of knowledge which is retained, so that pupils know more, remember more and learn more. It provides opportunities to explore diversity and to develop global awareness with a focus on how others have made a difference in the world and how we can too.
Curriculum Pedagogy
1 - Learning is broken down into small steps with models and scaffolding.
Breaking the learning down into small steps helps the brain’s working memory to chunk together key bits of learning and store them in the long-term memory as one piece of information, freeing up the working memory to access new information. The more knowledge a child gains, the more they are able to chunk their learning and the more space they free up in their working memory.
2 – Learning is brought to life
We have 3 main pathways for receiving information: words, graphics and experiences. New learning increases when we can utilise all of these and is even more powerful when we add emotion such as curiosity, excitement or awe and wonder, and when we provide a real-life purpose for the learning.
3 - Spaced practice, retrieval and assessment is used to boost memory
Learners remember information better when they are exposed to it multiple times over spaced, significant periods and every time someone tries to retrieve information it becomes more cemented into their long-term memory. Examples we use include Fluent in 5, ‘where there’s a queue there’s time to review’, low stakes quizzes based on our knowledge organisers, and retrieval questions at the beginning of each lesson.
4 – Learning is active for all
Everyone is expected to take part and every minute counts. We have a ‘no hands up’ approach, favouring cold calling and open discussion methods and we observe children closely to ensure that everyone is engaged.
5 – A classroom culture of belonging and inclusivity
We use consistent signals of belonging so that children feel safe and learning is a ‘team sport’. Our catch up/keep up intervention model is responsive to the children’s long term and shorter term needs and includes daily ‘scoop groups’ as well as more long term maths and phonics interventions.
Schemes of Work
We use a range of schemes to support teaching and learning in different subjects:
Phonics - Little Wandle
Maths – White Rose Maths
RE – Understanding Christianity, Diocese of Oxford
PE – Real PE
Music, Computing, PSHE, MfL, Art & DT – Kapow
All other subjects have been specifically designed by our teachers for the needs of our pupils.
Curriculum Maps are available for each class through the classes link on this site and you can learn more about each curriculum subject by clicking on the subject menu to the right.