Curriculum

At Bishopstone we believe that there is no limit to what our pupils can achieve. We nurture the potential talents of all our pupils and through high achievement and a love of learning, our pupils leave us ready to make a valued contribution to society.

We believe in the concept of lifelong learning and ensure that all our children receive a broad, balanced and relevant education which provides continuity and progression and caters for individual needs. Through our curriculum and teaching we aim to equip our children with the knowledge, skills and understanding necessary to achieve.

Our skills-based, knowledge-rich curriculum comprises the lessons and activities which we plan in order to promote lifelong learning skills, personal growth and development which fulfils the formal requirements of the National Curriculum, whilst also taking into account our unique locality as well as both national and local themes relevant to our children’s lives.

Intent

We intend for our curriculum to:

enable all children to learn and develop their skills to the best of their ability.
facilitate children’s acquisition of knowledge, skills and qualities which will help them to develop intellectually, emotionally, socially, physically and morally, so that they may become independent, responsible, adaptable, confident and considerate members of the community.
promote a positive attitude towards learning, so that children enjoy coming to school and acquire a solid basis for lifelong learning.
create and maintain an exciting and stimulating learning environment where all pupils are encouraged to be risk takers and develop creative thinking.
develop a culture of enquiry.
develop children’s resilience in a happy and safe learning environment.
enable children to be positive citizens in society.
enable all children to have respect for themselves and high self-esteem, and to be able to live and work co-operatively with others.
encourage respect for the environment.

The curriculum is delivered through six topics in each year group which encompass the majority of the curriculum subjects.

Implementation

Our Subject Leaders work to ensure that the highest standards for each subject are achieved and continuous Professional Development prioritises teachers’ secure subject knowledge and pedagogy. Subject specific learning and vocabulary (both skills-based and topic-based) is shared with the children throughout the topics ensuring they develop their understanding of each curriculum subject as well as understanding the purpose of skills in a real-life context.

Impact

The success of our curriculum is measured through regular monitoring of the children’s knowledge, skills and understanding by Subject Leaders using observations and outcomes of children’s work. Coverage, pitch, progression and assessment are integral to this monitoring and determine how well our children are achieving. Subject Leaders are equipped to carry out internal research to gain a thorough understanding of the standards in their subject. Pupil and teacher voice are highly valued and we measure the progress and attainment of all groups of children.