Our Curriculum
We recognise that every child is unique and ensure we tailor our curriculum to nurture the needs of your children, so that we can enable every to “Let your light shine”. Through our vision, we aim for your children to be:
-
Aspirational
-
Loving
-
Resilient
Aspirational
Our school curriculum has placed great emphasis on children asking good questions and exploring their learning further. We encourage children to aim high and dream big. Our curriculum is designed to open doors—to new ideas, skills, and possibilities. We inspire pupils to believe in themselves and their ability to achieve great things. We celebrate effort, progress, and personal goals, helping every child see that their future is full of promise.
Loving
We encourage and model kindness and consideration for others. We teach children to be kind, compassionate, and inclusive. Through a strong emphasis on personal, social, and emotional development, children learn to respect others, celebrate differences, and care deeply for those around them. Whether through collaborative learning or everyday kindness, our pupils are empowered to be lights for others.
Resilient
We regularly provide children with challenge to help them learn and grow. We encourage children to keep going even when they feel like giving up. We model that it is OK to make mistakes and that this is part of the learning process. We give them the tools to bounce back and keep going. Because of this ethos we develop children who are confident and willing to give anything a try! Life brings challenges, and we believe in equipping children with the tools to face them with courage and confidence. Our approach to learning encourages a growth mindset: mistakes are not failures but opportunities to grow. We help children bounce back, try again, and take pride in perseverance. From classroom projects to playground friendships, resilience is woven into everything we do.
What do we intend the children who attend our school to learn?
There are several aspects to our curriculum that are really important and are therefore prioritised within our teaching and learning. We hope that the following pages give you a flavour of what is available at Pickhill CE Primary School.
Why is reading so important?
Reading is our number 1 priority! We challenge ourselves to make sure that every child who attends our school can read by the time they leave Year 1. Reading is essential. If you can’t read, it’s life-limiting! Evidence suggests that children who read for enjoyment every day not only perform better in reading tests than those who don’t, but also develop a broader vocabulary, increased general knowledge and a better understanding of other cultures.
In fact, reading for pleasure is more likely to determine whether a child does well at school than their social or economic background. It’s the most important skill that we can teach children in school.
Teaching reading doesn’t finish at the end of Year 1 – we want to turn all children into really fluent readers who enjoy reading. Therefore, reading is prioritised right through the school.
How does learning build knowledgeable learners?
Each subject has a ‘Knowledge Progression’ which ensures that learning is built upon through key components (small steps of learning), year on year and children keep on learning, whether that be in English, Art, PE or French, for example. The knowledge progression is based on the thinking and theory from the educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom. You can view our knowledge progressions on each subject page.
How does the curriculum all link together?
We have a Context Plan that provides our teachers with a framework, so they know what to teach, and in which year group. It’s our ‘curriculum Bible’! Through our context plan we hope to achieve composites of learning - the outcomes brought about by practising the key components through the knowledge progression. You can view a copy of this simple document below. It’s the teachers’ job to ensure that they cover all the content of our curriculum by the end of each academic year.
History and Geography unit planning is undertaken on a 3-year rolling plan for Class 1 (EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2). For other subjects, a 2-year rolling plan is taught. The themes, experiences and focuses from these units are used as a stimulus to deliver the EYFS curriculum.
In Class One the children are taught the appropriate knowledge progression steps for each year group. When working on a 2-year rolling plan, History and Geography are used to provide the context for the unit in the other subjects. In Year X the DT unit is “Constructing a Windmill”, the children will be using the knowledge progression from this unit however, the context can be changed to enhance learning in History or Geography. When Year X is taught alongside Year A, children may “Construct a Windmill” to support their Holidays in the Past history unit however in Year C, they will be learning about Space Discovery and could construct a flying device using the same knowledge progression. Staff adapt the schemes to support the knowledge development for each year group.
For Key Stage 2, a 4-year rolling plan is in place for all subjects.
Please note that only the unit title is provided for simplicity. For further details about the content of each unit, please refer to the ‘scheme of learning’ for each curriculum subject, available on the subject page on the website.
How do we try to ensure that learners remember what they’ve been taught?
It’s really important that we help children to try to remember what they’ve been taught or we’re all wasting our time and learning becomes irrelevant and very frustrating for everyone! In some areas of the curriculum such as phonics and maths, we follow a clear framework for teaching that allows for spaced repetition in order to aid long term memory. We use a range of strategies and resources, such as:
- Daily recap maths activities
- Little Wandle Phonics teaching resources (following the prescriptive planning for teaching)
- Regular engagement in Times Table Rock Stars (Y2-6) and NumBots (Key Stage 1)
- Working displays in the classroom where key knowledge is referred to and built upon
In all subjects we ensure that teachers engage with effective retrieval practice to support their learning. A range of strategies are used, for example:
- Mini quizzes
- Chunking information
- Writing notes
- Making connections with other learning
- Use of rhymes and songs
- Encouraging active learning
- Making learning exciting
Why do we use technology to support the curriculum so much?
Technology is a massive part of life in the 21st Century. It’s virtually impossible to think of a job that doesn’t use some form of technology. Therefore, it’s essential that our curriculum helps our children prepare for the next step in their education but also helps them to consider how they can use it positively in their own lives.
We regularly teach e-safety through our PSHCE curriculum – a very important aspect. Our school Internet connection is effectively filtered and any device that leaves the school also has access to our cloud-based filtering facilities.
All children in EYFS and KS1 receive their own iPad and all children in KS2 receive their own laptop which they can use both in school and at home. This allows them to bring their laptop into school every day and use it in lessons as required, as well as to help them with their learning at home.
Accessible to all
We ensure that our curriculum complies with the Equality Act 2010 and the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014. For further information, please visit our Special Educational Needs and Disabilities page.
Would you like to find out more?
Parents and other members of the public can find out more about the curriculum our school is following by contacting Mrs. Helen McDermott either by telephone (01845 567339) or by email (admin@pickhill.school).
