The Curriculum

Children are taught in year based mixed ability groups throughout the school. There are four classes in year Nursery, Reception, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Children are set according to ability for mathematics and phonics throughout the academic year in KS2 (yrs 3-6).

At Bedonwell, we have a curriculum that is ambitious and designed to give our pupils, particularly our disadvantaged pupils and those pupils with SEND, the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.  Our curriculum consists of the National Curriculum- core and foundation subjects, RSHE (encompassing PSHE), RE, Unicef Rights Respecting School aims and a range of extra-curricular activities and opportunities that the school organises in order to enrich the experience of the children and enable them to lead happy and healthy lives. 

Our focus is on the development and embedding of knowledge and skills to enable our children to fulfil their potential, reach their goals and be positive contributors to society.  We aim to teach children how to grow into positive, responsible people, who can work and co-operate with others while developing knowledge and skills, so that they can understand, access and influence society. We understand the importance of positive wellbeing and good mental health and using a whole school strategy have an ethos of understanding, confidence and emotional resilience.  For the 2023-2024 academic year, our ethos will be further enhanced through the implementation of the Thrive approach. We strive to ensure high achievement and a happy educational experience for every child.

Implementation

Our curriculum gives English (including a Systematic Synthetic Phonics programme phonics) and maths the highest status to provide our children with the knowledge and skills they need to access a broad and balanced curriculum. We have dedicated Subject Leaders for all subjects who champion the learning and development for their area and have worked collaboratively across the Federation and MAT to further develop their curriculum area.  CPD, planning sessions and action plans evidence our curriculum journey. We have ensured that our school’s curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced and that learning progresses meaningfully through the year groups. Every subject area has identified a core of knowledge, which is detailed through a progressive curriculum plan (long term and medium term) ensuring skills and knowledge are built upon to enable pupils to learn more and remember more.  Our curriculum is inclusive and our approach ensures we adapt our provision so that every child can learn and their individual needs are met.  When planning and designing our curriculum, we have ensured it meets the needs of our community and represents the diversity of the society we live in.

Teachers plan lessons collaboratively across year groups, capitalising on each other’s strengths and ensuring that lessons in each year group are component focused and well-pitched. This collaborative approach also ensures that teachers have a common understanding of progression within the curriculum. Lessons are taught in a variety of ways encompassing discrete and cross-curricular learning with reading, writing, communicating and where appropriate maths incorporated into a range of curriculum areas.

Lessons are taught so that pupils remember their learning. Through participation in an EEF Research project, training has been provided to teachers to ensure they understand how children learn and how memory works so that effective retrieval and review strategies are implemented across the whole curriculum.

Consistent systems and routines such as questioning, talk partners and wipeboard work along with the effective use of skilled teaching assistants ensures lesson time and resources are used to maximum effect.

Impact

We ensure children are ready for their next stage in learning because they attain well in core subjects and attain good basic skills from EYFS onwards, which lay the firm foundations for learning across the curriculum. Consequently, our pupils are confident learners who are happy to work well together.