Curriculum

Our Curriculum

"A good mix of interesting subjects and reading books. Art Week is brilliant!!"

"Good range of lessons in different subjects. Offering music lessons, theatre trips and excursions."

"Extra Curricular activities is extensive compared to other primary schools"

- Parent comments 2022

Equality Act 2010

In all areas of our curriculum we endeavour to fulfil our statutory duties in line with the Equality Act of 2010 . We are committed to ensuring that all children have fair and equal access to the curriculum. We maintain strong communication with parents and carers so that they too understand this commitment. Our curriculum is designed so that all children learn about a wide range of viewpoints, cultures, traditions and religions. Our aim is that our children have a clear understanding of the wider world and that they appreciate and celebrate diversity.

The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014.

Our curriculum is appropriately adapted and personalised to meet the needs of all children regardless of their special educational needs or disablity. Our SEND lead supports all staff to produce high quality school focussed plans and provision maps to ensure that any barriers to progress are effectively removed with appropriate provision and resources.

For more information please see our Equality and Diversity and SEND policies in the policies section highlighted below.

Policies

At Gawber, we believe that our curriculum should constantly be evolving and improving. We believe that improvements can always be made to ensure that content, lesson sequencing, progress over time and fidelity to each subject is our priority. We are a reading school. Our belief is that reading is the key to all learning and that if children have secure understanding of the written word and hopefully a love of reading, then they have the essential tools for lifelong learning.

We use “Read Write Inc.” for our teaching of phonics. Once children have completed the phonics programme, they move on to reading a wide range of quality books both fiction and non fiction. Children also have an opportunity to borrow a book from our school lending library, once a week. Children are encouraged to read for pleasure throughout the day. Story time is an important part of the day in each class and at play times and lunch times children can choose a book from our outdoor book boxes.

Our Curriculum is built around the objectives set out in the national curriculum.

As a staff we have planned the delivery of the curriculum so that all year groups are clear of the areas they will teach.

Topics are chosen to develop key knowledge, vocabulary and skills in curriculum areas through a common context and are chosen to be engaging and relevant to the children. Knowledge and skills are cumulative and revisited and developed over time.

We aim, wherever possible, to give our staff some level of autonomy over how they deliver each subject. This is a challenge for subject leaders as there also needs to be elements of consistency and progression needs to be planned for over time. By having core principles that we all adhere to we feel that we can also allow for some individuality in how those principles are delivered. We feel that this ability to have some level of autonomy is one of the key things that allows our curriculum suit the individual needs of our children.

All classes have visits that are linked to the curriculum to enhance learning including opportunities for competitive sport.
There are two residential visits for Years 5 and 6 linked to the curriculum
Children will experience a variety of theme days across the year linked to key areas of the curriculum e.g. Science Investigations / E-Safety/Art Week
We encourage strong links with the community e.g. parent volunteers and local speakers are welcome in school.
We put great emphasis on a stimulating and interactive environment to promote learning.
All children are encouraged to question and explore topics using a range of sources including books, computers and first-hand experience.
We encourage a diverse programme of teaching from whole class to group and independent working.
We promote tolerance and respect for people from other faiths, cultures and lifestyles by everyone in school modelling good manners and treating others how we wish to be treated ourselves.
From the very beginning all children are involved in an assessment programme which aims to identify any individual needs so that all children are able to reach their full potential.