The Curriculum at Fellside

The Intent of our Curriculum

Our curriculum builds progressive core knowledge and key curriculum skills across all National Curriculum subjects.  It leads to pupils being able to recall and describe knowledge and concepts in familiar, unfamiliar, local and global contexts.  Our curriculum is designed to enable pupils to make clear connections between their developing acquisition of knowledge and concepts; their prior learning and their lived experiences.  Fundamentally, the single driver of our curriculum is to ensure that Fellside children become successful, confident and responsible, ready for the next stage in their lives.  Central to the tenets of our curriculum intentions are the following key principles:

• Championing an appropriate mix of academic and personal development;
• Prioritising the physical and mental well-being of children;
• Acquiring values, attitudes and concepts which support children to become socially aware; tolerant, equitable and respectful of the diverse cultures and beliefs of others in modern society;
• Maximising opportunities to develop lively, enquiring minds with the ability to question,  and the resilience to problem-solve and reason;
• Promoting understanding of the world we inhabit and the responsibility we share to contribute positively to this as global citizens, as well as members of a local community;
• Empowering children to use their literacy, oracy and digital communication skills to purposefully share and articulate their learning with others;
• Enriching the curriculum with first hand experiences, pertinent educational visits and expert visitors to capitalise on opportunities for learning outside of the classroom.

   

Implementation of our Curriculum

At Fellside, subject coordinators, supported by senior leaders are responsible for curriculum design.  Long-term curriculum overviews outline the curriculum structure for each year group, with carefully planned units of learning in place to afford meaningful coherence, as well as inclusion of key themes that provide a reoccurring line of enquiry throughout.  Our history curriculum, for example, is written to reflect inclusion of the study of chronology, sources, society, change and legacy.  In this way, children are supported to make relevant connections with their prior learning, and within lessons, learning is carefully sequenced to support the children to know more and remember more.

Subject coordinators, supported by senior leaders, have ensured that all teachers are familiar with curriculum concepts and expectations through training and monitoring.  Our curriculum implementation is firmly underpinned by a structure of expected progression in knowledge and skills applicable to each subject and each year group.  The focus is on ensuring that outcomes can be achieved by all pupils.

 The Impact of our Curriculum

Class teachers routinely evaluate the progress of pupils within and across lessons using our curriculum frameworks to make judgements.  They use this information to analyse how effectively pupils are achieving expectations.  Subject coordinators and senior leaders routinely evaluate the summative outcomes of curriculum areas to identify any necessary actions that develop the quality of provision in their subject; to moderate assessments; and to benchmark outcomes against expectations. The impact of Fellside’s curriculum can be seen in children’s books and the outcomes for all groups of pupils within the school. Pupils’ progress is measured through ongoing assessment and through three key assessment points during the year. Work is planned to address misconceptions and gaps in learning are identified to ensure that the curriculum effectively meets the needs of all pupils.