Learning and Growing; Safe in God’s Love

Our Curriculum

At Birchington CE Primary School, our curriculum has been designed to meet the needs of our pupils through interesting and engaging learning opportunities. Our approach and curriculum design stems from the words of our Christian Vision. Our curriculum includes but expands beyond the statutory expectations of the subject specific National Curriculum. Its design also encompasses three other main areas, the whole school curriculum, the local curriculum and the hidden curriculum. This design meets our vision of equipping our pupils with the foundations they need to flourish on their life journey. Our pupils are enveloped in an environment of safety, nurture, respect and ambition.

Our curriculum design allows teachers flexibility within timetabling to support pedagogical methods.

Birchington CE Primary School is situated in the coastal village of Birchington-On-Sea. We are very fortunate to be able to use our local area, with national and global themes, to assist in creating exciting, active and concrete learning opportunities for our pupils.

Our Curriculum Intent

As a Church of England school, we have created an aspirational curriculum that is engaging, balanced, inspiring and specific to our pupils and their local area. Every child has the opportunity to develop the skills and values they need to become a successful and fulfilled member of society and have the confidence to make a difference.
Through our Christian Vision and School Values, we are committed to developing each child’s unique potential by focusing on the ‘whole’ child. Our pupils reach their best academically, develop a thirst for knowledge, foster a love of learning and leave our school ready for their next phase. We strive to deliver wide and varied learning experiences both within and beyond the classroom. The stimulating, creative and sequential curriculum promotes success. Quality first teaching provides opportunities for pupils to flourish and be successful in a safe and calm environment.

Our Curriculum Implementation

Our school has created our own bespoke, sequenced curriculum which is designed to meet the requirements of the EYFS Framework and National Curriculum Programmes of Study. It is tailored to the needs of our pupils and school community. Our Concepts Skills, Knowledge & Progression Guide (CSKPG) informs curriculum planning and ensures this is both broad and balanced. Curriculum implementation makes good use of our local area and gives purpose for children’s learning. Our pupils are provided with opportunities that develop skills and knowledge which can be used in the next stage of their school journey and in life. Our Christian Vision,
School Values and ethos and our school’s emotional environment are all intrinsic to children’s learning. Pupil experiences are an important part of our curriculum so knowledge can be deepened and learning links made. Our curriculum is designed so that its implementation gives children opportunities to develop their substantive
and disciplinary knowledge and reach specific end points that can be assessed effectively. Pupils of all abilities are challenged and supported appropriately. There is also flexibility within timetabling so subjects can be taught daily, weekly and in blocks.

At Birchington CE Primary School we strive to ensure that all our pupils, irrespective of their starting point, flourish and achieve through our aspirational curriculum.
By introducing Bloom’s Taxonomy to our planning and delivery, we aim to develop our pupils’ higher order cognitive skills leading to strong, banked knowledge that our pupils can retrieve beyond our teaching.
Within our classrooms, our pupils are familiar with the vocabulary related to Bloom’s Taxonomy and they use this to articulate how they are learning. Our pupils understand that the cognitive skills that they are using, cross over many subjects and are not stand alone subject specific skills. This develops and strengthens our pupils’ synapses, thus promoting knowledge that is banked in to their long-term memory and will support them in their life long learning journey.

Our Curriculum Impact

The Leadership Team, Hubs, Subject Leaders, teachers and teaching assistants all play different roles in ensuring our curriculum has maximum impact for every pupil. Leaders evaluate and monitor overall impact which is essential for our curriculum’s continued development.
Medium Term Plans are reviewed and adapted so learning is rich and engaging and teaching leads to high standards. Monitoring of impact is carried out in a variety of ways, including watching and feedback, learning walks and gathering ‘pupil voice’. Planning and book scrutiny also assist Leaders in targeting training, supporting colleagues and identifying next steps for improvement.
Success is measured through summative assessment and the tracking of individual pupils and pupil groups within each subject area. It is also measured through the children’s’ preparedness for the next phase of learning and for life. Teacher assessment is moderated within Year Groups, Key Stages and across the whole school as well as alongside other schools. External moderation also forms part of this process.