Curriculum

‘Love of Learning, Love of Life, Love of One Another’

We are a Primary School where everyone grows in mind, body and spirit, with the confidence to be aspirational, independent and creative learners who enjoy their work and achieve in all aspects of their life.

Across Ashlands Church of England Primary School we accept the widest possible definition of the word curriculum; “all that is experienced in school, whether planned or unplanned”.  This approach has our vision at the heart of it; ‘love of learning, love of life and love of one another’. 

We aim to deliver a curriculum that reflects, celebrates and serves the needs of the children within the community in which they are geographically and culturally located.  We value the importance of recognising the gaps in our pupils’ everyday experiences so that our curriculum ensures they are ready and equipped with the skills, attitudes, knowledge and understanding to enjoy their work and achieve in all aspects of their life.

Our curriculum ensures excellent coverage of the National Curriculum (Years 1-6) and Foundation Stage Early Years Curriculum (Reception Children).  We have fully embraced the higher expectations set out in both curriculums and have devised our own units of work for each subject area so that we can ensure a sound progression of learning. Our subject leaders are passionate about their curriculum areas. 

Our Reception pupils learn both indoors and outdoors, experiencing a range of adult led and child initiated activities.  We value and incorporate the children’s interests as they develop.  As children approach their final half term of Reception, they start to prepare for their transition to Year 1 and begin to experience Key Stage 1 learning.  In Years 1-6, we ensure that this ‘active’ and ‘engaging’ learning continues, with teachers maximising opportunities for use of the outdoors, talk time, active, visual and audio learning. 

At all times, we focus on learning being challenging, engaging and enjoyable.  We believe that children learn best when they are excited about their learning; for this reason, we teach a themed approach where possible.  Through making strong links across curriculum areas, children begin to make connections and the learning experience is much richer.   This is further supported by our daily aim to immerse children in words which go beyond a child’s average understanding (tier two words). 

We know that children achieve their potential when they are happy, have fun, feel nurtured and grow from a foundation of strong Christian and British Values.  The learning experience we provide is completed with the knowledge that each child is unique and special.  As a Church of England Primary School our values underpin everything we do.  Every child should leave our school with rich and happy memories, confidence and faith in their own unique qualities and that they will strive to do their best in everything they do.

Outdoor Learning

We are privileged to be able to educate our children in beautiful surroundings.  Our school has an amazing outdoor area which is regularly used by the school across all areas of the curriculum.

We encourage children to be responsible for, and respect, the local community and environment giving them a sense of belonging and ownership of the place in which they live. We explore and make full use of the local area, integrating subjects into the daily curriculum so that meaningful activities are planned and delivered effectively. We encourage children to identify, take and mitigate risks.

Visits and Visitors

In the curriculum we recognise that children’s learning is enhanced by different experiences. We offer children a wide range of educational visits which are used to motivate and engage learning and which bring to life and enrich topics and different areas of the curriculum. Regular visitors in school also give the children another perspective on values, attitudes, learning and understanding. These include charities, people with different faiths and beliefs, people working in different professions and those from our own local community.

Further Information

Please see the curriculum links on our websites, but be mindful that our curriculum is always evolving.  It may change if we are involved in new collaborations or projects, if we decide to focus on a child’s interests or if we need to keep pace with any social / educational changes.

 

Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.      Proverbs 22:6