Curriculum Intent

Crow Orchard Curriculum Intent

At Crow Orchard Primary School, our curriculum has been carefully crafted to develop the whole child.  From the moment children embark on their school journey with us, we aim to develop their academic, social and cultural capital through our inspiring and challenging curriculum.  We aim for all pupils to become the best they can be and leave our school family as confident, happy, responsible citizens of the world.  Our school is a true community school with a warmth that permeates the whole building.  The family ethos of our school is our great advantage and it lies in the heart of all our classes. 

Ultimately, our curriculum is borne out of our purpose - to provide children with firm foundations and to ignite a passion for life-long learning.  Our intent is to develop the essential knowledge, skills and understanding which are the building blocks for later life.  We recognise children’s prior learning and always strive to build on this so that they make the best possible progress. In order to build resilience and become creative, independent, critical thinkers we continually provide first hand learning experiences which allow the children to develop their problem solving and interpersonal skills.

Our whole school curriculum is bespoke to our school.  It has been well planned and structured to allow for the progression of skills, knowledge and understanding year on year.   Indeed, our bespoke rolling programme has been designed with some mixed-age classes in mind.  Always evolving, we regularly review and evaluate our curriculum too, adapting and changing to match current educational developments. 

To instil a love of learning and thirst for knowledge, we are committed to providing pupils with a rich, broad and balanced curriculum.  We constantly provide enrichment opportunities to engage learning. We believe that childhood should be a happy, investigative and enquiring time, where there are no limits to curiosity and there is a thirst for new experiences and knowledge.  Our curriculum is fully accessible - every child is recognised as unique and we celebrate and welcome diversity and individuality.  Specific needs and learning styles are catered for with an individual approach which suits each child ensuring they reach their full potential.

At Crow Orchard, we use our motto of ‘Together we make a family’ alongside British Values to promote positive attitudes to learning which reflect the skills needed to allow the children to dream big and aspire to be anything they want to be. Community involvement is an integral part of our curriculum, inviting families and visitors in to help facilitate learning of new skills and sharing experiences such as assemblies and whole school events, ensures links are fostered and nurtured. 

Our intention is that children leave Crow Orchard with a strong sense of belonging to our family where they aspire to make decisions, self-evaluate and become lifelong learners.  We actively encourage our children to recognise that failure and making mistakes is part of the learning process, encouraging them to take risks. We teach them to be resilient through problem solving and enjoy taking time to celebrate their achievements.

Curriculum Design

In 2022 subject leader roles were reallocated. As the children are always at the heart of what we do it is with them that the process began. Children in KS2 completed questionnaires and Mrs Heath interviewed a selection of children from across the school in order to discover areas and subjects of immediate interest. 

Staff then spent time working as a team designing a bespoke curriculum specifically to meet the needs of our children. Following this, Mrs Heath (curriculum champion), met individually with each subject leader. Every new topic for each year group was systematically planned together ensuring: concise national curriculum links, clear end points, progression, possible community links, key vocabulary, clear links to British Values and evidence of previous and planned future learning.  

Involving parents

We are aware that all children need the support of parents and staff to make good progress in school. Strong positive relationships between school and every single family is crucial right from the start of the school journey. We invited parents to comment on what they thought our priorities should be via an online questionnaire. We aim to keep parents involved in their child’s learning experience by informing parents about the way in which the children are being taught and how well each child is progressing. The year always begins with a “Meet the teacher” either face to face or virtually.  We keep our families well informed through termly curriculum newsletters and the school website. Our parents/carers are also invited to use Seesaw; a communication platform between staff and carers.

Every Friday afternoon, there is an open invitation for parents to join us in a celebration assembly which celebrates our children’s successes. Our parents/carers have been intrinsic in developing our ‘Magic Eight’ school values.  These values underpin our curriculum offer and flow throughout our school.