Our curriculum
Our vision is to create a curriculum that encourages children to discover, explore and create. We want to help each child flourish into a caring, confident and resilient young person who has a love of learning. We will do this by upholding high aspirations through our innovative and inspiring approach to teaching and learning.
Our curriculum is closely designed around our vision statement and has been developed to support the individual needs of our community. Encompassed within our vision, is the need for children to be exposed to a range of topics and experiences that broadens their understanding and equips them with the skills our children need to be confident, resilient, life-long learners who reach their full potential.
‘It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.’ – Albert Einstein
We have a cross-curricular topic approach to learning, planning enlivening and relevant topics which immerse the children in a variety of ways. A curriculum that is literacy and language rich is a must for our school if we are to open doors for our children. We therefore place a high focus on developing children’s vocabulary, using quality texts to do this.
We have spent a considerable amount of time looking at our long term curriculum and ensuring that it meets the needs of our pupils and that it allows them to secure relevant knowledge, skills and understanding over time.
As a maintained primary school we have to ensure that we teach the statutory content of The National Curriculum. However, we have an additional six core aspects that are part of our curriculum that we believe are important for the children in our schools.
Spirituality
Spirituality is an important part of our curriculum. We consider the following areas when thinking about spirituality in our schools:
- A sense of awe and wonder
- A time to pause and reflect
- Love and care for the living world
- Ask big questions
- Celebrating life’s joys and achievements
We ensure that time is built into our curriculum to allow children to explore big questions and moral dilemmas. These sessions enable children to know they are of immense worth and that they can make a valuable contribution to their school community and the wider world.
Outdoor Learning
We look for opportunities to embrace our our local area, ensuring children to learn to understand and appreciate the wonders and beauty of nature. We want to spend time learning beyond the classroom; to explore and discover. Our aim is for each school within the federation to have their own allotment area in which children will look after.
Producing fruits and vegetables that they will use in their food technology lessons. We also aim for children to spend time using the outdoor area to enhance the learning in their current topic – whether that is a trip down to the river or looking for bugs under stones!
Metacognition
Children have an opportunity to think and talk about learning every week in our weekly ‘Learnology’ sessions.
‘There appears to be a new notion that an appreciation of ‘how’ students learn is at least as important as ‘what’ they learn’. – Beere.
The sessions allow children to understand themselves as learners and to know about the process of learning. Children have opportunities to look at lifelong learning skills such as collaboration, empathy, resilience and many more…
Why it is important?
At the heart of Learnology is a fundamental belief that education is about preparing children for life beyond the walls of the classroom. It is about helping them to build up the mental, emotional, social and strategic resources so that they can enjoy challenges and cope well with uncertainty and complexity.
This is particularly relevant in a society that is full of change, risk, opportunity and complexity. Learnology is not a quick fix or a bolt on but should be seen as a way of refreshing our thinking about the culture in our schools.
Diversity
We recognise the importance of preparing our children for life in modern Britain. We will continue to celebrate diversity through our inclusive community. We will forge strong links with contrasting communities and look for learning opportunities beyond The Dales.
We have a strong link with Horton Grange Academy in Bradford and meet with them twice a year to do joint learning projects.
Healthy Living
Promoting healthy living is a key feature within our schools. Through our excellence in sports, lessons in food technology and promoting a growth mindset, we are helping our children to develop healthy bodies and minds. We have a cookery teacher that works across the federation providing practical workshops for children and parents.
Every week our children have access to a PE specialist teacher who teaches a PE as part of our federation working. In addition, key stage 2 pupils swim at Upper Wharfedale on a rotation. We take part in cluster sporting events.
We work closely with Compass Buzz – a mental healthy charity based in North Yorkshire and Early Help who provide training for schools about supporting vulnerable children and families with mental health issues. We have two designated people within the federation, Mrs Brambleby (Burnsall and Grassington) and Miss Vetch (Kettlewell and Cracoe) who are our pastoral support workers, a point of contact for families in need.