Furness Primary School

The intent of our curriculum is:

To inspire all children to become successful, resilient, life-long learners through an inclusive , broadly balanced and challenging curriculum as an important means of producing critical thinking, self-respecting, self-disciplined, literate, numerate and well-balanced youngsters who will be able to have access to a range of opportunities in the years to follow.

IMPLEMENTATION OF OUR CURRICULUM:

Explore: used at the start of each topic / lesson to gauge/ engage, set a context and motivate children about the new learning that will take place. They are used as a point to generate questions, enabling where possible for the interest / prior knowledge of the children to be taken into consideration.

Explain: the opportunity to deconstruct and construct concepts to develop pupils’ understanding. It is used to render understandable learning objectives ; this window also addresses identified gaps in pupils' learning. 

Examples, Expansion and Enrichment: used to consolidate, stretch and expose pupils to the rich content where they have the opportunity to demonstrate the transference of knowledge, understanding or skills. This is deliberate to support pupils’ long-term memory.

Whilst subjects are recognised individually, and children know what they learn in each subject, they are taught under the umbrella of a particular topic. This enables the children to create links between different subjects, develop and apply skills in a range of contexts.

Whilst taught in a creative manner, our curriculum is designed to ensure that we cover all aspects of the national curriculum in an inclusive manner. As a school, it is a priority that the children receive a broad and balanced curriculum throughout the whole of their school journey

• Cross-curricular teaching and teaching with real world experiences, such as using trips and visitors is integral to our school curriculum. We believe it gives the children experiences that some within our context would otherwise not have. Extending learning with such opportunities makes learning more relevant to the children; creates greater positivity about learning and encourages the children to develop a love for learning.
• All work with the exception on maths science and English is celebrated within a topic book. As learning within all subjects incorporates a multi-sensory approach, evidence of learning is provided in a number of ways with a great emphasis on good presentation.
• Cooperative learning is used within our curriculum through the implementation of learning partners. This improves social skills and cooperativeness between pupils; ensures that all pupils are actively engaged in their learning; supports all academic abilities and means that children become less reliant on the class teacher for support.
• Within the year, whole school theme weeks such as Maths, Science, Well-being etc… are built into our curriculum. This prioritises different subjects and gives the children opportunities to deepen their knowledge, develop skills at a higher level and often try something new.
• We have developed a more exploratory and problem solving approach to our curriculum in order to develop resilience. Children experience success and failure in a safe and supportive environment. Growth mindset is actively promoted to nurture resilience in our pupils and cultivate the understanding that intelligence can be acquired through effort 
• Within our curriculum, we prepare the children for life in the real world by providing them with experiences to empathise, perform and communicate in the community. This supports the children in becoming well-rounded individuals, whilst building on their own self- esteem, confidence and mental health.
• Our curriculum is enhanced by a great range of extra- curricular activities, which are used to further children’s interests and learning; there is limited cost in order for them to be inclusive to all
• Our curriculum is further enhanced with the use of some specialist teaching to provide further opportunities for children in Spanish , music,  and PE
• Within our curriculum is our unique provision of swimming for all pupils from years 3 to 6 all year
• Our intervention structure (based on a fluid approach) means pupils are targeted promptly and their gaps urgently addressed

Evaluation:  used to celebrate children’s learning and achievements; create life long memories, which promote an enjoyable school culture

Assessment underpins how we measure impact. At Furness Primary School, we believe that assessment is fundamental to the progress and attainment of all pupils. It is integral to high quality teaching and learning. Assessment helps us to ensure that our teaching is appropriate and that children are making at least expected progress. FPS School assessment takes many forms including ongoing dialogue between teacher and child.

These principles underpin our implementation:

• the child at the centre of their learning;
• Daily assessment(RIA) is at the heart of outstanding teaching, which leads to outstanding learning, which leads to outstanding progress;
• provides clear evidence of children’s progress within each year group;
• consistent and compares results to both local and national standards.
• provides evidence of children who are not meeting, meeting and exceeding the standards for their year group and allows us to compare how groups of children are performing as well as how the school as a whole is performing against the national expected standards;
• provides feedback which recognises effort and suggests next steps towards deep and meaningful learning;
• focused on outcomes for children within and beyond the school day in partnership with parents and carers;
• it places achievement in context against nationally standardised criteria and expected standards criteria and expected standards for which schools and school leaders are accountable.
• It sets high expectations for all learners.