Our Curriculum

Firs Primary School is committed to ensuring all children are able to access a knowledge-rich, broad and balanced curriculum with teaching and learning being at the heart of the delivery of the curriculum. It aims to be bold, free thinking and rigorous; underpinned by a commitment to the school values, ensuring equity, learner empowerment and encouraging social mobility. 

An essential element of our knowledge rich curriculum is the development of a broad and rich vocabulary, and the ambitious and explicit teaching of this.  A renewed focus on speech and language is a key driver of the curriculum and this is supported by the Voice21 scheme to develop oracy in the classroom.

Intent

At Firs Primary School we ensure our curriculum is not only tailored to our pupils’ interests and needs but also ensures they are Ready for Learning and Ready for Life in the wider world. We believe in subject based lessons where pupils can articulate and have a passion for subject based learning.

We have ensured that our provision is carefully sequenced and knowledge-rich which aims to inspire pupils and promote excellent outcomes for all children. 

Four key elements underpin our curriculum design:

• 1. Scope - we ensure complete National Curriculum coverage in all subjects.
• 2. Coherence - we ensure common threads run through all subjects.
• 3. Sequence - we ensure knowledge and skills are progressive and built on solid foundations of understanding.
• 4. Academic rigour - we ensure the right level of challenge for ALL children deeply develops specific subject         knowledge.   

A knowledge-rich curriculum at Firs Primary School:

• We place powerful knowledge at the heart of the curriculum.
• We carefully chose the content.
• We organise the curriculum in a coherent way, ensuring it builds from year to year.
• We ensure it is cumulative, constructing firm foundations from which children can build conceptual understanding and skills over time.
• We ensure it is inclusive and an entitlement for every child, regardless of background.
• We deliver a coherent and ensures that teaching does not jump from topic to topic, but enables children to develop knowledge and a love of learning.

Implementation

We continually work with our teachers, Subject Leaders and WHMAT leaders to develop our curriculum offer and share the vision for our knowledge-rich curriculum; this is embedded deeply through effective training and professional development opportunities focused on subject knowledge and pedagogy. 

Firs Foundation of Effective Practice ensures we have a whole school approach to delivering our curriculum vision.  The Foundations provide staff with a Teaching and Learning model to ensure we deliver lessons based on research evidence and cognitive science.  Our Senior Leaders work hard to highlight the development areas of the curriculum with staff and this focuses on; what we do well and what we could do even better.  High quality CPD, to support and develop teacher subject knowledge and pedagogy, ensures planning and resources equips our teachers to deliver a high quality curriculum.

All children are taught through the National Curriculum subjects, these are:

• English
• Maths
• Science
• Computing
• PSHE/RSE
• RE
• Art and Design
• History
• Geography
• Music
• Design and Technology
• Physical Education
• Modern Foreign Language – French.

Subject Leaders follow an evidence based approach using EEF research.

Impact

The aims of our powerful, rich, knowledge curriculum for our children:

• To be knowledgeable about content and the world around them.
• To transform their minds so that they are able to make reasonable and informed judgements.
• To ensure they can engage fruitfully in conversation and debate.
• To develop confidence that comes from possessing a store of essential knowledge and the skills.
• To have a sub-set of knowledge and the accompanying vocabulary that will maximise their chances of leading rich and fulfilling lives.
• Ensure children are ready for the next stage of their development – Ready For Learning and Ready For Life.

Young et al (2017) identifies a Future 3 powerful knowledge curriculum, which is forever open to change through debates, research and expert leaders.  

At Firs we ensure we know and understand ourselves well, to ensure we develop powerful knowledge children to act or think in a different way – Subject Leaders review the curriculum offer continuously.  We use Data Driven Instruction to ensure school leaders and teachers analyse, review and evolve the delivery of the curriculum based on identified gaps in learning.  

Through our Subject Leaders at Firs we ensure:  

• we deliver substantive knowledge that opens the most doors for ALL children.
• we develop children’s knowledge to understand and interpret the world.
• we grow children into becoming good citizens – cultural capital.
• our Subject Leaders create subject communities to continually evolve subject understanding and purpose.
• we build on solid foundations of knowledge – progression over a period of time.
• there is an emphasis on sequencing when planning our curriculum. Our curriculum is designed to help pupils remember what they have been taught.
• planning of spaced learning and retrieval practice delivers a knowledge rich curriculum – Firs Foundations of Effective Practice.
• we attend carefully to pupils’ learning: ensuring they develop their knowledge of themselves as learners, of strategies, and of tasks.
• Subject Leaders subject curriculums are well-sequenced and are underpinned by an understanding of how children learn – cognitive science and pedagogy (Firs Foundations of Effective Practice).  
• Subject Leaders ensure a planned curriculum approach and planned assessment approach is completely aligned.

A Planned Curriculum Approach

A curriculum exists to change the pupil, to give the pupil new power driving social justice reforms.

• Knowledge being the philosophy – the more our children know the more powerful they will become. Teachers plan to develop knowledge and ensure children know more about the world around them.  Through effective pedagogy teachers ensure children build schema and are able to embed knowledge deeply.
• Range of Knowledge forms – at Firs children receive a blended experience to develop understanding and learning; we develop learners in different ways. Stimulating classroom delivery, school visits, fabulous experiences, after-school clubs, planned development of Oracy and a curriculum underpinned by reading develop rounded children and Cultural Capital at Firs. 
• Knowledge in detail – exactly children should know allows our children to build and develop schema quicker. The use of direct instruction and a teacher’s ability to go deeper over a shorter period of time develops knowledge of children.
• Sequence, map and plan for knowledge – ensuring knowledge is built on solid foundations and becomes progressive over time is a key driver of the curriculum at Firs. Planning between Key Stages and Phases ensures work is progressive over time and deepens knowledge. 
• Knowledge to be remembered and revisited – building storage strength and retrieval strength embeds learning in the long term memory. The planning of the curriculum works alongside the planned assessment approach, to ensure learning is regularly returned to and recalled to develop schema.

A Planned Assessment Approach:

Effective planned assessment allows us to check on the progress of OUR curriculum.

• Generating study resources – at Firs planned resources ensure assessment is planned for; knowledge organisers, reading material and structured notes are examples of the activities teachers use.
• Planning for Spaced Practice – revisiting learning over a period of time deepens learning and understanding. Assessment planning ensures children have time to pause and look back and reflect; providing children with the opportunity to build schema. 
• Delivering explicit Retrieval Practice activities – delivering explicit activities daily, weekly, fortnightly, half termly and termly ensures children can embed learning. Making connections with other subjects through the use of brain quizzes, flashcards and knowledge organisers further allows children to develop recall and retention.
• Exploring gaps and errors – teachers at Firs use assessment to identify common gaps in learning and ensure children are able to ‘keep up’ and ‘keep ahead' through effective support and interventions.
• Pupil Progress Meetings – these meetings allow for effective dialogue between Senior Leaders and the class teacher. The meetings focus on four key drivers to ensure we deliver a powerful knowledge curriculum.  The four key drivers of Pupil Progress Meetings:

– Data Driven Instruction; what is the data telling us, what gaps need to be addressed?

– Intervention; how is this being delivered, is this evidence based, how do we measure impact?

– Curriculum / Organisation; reviewing the sequencing of the curriculum and timetable adjustments to support identified gaps in learning.

– Pedagogy; reviewing teaching and learning delivery.  How are our teachers continuing to develop schema through recall and retention strategies?