School Curriculum Statement for the Primary Phase 

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Curriculum Intent 

Our curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced to be ambitious for all pupil groups and ensures breadth, depth and balance. The curriculum incorporates the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum, enriched by other experiences and opportunities, to allow children to explore their place and role, both within their own and the global community. The aim of our curriculum is to instil a love of learning in our pupils enabling them to gain the requisite skills to be successful, independent and motivated learners, in readiness for their next stage of education and beyond. 

Implementation 

Our promise is that all our teachers will have good knowledge of the subjects they teach and, as a result, present subject matter clearly, promoting appropriate discussion about the topics they are teaching. They will check learners’ understanding systematically, identify misconceptions accurately and provide clear, direct feedback. In doing so, they will respond and adapt their teaching as necessary, to enable the highest possible outcomes for all pupil groups.  

Teaching and planned opportunities for revisiting prior learning will be designed to help learners to remember in the long term, the content they have been taught and to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts. To inform planning and enhance pupil progress, teachers and leaders will use assessment well, identifying gaps, checking understanding and helping learners to embed and use knowledge fluently. 

Teachers will strive to create a rich and safe environment to allow all pupils to focus on and enjoy learning. The resources and materials that teachers select will reflect the school’s ambitious intentions for all children and clearly support our intention to develop skills for future learning and employment.  

Our rigorous approach to the teaching of reading will develop learners’ confidence and enjoyment in reading. At the early stages of learning to read, reading materials will be closely matched to learners’ phonic knowledge.  

Our curriculum is inclusive and, from Year 1 onwards, integrates the requirements of the National Curriculum with enrichment opportunities. It is designed to meet the needs of our children as future citizens and equip them with the foundations for life. Alongside the National Curriculum we will follow the Devon and Torbay Agreed RE syllabus and promote positive mental health and wellbeing through our Jigsaw PSHE lessons. As well as our academic curriculum, we will ensure learning is supported by relevant educational visits and visitors, overnight residential visits, assemblies, charity days and responding to events in the news.  

The outdoor environment and the local community are an opportunity for active learning for all our pupils. As the school grows and develops, there will be a range of clubs and enrichment activities to further develop the individual interests of the pupils. These are a vital part of the children’s development as lifelong learners and ensure individual talents are nurtured and celebrated.  

Curriculum Impact 

The main source of impact will always remain the quality and breadth of work seen in pupils’ books and the learning environment. As a special school, we are striving to raise the expectation of learners and the quality of work they produce from a rounded and connected curriculum. We will ensure there are always opportunities for application of learning within and across subject disciplines. 

We believe our children will all possess unique talents, skills and qualities. As such, they have the right to succeed, the right to recognise their own greatness and the right to develop who they are in a respectful and nurturing environment. Our school ethos is firmly rooted in our values with a love of learning being the foundation of everything we do.