Curriculum
Be prepared. Be ready!
Nether Edge Intent Statement
We want every child at Nether Edge to flourish: to be safe, happy and healthy, to achieve across all subjects, to play a positive part in their school and wider community and to be excited and engaged in their learning. We call this the SHAPE of our school. Through a wide range of learning opportunities, we want children to leave our school engaged and confident learners with a variety of skills that ensure they have options for successful futures. Our curriculum is firmly rooted in our local community. Our curriculum intent covers the breadth of the National Curriculum. Its design is based on research evidence and our trust curriculum principles.
Reading and vocabulary are at the very core of our curriculum. All subjects are sequenced and iteratively designed so that learning is built upon throughout school. We are explicit in how current learning links to, and builds upon, previous learning. We recognise learning as a change in long-term memory and therefore if nothing has been remembered, nothing has been learnt. As such, all lessons begin with a Remember More task. This is carefully planned retrieval practice that checks for retention and provides the opportunity to give reminders and prompts to reinforce learning. Retrieval activities can take many forms so that pupils have the opportunity to draw on memories and experiences.
At Nether Edge, our curriculum is delivered in four carefully constructed cycles of learning. This allows pupils to explore foundation subjects in more depth over the ten-week blocks. The prisms of reading, writing, maths and oracy are drawn into other areas of the curriculum to optimise learning, and vice versa. For example, when history is a driver of the curriculum, pupils will pre-learn elements of history knowledge and vocabulary in the morning through carefully designed reading anthologies and reading lessons. They learn the knowledge of history through the lens of reading, as well as key vocabulary in context. This makes learning purposeful and meaningful as schema are built and pupils therefore recognise tangible links in learning when drawing on different elements of learning and different points throughout the day.
Subjects are carefully planned to contextualise learning for our community and for the present day. Key figures and role models have been carefully selected to learn about so that pupils see themselves represented in the curriculum. We bring learning to life by welcoming members of our community into school to share their careers and how that links to pupils’ learning. The golden thread of the equalities is woven through our curriculum and offers children the chance to learn about difference in our world and build understanding, tolerance, co-operation, empathy and appreciation skills.
Oracy is woven through our curriculum as we recognize the fundamental need for children to be able to articulate themselves, their thoughts and needs clearly, as well as to be able to engage in more complex conversations. In the classroom, ‘Say It Better’ boards share carefully planned, progressive sentence starters that support children to articulate their thinking and reasoning. All interactions are based around maximizing this opportunity. For example, at lunch times in our Le Monde dining room, children might share a ‘book spot’ or their thoughts on the Newsround clip they shared in class that morning. We encourage children to be ‘loud and proud’.
As a result of our curriculum, we want:
- Avid readers, with reading used as a tool for learning in every subject.
- Children who can articulate well through speaking, using subject-specific vocabulary.
- Children who understand they are part of an interconnected world which they have the power and opportunity to influence for the better.
- All teaching and learning to alter children’s long-term memory.
Our curriculum is supported and enhanced by a range of providers, including: