Our Learning Vision

Our Curriculum Vision

We believe at East Claydon C of E School that learning should be serious fun – our school should be a thriving place for learning where children are supported and challenged to push their boundaries and achieve more than they thought possible. Our guiding thought for this comes from this quote:

‘It is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things no one can imagine' – Alan Turing

When children have completed their school career and entered adult life, they’ll be judged not by performance on basic skills tests – but rather, by the quality of their work and the quality of their character. We are clear that learning is more than just the content of the curriculum and the knowledge that children retain, it is vital that we complement our academic curriculum with other skills and opportunities for children to develop into:

• Resilient learners - Showing commitment to developing independence and to the challenges they face.
• Responsible individuals - Showing respect for themselves, other communities and culture and property.
• Compassionate Citizens - Showing empathy, understanding and sensitivity to others.

These values link directly to our Christian values of Love, Commitment and Respect.

Using our 3 core curriculum drivers (Challenge, Contribution and Spirituality) we will ensure that the curriculum we design meets the need of our pupils and the local community.

Curriculum Intent – what should our curriculum look like?

The breadth of our curriculum is designed with three goals in mind:

To give pupils appropriate experiences to develop as resilient learners, responsible individuals and compassionate citizens, we have developed core curriculum drivers that shape our curriculum and reflect the values of our school:

• Challenge – to create resilient learners, our curriculum should be more than just the regurgitation of facts from a class teacher and to make sense of information that comes their way, our children have to do something to / with it. Children have to think, and, be asked to process the information so that they have an active attitude to learning and an active attitude to thinking.
• Contribution – developing responsible individuals is a core outcome of our education.  This driver makes sure that we understand the how individuals and groups can make a positive difference to themselves and the wider world.  Our children should be able understand how their actions make a difference and that these actions can have positive and negative consequences., through social action, and charitable contribution.
• Spirituality – nurturing compassionate citizens requires that a goal of our curriculum is to develop our learners as reflective, thoughtful and empathetic members of society.  This driver makes sure that we include opportunities for reflection on our beliefs and those of others.

To provide a coherent, structured, academic curriculum that leads to positive outcomes for all and will support children to develop a greater knowledge and understanding. Our curriculum, underpinned by our four core drivers, sets out:

1. To ensure children develop and rich and deep subject knowledge.
2. A clear list of the breadth of key content for the skills, knowledge and vocabulary that will be covered.
3. Academic goals for each subject provide the criteria for progression.
4. The level of understanding towards academic goals, develops over time and with repetition and development.
5. It allows children to see clear links between different aspects of their learning.

To provide a rich ‘cultural capital’ Cultural capital is the essential knowledge that pupils need to become well-informed individuals after they leave school. The background should be a limiting factor in any child’s access to the best that has been thought, said or done.

Implementing the Curriculum

Our long-term plans ensure a balanced diet of all subjects rather than a narrow meal of English and Maths. Each term has linked texts that support development of knowledge and exposure to high-quality literacy stimulus.

The timetable is flexible to meet the needs of the curriculum as it develops. The range of subjects covered each week may vary according to the requirement of the knowledge and skills being developed, with the aim of creating authentic and deep learning experiences.

Principles of Implementation

 The implementation of our curriculum will be underpinned by three core elements:

• Privileged thinking over task completion – the completion of the task is never more important than ensuring that something has been learnt. Anything that we give our children must make then think and should not be about completing a task.
• Leading to mastery – through teaching over time, are materials given to the children giving them the opportunity in due course to be able to show their learning in a different context independently.
• Is it beautiful – Are any materials fit for purpose and of high quality? Is the information given accurate and correct, is the quality what our children really deserve?

Curriculum Impact

 The goal of the curriculum is sustained mastery - nothing is learned unless it rests in pupils’ long-term memories. This does not happen, and cannot be assessed, in the short term. Assessment, therefore answers two main questions:

• ‘How well are pupils coping with curriculum content?
• ‘How well are they retaining previously taught content?’

Teachers will look at pupils’ work and listen to what children say, this is where the real information lies in relation to curriculum impact. Comparative judgements are used to assess which pieces of work are stronger, and why, so that analysis occurs on where children are and what they need to do next.