Curriculum Statement

Curriculum Ambition

At Griffin Primary School, our ambition is to provide a curriculum for all of our students designed in response to what we already know about our children. Our over-arching goal is routed in promoting a positive attitude towards learning so that children enjoy coming to school, developing our children into life-long learners. Our curriculum is designed to provide all of our children with the core knowledge that helps them to make links between their prior and new knowledge, allowing them to develop a deeper understanding and be inspired to continue their learning outside of the classroom.

We aim to provide our children with stability through a consistent curriculum provision, allowing staff to become experts and build in assessment tools. The curriculum is sequenced effectively to enable prior knowledge to be built upon both throughout and across year groups. At the heart of our curriculum there lies a respect for all of the subjects we teach and how this provides our children with an insight into the world around us.

At Griffin we teach children how to develop their behaviours and habits to become effective learners through asking questions in order to develop their curiosity. Griffin’s curriculum has been developed so that our children are not afraid to make mistakes and accept ways forward as support rather than criticism.

By the time the children leave Griffin, our ambition is to ensure that they have the necessary skills in Mathematics, English and communication so that they will become positive citizens in their community and the wider world.

Curriculum Implementation

Our curriculum is broad and inclusive, taking into account the life experiences of our children, providing them all with equal opportunities to achieve, and by effectively using assessment to shape their future learning opportunities.

The implementation is through a number of elements, outlined below:

• Long Term Plans
• Subject schemes of work
• Year group schemes of work
• Remember when knowledge (recap of prior learning)
• Subject key vocabulary
• Progression of skills
• Sticky knowledge
• Assessment

The subject schemes of work are written by subject leaders to ensure learning is sequenced, building on prior knowledge and leading onto future learning.

The sticky knowledge forms small, progressive steps for each subject which builds to the ambitious end points for each unit of learning in each year group. This is assessed through sticky knowledge assessment questions, by pupil voice or by final outcomes.

At Griffin the National Curriculum (2014) objectives are sequenced across the whole school to ensure sufficient coverage, progression and depth.

Curriculum Impact

Children at Griffin will demonstrate the following characteristics and skills as a result of their time with us:

• Academic readiness: Children will know what it is to be ‘ready’ to learn and be prepared to continue this throughout their education in order for their good to be better, and better to be best.
• Character building: Children will understand the right way to treat and engage with people in the community around them in a positive manner.
• Wider experiences: Children will have experiences beyond those available to them as part of their everyday lives.
• Social and emotional preparation: Children will build skills and attitudes that prepare them to participate and positively contribute to life in modern Britain.

Our formative assessment is tailored to the needs of the children at Griffin, allowing them to achieve fluency across each subject. Across the academic year, the school collects and reviews pupil progress three times. Progress is monitored for every child, through them knowing more and remembering more of the curriculum.

In lessons, the children are assessed on their sticky knowledge in order to embed this in their long-term memory. We are particularly conscious of the role that vocabulary plays in unlocking the whole curriculum, ensuring that teachers explicitly teach subject specific language.

Curriculum Enhancements

We offer a range of experiences which contribute to all children receiving a full and rich curriculum and providing opportunities to develop basic life skills, which they may not have access to at home. These also enable pupils to develop and discover their interests and talents.

We are proud that our curriculum gives our children the skills, confidence and self-belief to lead a happy and fulfilled life by encouraging them to aim high and work towards their goals and dreams in life.

The range of experiences we offer support and champion our culture and ensures that our children benefit from a full range of academic, spiritual, moral, social and cultural activities.

If you would like to find out more about our curriculum, please contact the school office in the first instance.