Southwold Curriculum 2022-24
Southwold Primary Curriculum
Southwold Primary School’s curriculum is designed to ensure depth and breadth of learning is happening throughout the school in all subject areas. Our curriculum is logically planned and sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge and skills for future learning and employment. Planning for all learning in our school is follows the National Curriculum Programme of Study and the statutory end of key stage frameworks.
Spiral Curriculum
Our curriculum is based on a spiral curriculum. This means that children revisit key knowledge, understanding and skills in different contexts throughout their current year group and across the whole school curriculum with increasing difficulty and challenge.
This approach to teaching and knowledge retention was developed by Jerome Bruner and is based on the idea that fundamental ideas are repeatedly presented throughout the curriculum, but with deepening levels of difficulty. This style of curriculum design reduces the amount of knowledge lost through forgetting, as topics are revisited yearly.
This ‘spiralling approach’ allows pupils the opportunity to develop a ‘mastery’ of knowledge and skills because they are challenged on what they already know as well as being introduced to new content.
We have however, chosen to use a number of curriculum schemes to ensure our children have access to a broad curriculum which expands their knowledge and skills beyond the minimum expectations and which gives them opportunities to develop a love of learning so that they ‘flourish’.
The curriculum resources we have chosen, support our curriculum rationale and our teachers with the planning, delivery and assessment of our high quality, inspiring curriculum.
This ensures that all of our teachers are delivering a consistently high standard of teaching which ensures progression and rooted in sound pedagogy and up-to-date research.
We have carefully selected published schemes which use a spiral approach to learning based on the work of Jerome Bruner; The Spiral approach ensures that learning is revisited so that children are able to build on prior knowledge to ensure learning is retained.
Our Learning Environment
Our teachers create an environment that focuses on pupil’s learning. The learning environment is a tool that children use to enable them to progress through our spiral curriculum. Children can see around them a reflection of their learning journey. Classrooms are designed to be accessible for all children. They focus on learning with scaffolded approaches displayed alongside modelled examples in Phonics, Writing, Reading and Maths.
At Southwold Primary School, reading is celebrated everywhere in our environment it is prioritised to allow children to access the full curriculum offer and we aim to embed a love of reading within all of our children.
Classrooms are designed to enable access to a range of books, vocabulary is displayed and language, across the curriculum, is celebrated. We recognise that within our school community we have children who speak a number of different languages. Our teachers make sure their own speaking, listening, writing and reading of English, supports children in developing language and vocabulary well.
Learning for all
Our curriculum is successfully adapted and developed to be ambitious and meet the needs of children with SEN and/or disabilities, developing their knowledge, skills and abilities to apply what they know and can do with increasing fluency and independence. For our children with SEND we do this by carefully monitoring progress and next steps, however small. We work closely with parents to discuss starting points and plan unique learning pathways. We recognise that for children to learn, they must have their basic needs met and feel at ease in the environment. We listen to our children and find out what helps them learn. Our SENCO works in partnership with class teachers and teaching assistants to ensure all our children study the full curriculum; it’s not narrowed and children are given the opportunity to succeed.
Assessment of Learning
Children have opportunities to revisit prior learning through ongoing assessment techniques. Children complete regular quizzes to test the current and prior learning through the 3 Questions (one question from current learning, last term and a previous year) for individual subjects and an end of term quiz across all foundation subjects.
We recognise that deep learning takes place when children are given the opportunity to revisit knowledge and therefore embed learning. Ongoing assessment is used to ensure children learn more and remember more. The sequenced curriculum ensures that children have the knowledge and skills they need to progress to the next stage of learning and the end points for each subject are outlined for each year group.
Impact of our Curriculum
At Southwold Primary School, we have high expectations for teaching and learning. Our children are encouraged to read widely and often, with fluency, comprehension and enjoyment. They are able to apply mathematical knowledge, concepts and procedures and are enthusiastic about investigating, using and applying their maths skills and knowledge. Our children develop detailed knowledge and skills across the curriculum and, as a result, this is reflected in our children’s work, outcomes and how they talk about their learning experiences. We celebrate all of our children and their achievements. Children with SEND are well-supported and achieve the best possible outcomes including understanding of their emotional regulation and confidence in themselves. Our children enjoy being at school and develop a love of learning, they are enthusiastic, caring, empathetic and good citizens. As a result, our children are ready for the next stages of their education. We are extremely proud of all our children!
Please find more details of the school curriculum to the left of the page and how each subject will be covered in the next year including specific knowledge, skills and vocabulary for each year group. Please click on the subject links for more information for each subject.