Curriculum Intent

Our Curriculum

At Chaddesley Corbett, we nurture the whole child. Our curriculum recognises children’s prior learning experiences and is carefully designed to enrich and inspire pupils to become successful learners. We want our children to be resilient, confident, independent communicators who are knowledgeable and self-disciplined. The curriculum, and supplementary experiences at Chaddesley Corbett, are integral in developing these and supporting lifelong learning and future success.

Chaddesley Corbett has an ambitious curriculum which aims to meet the needs of all children in school and considers the community in which they live. We believe our children have a right to acquire the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to thrive in a modern world and to be the best they can be. We equip our children with core values and the essential knowledge that they need to be educated citizens, introducing them to the best that has been thought and said, and helping to engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement.

The curriculum is taught as discrete subjects. We do this as we want our children to understand each subject as an academic discipline. We want them to be immersed in a subject and feel inspired by what they learn within it. It is progressive, with the sequencing of knowledge and skills carefully considered. Knowledge builds on previous learning and progresses over units of work, both within and between year groups. This approach ensures knowledge is remembered and built upon, whilst ensuring conceptual understanding is deepened.

Our curriculum is designed to build upon the foundational knowledge and skills developed in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). In the EYFS, our curriculum aligns with the Early Learning Goals, ensuring that children develop the fundamental skills necessary for success in their later schooling. The emphasis in EYFS is on developing strong language and communication skills, social and emotional development, physical development and early mathematical and literacy knowledge. These areas form the core of our approach, supporting children to become confident, curious, and independent learners. Our curriculum in Key Stage 1 builds directly on the knowledge and skills established in EYFS. We ensure that knowledge is sequenced incrementally, allowing children to revisit, embed, and extend their understanding over time.

In addition, teachers build in retrieval tasks within their lessons and revisit prior learning which helps children to embed knowledge and make connections. Where content between subjects links, connections are also made between subjects. For instance, history is linked to art and geography. In art, children reinforce their work on Ancient Greece, Rome and Anglo-Saxon times by studying art from those periods. These units are taught after the history units so children have the prerequisite knowledge needed.

Primary Knowledge Curriculum

We have chosen to follow the Primary Knowledge Curriculum for Geography, History, Art and DT. This curriculum aligns with the national curriculum. It has been coherently planned and is well-sequenced, laying the foundations of knowledge in EYFS and building on this throughout the primary years. The broad curriculum is followed consistently by all pupils.

This knowledge-rich curriculum exposes children to ambitious content that has been highly specified and well-sequenced, leaving nothing to chance. A knowledge-rich curriculum ensures that each precious moment will support children in acquiring the knowledge, skills and cultural capital that they will need to become well-educated citizens of the future. Every historical figure encountered, philosophical idea grappled with, and scientific concept applied, fits neatly into a scheme of learning that holds a sense of purpose and develops logically from lesson to lesson, unit to unit and year to year. Through utilising cognitive science, and the psychology of learning, memory and schemata, a knowledge-rich curriculum is designed to ensure that the knowledge is taught to be remembered. At its core, a knowledge-rich curriculum enables all children, regardless of socio-economic background, to be provided with the opportunities to succeed in later life. Our curriculum has taken all the evidence and research into account to ensure that it incorporates the principles of spaced retrieval, formative “low-stakes” quizzing and plenty of practice to develop knowledge fluency that pursue mastery.

The Principles of the Primary Knowledge Curriculum

Knowledge is valued and specified
Knowledge is well sequenced
Knowledge is taught to be remembered

The content in the PKC curriculum has been carefully chosen by subject experts and has been sequenced in a meaningful way that enables all children to make connections and progress from unit to unit, term to term and year to year. It recognises and values each subject, ensuring that children develop a deep understanding and love of each distinct discipline. Where appropriate, links are made across disciplines to enable children to make meaningful connections. Our curriculum includes local history, geography, and other locally relevant subject content.

Wider Curriculum

Our pupils’ entitlement to a rich and varied curriculum is not limited to subjects. To widen our pupils’ experiences, we include a number of enrichment activities, including providing a variety of clubs, residentials and educational trips and visits to enhance learning and allow children to develop interests and life skills. We encourage an active involvement in school life through our Student Parliament; this includes an elected Prime Minster and Deputy Prime Minister, Eco minsters, Well Being ministers, Curriculum Ministers, Sports Ministers and Community Ministers. Children also get the opportunity be part of Rota Kids, supporting adults and their families in the local community. We also utilise the expert skills of wider agencies including the police and have very close links with the local church. We are fortunate to have an established forest school, which provides a wealth of learning opportunities beyond the classroom. Trained forest school leaders support children and staff to take risks in a managed and controlled manner. This style of learning promotes mental health and an ability to self-manage. Learning how to regulate emotions, reactions and responses in this non-threatening environment enables children to show resilience, even when things become tough.

CORE VALUES
Ambition
Individuality
Integrity
Service
Pride of Place

BRITISH VALUES
Democracy
Mutual respect
Individual Liberty
Rule of Law
Tolerance