Our Curriculum
Curriculum Intent and Rationale
Introduction
In the daily living out of our Christian faith, we aim to ensure that religious education and spiritual development will permeate every aspect of the curriculum, so that it is explicit and implicit within the taught curriculum. The children are supported, through the curriculum, to grow in faith and deepen their relationships with God and each other.
Intent
At Chester-le-Street CE Primary School, the curriculum, in its fullest sense, firmly underpins the core Christian values, from which a culture and ethos is generated that supports the spiritual development of all involved in the community. The school is committed to ensuring that the curriculum is broad and balanced and has both breadth and depth, is highly relevant and purposeful, exciting for both staff and pupils in order that the needs of all children are provided for, whatever their gifts and talents. We aim to make provision for academic achievement and spiritual, social, moral, cultural, physical and creative development of our children.
Our curriculum offers a wide range of inspiring, engaging and exploratory learning experiences, that includes developing cultural capital through planned activities, such as residential trips. We aim to raise pupils’ aspirations by teaching them about human creativity and achievement and we strive to help our pupils realise the full potential they have to achieve and succeed, not just at school, but as educated citizens within their own community and on a wider global scale. We believe our curriculum should also prepare our children for a lifetime of learning – with careers that don’t yet exist and technologies we cannot imagine. Our pupils will need to develop the skills required to learn continuously throughout their lifetime. They must develop a love of learning and a thirst for knowledge. This is a shared curriculum intent which reflects high ambitions for all. Our Core Christian values of thankfulness, friendship, compassion, service, endurance and wisdom are at its foundations, preparing children to learn within a harmonious environment underpinned by God’s love.
We want their learning focus to be more ‘outward-facing’, enabling them to become well-rounded and happy individuals who not only care about themselves, but about others and the environment.
We want the pupils’ learning to be more ‘big picture’ oriented and less about ‘box ticking’, tapping into their strengths, such as their desire to do well at school.
Bespoke Curriculum
We have designed our own bespoke curriculum as the vehicle for this, with a view to changing our pupils' hearts, as well as their minds.
This curriculum is underpinned by three highly relevant world issues,
Our Community
Our World
Our Impact
Curriculum Organisation
There is evidence that teaching subject knowledge and skills as part of a wider topic-based curriculum allows pupils to make useful links between areas of learning, and consolidate skills. Children are also likely to be more engaged in their learning if it has a context and theme that runs through it. Chester-le-Street CE Primary School has therefore developed a thematic curriculum to deliver the majority of the National Curriculum 2014. Others are taught discretely. The timetable is carefully considered to ensure that pupils experience a broad range of learning opportunities and that the curriculum is not narrowed.
The following subjects are taught discretely:
- Maths
- Physical Education
- Religious Education
- Modern Foreign Languages
- Computing
- Music
- PSHE
The following subjects are taught thematically:
- English
- Science
- History or Geography
- Art
- Design Technology
Each termly plan has a core curriculum driver taken from either History or Geography programme of study. Curriculum delivery is planned around a thought-provoking ‘hook in or catalyst’ question which encourages a sense of curiosity in our pupils. Independence and resilience are encouraged through the involvement of pupils in uncovering new information for themselves to reach an answer.
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
At Chester-le-Street CE Primary School we believe that inclusive education means providing all pupils with appropriate education and support alongside their peers. The Curriculum is all the planned activities that the school organises in order to promote learning, personal growth and development. Further information can be found in the SEN Information Report
If you would like to discuss your SEND requirements in detail please contact the school to arrange an appointment.