Uplowman Church of England Primary School

Intent

The ambitious intent of our curriculum is founded on the school’s Christian vision for all our children, ‘A Haven of Hope, where every child matters as a Child of God’.. Using a newly adopted curriculum framework (Curriculum Maestro) as a driver demonstrates our clear intent for all children, particularly disadvantaged, those with SEND to gain the knowledge, skills and cultural capital they need to ‘live life in all its fullness and possess hope for a brighter future.’ The curriculum is adapted to meet the needs of children with SEND and is aimed at being as inclusive as possible so that all children feel engaged and supported to access the learning in a way that meets their individual needs. Children are encouraged to become independent learners by making it clear what their next steps are and how they can get there.

Our curriculum aims to cover the full range of objectives outlined in the National Curriculum through a cross-curricular approach, giving it relevance and to help make the learning stick.

In January 2022, we formally introduced Curriculum Maestro for the teaching of History, Geography, Science, Computing, Art and DT. This is a creative approach to learning built on the criteria for an outstanding curriculum. It ensures that our children learn in the most creative way and are involved in what they are learning. We use this as a basis for our structure and within this very much understand the importance of personalising the curriculum to our children, our setting and our community. Themes are chosen appropriately and with relevance. Through our curriculum at Uplowman, we strongly believe in giving our pupils personal first hand experiences.

Curriculum Maestro is delivered through a range of inspirational yet rigorous learning projects. These are based on the National Curriculum, but bring learning together in new and exciting ways. Each project combines different strands of learning so that children learn more holistically and start to challenge themselves and learn problem solving skills as they create truly fantastic learning opportunities. Reading and writing form an integral element of the approach but it is important to us at Uplowman that all children flourish and experience and enjoy a range of learning.

Learning is a journey and we strive to provide opportunities which will enable our children to enter into society with the necessary skills, experiences and responsibilities for later life.

Curriculum 22

Curriculum Maestro is based on inspirational learning activities which take place in a classroom environment that allows children to learn in a way that motivates and interests them. It provides our children with a good level of challenge, giving them opportunities to solve problems, apply themselves creatively and express their knowledge and understanding across the curriculum.

Curriculum 22 is a fully sequenced and interconnected curriculum that develops across Key Stages to Year 6. The curriculum is ambitious in content and expertly crafted, with stringent sequencing and a web of multidisciplinary and subject connections. The curriculum is specially designed to help children build and sequence knowledge, without cognitive overload.

Curriculum structure

Curriculum 22 is carefully designed to help children learn and retain the required subject knowledge and skills in the correct sequence. Built on the national curriculum programmes of study, the curriculum begins with Big Ideas or higher-level concepts that steer the whole curriculum. These Big Ideas are broken down into smaller component parts called aspects. Aspects are further broken down to form a robust knowledge and skills framework that underpins the whole curriculum. The framework has clear endpoints and curriculum-related expectations up to Year 6.

Curriculum sequencing

Curriculum sequencing is the most critically important part of our curriculum. Without the correct subject sequencing, children will not have the building blocks to create a robust subject or concept schema. An effective curriculum needs correct sequencing within and across the subjects. This is so that concepts that span multiple subjects are cohesively mapped for maximum cognitive impact.

Sequencing subject-specific vocabulary

Subject-specific vocabulary is a crucial part of a well sequenced curriculum. Vocabulary is carefully mapped out across our curriculum to clarify when technical vocabulary phrases are introduced and revisited. In our curriculum, vocabulary is clearly mapped to ensure that children learn the correct words and phrases in the right order. This enables children to articulate their learning with confidence.

Organisation of content

The content of our curriculum is broad, varied and engaging and covers all statutory content set out in the subject programmes of study. In Years 1 to 6, curriculum content is organised into a range of main and mini subject-driven projects. Main projects span a whole term and are focused on geography and history. Mini projects are taught over a term or half term and are subject-focused for science, art and design and design technology.

A knowledge-rich approach

The curriculum is ambitious, steeped in meaningful and interesting facts and information. These facts and information work together to create powerful subject knowledge. Engaging with knowledge-led learning can be challenging for some children, so to support this, children are provided with a wealth of child-friendly and engaging knowledge organisers (which are sent home half-termly) videos, presentations, exciting lessons and activity plans, plus low stakes quizzes and tests. Sticky Learning and Knowledge.

The Projects are used to deliver a broad, balanced and engaging curriculum. Each individual project is split into sections, which see children progress through four stages of learning: Engage, Develop, Innovate and Express.

Engage

At the ‘Engage’ stage, children:

• gain memorable first-hand experiences, such as going on a visit or inviting a special visitor into school • enjoy ‘WOW’ experiences • get an exciting introduction to a topic or theme • begin researching and setting enquiry questions • get lots of opportunities to make observations • develop spoken language skills • take part in sensory activities • have lots of fun to fully 'engage' with their new topic.

Develop

At the ‘Develop’ stage, children:

• improve their knowledge and understanding of the topic • develop and practise their new skills • compose, make, do, build, investigate, explore, write for different purposes and read across the curriculum • research their own questions and those set by others • follow new pathways of enquiry based on their interests • complete homework activities that support their learning.

Innovate

At the ‘Innovate’ stage, children:

• apply skills, knowledge and understanding in real-life contexts • solve real or imagined problems using everything they’ve learnt • get inspired by imaginative and creative opportunities • revisit anything not fully grasped at the ‘Develop’ stage.

Express

At the ‘Express’ stage, children:

• become the performers, experts and informers • share their achievements with parents, classmates and the community • evaluate finished products and processes • link what they have learnt to where they started • celebrate their achievements!

As well as the ‘nuts & bolts’ elements of our curriculum, we seek opportunities to provide children with experiences that they might not normally have access to, especially where we feel it can address gaps linked to cultural capital, such as opportunities to watch live theatre, watch a live performance of an orchestra or attend poetry performances at the theatre. Furthermore, our situation is ripe to provide structured opportunities for outdoor learning such as Forest School.

Mission statement

Uplowman C of E Primary School is a happy and supportive Christian learning community where we recognise and develop the unique gifts and personal qualities of all.

Our mission is to enable all children to “live life in all its fullness” (John 10:10, the Bible) ... to enjoy a life filled with meaning and purpose, underpinned by Christian values, a love of learning and an eagerness to make the world a better place. We aim to provide an outstanding education for every girl and boy so that all Uplowman pupils will flourish in childhood, adolescence and adulthood - equipped with the knowledge and skills, personal resilience and creativity, and emotional intelligence and social skills that will give them every opportunity to experience lifelong success and happiness in the 21st Century.

We work in partnership with parents and carers (also the parish and local community; the Diocese of Exeter; Devon County Council; Tiverton Town Council and the Uplowman Parish Council) to find ways of ensuring that every child at Uplowman has the chance to discover their strengths within school and beyond.

Our staff and governors are committed to ensuring that our distinctive Christian values (Compassion, Forgiveness, Hope, Respect & Trust) are at the heart of all we do to ensure that every child feels nurtured, respected and proud to belong to the community of Uplowman.