Welcome to our curriculum information section
Our Curriculums Intent, Implementation and Impact
At Arnside National CE Primary School, we have designed an ambitious curriculum which is built upon our vision statement:
Arnside National Church of England School is a lively and caring community where all are supported, nurtured and encouraged. Our vision is rooted and grounded in love, God’s greatest gift, which helps and guides everyone at our school to aspire, believe and achieve.
‘Let all that you do be done in love’
(1 Corinthians 16.14)
We believe this provides our children with the best educational start in life. Our curriculum considers the needs of a 21st Century child and is ambitious in providing our children with the knowledge, skills and learning behaviours required to become successful life-long learners.
The National Curriculum is a set of subjects and standards used by primary schools, so children learn the same things. It covers what subjects are taught and the standards children should reach in each subject. This is a statutory document that all schools must follow. Schools have the autonomy to decide on how this content is delivered and what approach we would take to ensure that our curriculum is bespoke to the needs of our children and community.
At the heart of our school are a set of star values. These underpin our curriculum and the ethos of the school. At Arnside National School, we place great importance on a curriculum which develops the whole child. Through our star values, we foster an environment where the emotional, physical, academic, social, moral, spiritual and cultural development of each child is considered. We firmly believe that everyone is entitled to an ambitious curriculum and our curriculum design is accessible for all, including children with SEND and disadvantaged backgrounds.
Implementation describes the way in which we deliver our intent consistently each day. To do this we have carefully designed our knowledge engaged curriculum. This is designed to enable learners to acquire relevant subject knowledge which underpins the application of skills. Skills are carefully and progressively mapped across each key stage and subject area.
Knowledge is consolidated and built upon to support retention and recall and is clearly outlined on Teacher Knowledge Organisers. This ensures that by the time children leave our school they have learned and are able to recall and apply the key information that we feel is important in order for them to be successful in the future.
Key Questions in the foundation subjects
Knowledge is taught through a key question. This driver consists of a main question that the children are unable to answer at the beginning of a blocked unit. Teaching provides the children with the knowledge and skills to provide or demonstrate a response to this enquiry driver and we call this the final outcome. Our curriculum is blocked to provide for deeper understanding and prepares our children for subject specific learning in Secondary School.
How do we plan for the Knowledge Engaged Curriculum?
Planning takes on the form of blocks and these are delivered over a period of time. Planning is led by the enquiry-based question, which staff use to plan a series of lessons that aim to answer the enquiry key question. Subject leaders are integral to the planning process and understand the pathway that their subjects take. Progression of knowledge and skills is carefully mapped across Key Stages ensuring pedagogical learning is taking place.
How do we plan for Cultural Capital?
The government have placed great emphasis on schools developing Cultural capital. Cultural capital is the essential knowledge that children need to prepare them for their future success. It is about giving children the best possible start to their early education.
At Arnside, we see Cultural capital as the accumulation of knowledge, attitudes, habits, language and possessions that enables individuals to demonstrate their cultural competence and social status. Our school plays a crucial role in developing this through immersing children in dance and music, visiting theatres, galleries and historic sites and by introducing them to literature and art, using our local area wherever possible.
Embedding cultural capital into our curriculum is a way of closing the gap between children from differing socio-economic backgrounds by ensuring that children from all backgrounds have the same opportunities in society to achieve their full potential.
Our enhanced curriculum aims to run alongside and compliments the National Curriculum but aims to broaden the horizons of our children and links to our school's vision statement and our Christian values. The opportunities offered aims to provide our children with unique experiences outside of the National Curriculum.
We broaden horizons by developing global learners, which underpins all of our values, by planning for opportunities to be aware of the wider world and its current issues and to understand and respect cultural diversity and differences with an understanding of how the world works and encourage participation in the community at a range of levels, from the local to the global. We teach our children to make the world a more sustainable place and to take responsibility for their actions. We do this by providing learning linked to:
- International/Cultural understanding
- Respect for others and our differences
- Community participation (local and global)
- Sustainability and environmental issues
- Challenging stereotypes
Pupils leave Arnside National CE Primary School with a secure understanding of the academic content; with the understanding of how to be socially, morally, spiritually and culturally responsible and aware; how to make positive contributions to the local community and how to endeavour to be the best that they can be. We aim for all of our children to leave Arnside respectful, skilful, ambitious and with a thirst for life and all it has to offer.
Please use the subject side links to find out more about the subjects taught in school