Curriculum Intent
Our curriculum is designed so that the children enjoy their learning and, wherever possible, it is meaningful to their lives and to the local area. The learning is enriched through visits, visitors, practical activities and themed days and weeks. All these opportunities are designed to further engage the children and create memories to last a lifetime.
Our curriculum is organised to ensure that we meet the requirements of the National Curriculum across a two year rolling programme. All children are taught in mixed age classes and the programme of study is matched so that all children have the same experience of topics and content during their time at primary school.
We use a range of approaches in the structure of the subjects within the curriculum model and this can be seen on the curriculum overview. This is delivered by following high quality subject specific schemes of work or by using knowledge organisers to enable child, parent and teacher to be clear about the learning that is taking place in the classroom.
At Denbury Primary school our curriculum is based on the following principles and purpose:
- Challenge and enjoyment
Our pupils should find their learning challenging, engaging and motivating. Our curriculum should encourage high aspirations and ambitions for all. At every stage, children will be given an appropriate level of challenge, to enable each individual to achieve his or her potential. They should be active in their learning and have opportunities to develop and demonstrate their creativity.
- Breadth
All children should have the opportunity for a broad range of experiences. Their learning should be planned and organised so that they will learn and develop through a variety of contexts within both the classroom and other aspects of school life.
- Progression
Children should experience continuous progression in their learning. Each stage should build upon earlier knowledge and achievements. Our pupils should be able to progress at a rate which meets their individual needs and aptitudes.
- Depth
There should be opportunities for children to develop their full capacity for different types of thinking and learning, exploring and achieving deeper levels of understanding.
- Coherence
Children’s learning activities should combine to form a coherent experience. There should be clear links between different aspects of learning. Such links should be discussed with children in order to bring different strands of learning together
- Relevance
Our pupils should understand the purpose of their learning and related activities. They should see the value of what they are learning and its relevance to their lives, present and future.
- Personalisation and choice
The learning planned for children should respond to their individual needs and support particular aptitudes and talents. It should provide opportunities for exercising responsible personal choice.
We encourage our children to be SMART learners. We expect our pupils to demonstrate these school values in their learning behaviours within the classroom as well as in their free time.
S = Sensitive
M = Motivated
A = Attentive
R = Responsible
T = Truthful
Please see the links on the right for information regarding our current curriculum.
From September 2021, the class structure within our school will be arranged in the following way:
Birch Tor class – Reception and Year 1
Ivy Tor class – Year 1 and Year 2
Bellever class – Year 3 and Year 4
Haytor class – Year 5 and Year 6
We use a two-year curriculum cycle which fits with a child’s journey through the school.