Curriculum Intent and Rationale
Introduction
Alburgh with Denton CE Primary Academy is a small village school situated between the villages of Alburgh and Denton in Norfolk. It is in a very rural location with a significant amount of outside space, including a large field and woodland areas. The staff ensure the children spend as much time outdoors as possible and all pupils attend Forest School throughout the year. There are currently 104 children on roll, organised into mixed-aged classes (Y1/2, Y3/4 and Y5/6) with a standalone Reception class.
Intent
We intend our curriculum at Alburgh with Denton to be forward-thinking and progressive. We want to show clear links to our values of growing and flourishing by teaching a curriculum that encourages independence and builds resilience. We want our curriculum to be accessible to all learning needs and abilities, as well as being hands-on and inspiring a love of learning. Our curriculum demonstrates breadth, depth and a clear spiralling of knowledge throughout. At Alburgh with Denton, we recognise the importance of human creativity and achievement, and how that leads to the development of educated citizens.
Rationale for Implementation
We use Dimensions ‘Learning Means the World’ Curriculum as the main vehicle for achieving our outlined intent.
This curriculum is underpinned by four highly relevant world issues, known as the four Cs:-
- Communication
- Conflict
- Culture
- Conservation
Communication
At Alburgh with Denton, we consider communication to be a key skill which underpins all of our children’s learning. We want to encourage them to have their say, to develop the confidence to express their views in a variety of ways, whilst teaching them about how to appropriately address different audiences. We aim to teach our children that communication does not always have to be verbal and, therefore, we want our curriculum to teach communication through written and pictorial forms, as well as spoken. This will allow them to access the curriculum more freely and be able to share what they have learnt with others in a range of ways. In our school, we also recognise the significance digital communication has in today’s world and we want to ensure that our children know how to communicate online effectively, appropriately and safely.
Conflict
From the start of school, we want our pupils to understand how conflicts can arise, whether it be a falling out with friends in EYFS or learning about larger global conflicts in UKS2. In our curriculum, we will regularly explore and discuss the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of conflict to encourage our children to understand that small sparks can sometimes start large conflicts.
We are very proud of the good behaviour of our children but we do know that occasionally disagreements occur and we want our pupils to be accountable for their actions and know how to resolve their conflicts in a positive way. We will provide opportunities for all of our pupils to develop the skills needed to do this.
We want all our children to know that they can share how they feel and will be listened to, not only by the adults in the school but also by our Playleaders and School Council members.
Culture
The community at Alburgh with Denton CE Primary Academy is very close-knit and, whilst this instils a strong sense of trust and belonging in our pupils, we understand the importance of broadening their horizons and viewing life through a wider perspective. We want them to have the confidence to find out more about the world and the various different cultures and ethnicities within it. In order to do this, we will provide opportunities for our children to learn about asking appropriate questions and discussing issues around race, ethnicity and culture sensitively. We will continue to build on our links with our partner school in Malawi to teach our children about cultures that differ from their own. Our curriculum will teach pupils that diverse cultures play a part in our history and, with a broader understanding, our future.
Conservation
Our school is fortunate to have a significant amount of outdoor space which our children use regularly. Our children are very familiar with and aware of conservation issues, due to the rural setting of our school where many of our families are farmers or have farming backgrounds. Their families teach them a lot about conservation and this will continue through our curriculum. We have an Eco-Council that helps to drive conservation initiatives and we aim to develop this further through our conservation thematic units. We want our curriculum to build on what our pupils already know about local conservation and start to see a wider, more global picture. We also want to encourage the understanding that conservation also links closely to people and the preservation of cultures.
Our curriculum narrative begins with Communication, as we believe that language is key and will be the underpinning of everything we teach at Alburgh with Denton. We aim to see communication links running through the other three Cs of our Learning Means the World Curriculum. We will use the vocabulary lists provided to develop a ‘spine of vocabulary’ that will be built upon throughout each term. We will then explore Conflict, using the understanding that communication, depending on its intention, can be the cause or the cure of conflict. We will discuss and debate how and why conflicts occur and, whilst doing this, our pupils will see how culture (and a lack of understanding and communication skills) can play a part in conflicts.
Culture, therefore, is our third curriculum area across the school. In culture, will look at how the issues arising from conflict can help us understand different cultures. We will explore the similarities between people, as well as celebrate the differences. We will consider how culture needs to be preserved and cared for in order to maintain the rich diversity that is humanity. This sense of caring and preservation leads us to complete our year with Conservation. During our summer term, we will have plenty of opportunities to learn outside, explore our green spaces and put in place good conservation initiatives for the coming year. By ending the year with a better understanding of the wide and varied aspects of conservation, including sustainability, we will hopefully encourage our pupils to take these good practices into the summer break and beyond.
We also encourage our pupils to have high aspirations by teaching them about human creativity and achievement through additional Competency Units about famous figures and groups of people that focus on Creativity, Commitment, Courage and Community.