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Goonhavern Pre-SchoolGoonhavern Primary School

Curriculum

Our school curriculum is underpinned by the values that we hold dear at our school. The curriculum is the means by which the school achieves its objective of educating children in the knowledge, skills and understanding that they need in order to lead fulfilling lives.

These are the main values of our school, upon which we have based our curriculum

We value:

  • the way in which all children are unique, and our curriculum promotes respect for the views of each individual child, as well as for people of all cultures. We value the spiritual and moral development of each person, as well as their intellectual and physical growth.
  • the importance of each person in our community. We organise our curriculum so that we promote co-operation and understanding between all members of our community.
  • the rights enjoyed by each person in our society. We respect each child in our school for who they are, and we treat them with fairness and honesty. Our aim is to enable each person to be successful, and we provide equal opportunities for all the children in our school.
  • our environment, and we aim, through our curriculum, to teach respect for our world, and how we should care for it for future generations, as well as our own.

The curricular aims of our school are:

  • help develop lively enquiring minds, with the ability to question and argue rationally and to apply themselves to tasks and physical skills.
  • help pupils acquire the knowledge and skills relevant to adult life and employment in a fast changing world.
  • encourage pupils to use language and number effectively.
  • promote pupils’ understanding of the world in which they live and the interdependence of individuals, groups and nations.
  • encourage respect for religious and moral values and tolerance of other races, religions and ways of life.
  • help pupils appreciate human achievements and aspirations.
  • establish an environment within which teaching and non-teaching staff, school managers, advisory colleagues, parents and future parents can work together for the successful achievement of these aims.

We plan our curriculum in three phases and agree a long-term plan for each key stage. This indicates what topics are to be taught in each term, and to which groups of children. Our long-term plans are reviewed on an annual basis.

Our medium-term plans give clear guidance on the objectives and teaching strategies that we use when teaching each topic. As we have adopted the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies for our school, our medium-term planning is taken directly from the guidance documents. Our medium-term planning in the foundation subjects is based on the Programmes of Study (PoS) in the National Curriculum.

Our short-term plans are those that our teachers write on a weekly or daily basis. These are used to set out the learning objectives for each session, and to identify what resources and activities we are going to use in the lesson.

Throughout the school we adopt an inter-disciplinary topic approach to curriculum planning. We plan the curriculum carefully, so that there is coherence and full coverage of all aspects of the National Curriculum (KS1 & KS2) and early learning goals (FS), and there is planned progression in all curriculum areas.

At Goonhavern Primary School your child will have the opportunity of receiving an education which puts great emphasis on the mastering of key skills in all subject areas and in particular, Literacy and Numeracy. We aim to deliver an exciting, challenging, varied, topic based curriculum which is well taught through a cross-curricular approach. Children are given the opportunity to develop a sound knowledge and understanding in a range of skills with high expectations and high quality learning in all subject areas. Children also have the opportunity to take part in many different extra-curricular activities throughout lunchtime and after school.

‘Speaking’ is fundamental to a young child’s learning and development. Children are encouraged and helped to speak clearly, with confidence and expression in order to communicate their ideas and feelings with others. The need to ‘Listen’ to others and respond appropriately is also identified. These skills in Speaking & Listening are a focus in all areas of the curriculum.

Reading for children should be an enjoyable activity and we would encourage children to develop a love for reading both at home and at school. All children are able to make regular use of and benefit from the high quality stock of reading material in our Library – both non- fiction & fiction – within a quiet environment.

We encourage children to revise times tables, number bonds and other essential mathematical facts at home. We aim to develop their confidence, enthusiasm and ability to apply these skills and knowledge to the world around them. Homework is set, to support class work, at the discretion of each class teacher.

Children develop the ability to express their thoughts, ideas & communication skills through Writing. They are given every opportunity to develop punctuation, spelling, grammar and correct letter formation. We have developed a whole school ‘writing’ approach to enable the children to identify good practice – Our weekly “big write” helps to build a rich vocabulary in an inspirational way.