Intent
As a small, village Church of England school, our Christian values and working vision underpin everything we do at Bulphan. Our curriculum is designed to be deeply Christian putting God at the very heart of everything we do.
We aim to provide a broad and ambitious curriculum that equips pupils for the future at all levels. Learning is a change to long-term memory. The ability to learn is underpinned in all curriculum subject areas by the teaching of skills, knowledge, concepts and vocabulary. There is clear progression throughout each subject, that builds upon what has been taught before and gives pupils the required knowledge and skills for their next stage of learning.
At Bulphan we recognise that many of our children have limited experiences of other cultures and faiths different to their own. They have limited knowledge of the world beyond their locality. Because of this, we have designed a curriculum to provide a range of enriching experiences that enable our children to be prepared for life in modern Britain.
Our curriculum enables every child to flourish and shine and in doing so discover their unique potential given to them by God. Ultimately, we want all of our children, to be the best they can be, making a positive contribution to the world they live in.
Implementation
The curriculum at Bulphan is carefully mapped out to ensure that pupils acquire knowledge, vocabulary and skills in a well-thought out and progressive manner in every curriculum subject ensuring sufficient coverage across each subject over time. New learning is based upon what has been taught before and prepares pupils for what they will learn next. There are clear end points which pupils work towards on their learning journey. We know that if our pupils are learning our curriculum, they are making progress and are being prepared for the next stage of their educational journey.
Our 2- or 3-year rolling programme (depending on key stage) covers all the National Curriculum requirements for Science, History, Geography, Art, Music DT, PE and Computing. The Norfolk Syllabus Curriculum requirements are used for RE and PSHE (incorporating RSE) is taught according to an age appropriate programme. The rolling programme meets the needs of our mixed age classes and allows for flexibility in class structure.
At Bulphan, we place great emphasis on helping children remember knowledge content through revisiting and building on previous learning. Our wider curriculum has ‘Golden Threads’ which are woven through most of our Subject areas. In each subject, pupils will learn new knowledge and develop their skills with activities, tasks and experiences using the Golden Threads. Through this ‘forwards-and-backwards engineering’ of the curriculum, all pupils return to the same concepts over and over and gradually build understanding, knowledge and skills which will then be embedded and secured so that children are ready for their next phase of learning.
Impact
Pupils will be able to recall knowledge and skills independently weeks or months after a theme has been taught. Checking that pupils are learning will enable pupils and teachers to see if their fluency and mastery is incrementally improving and therefore impact has been achieved.
Leaders are responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of subject areas. Judgements on the impact of the curriculum are based upon a triangulation of different monitoring including work and book looks, pupil voice discussions, outcomes of assessments and learning walks. Information gained from monitoring is reported back to all stakeholders, analysed, evaluated and actioned through strategic and timely school improvement.
Assessment is not excessive or onerous as it is part of the day-to-day practices of the classroom. We make us of Learning Ladders and Learning Passports to assess children’s knowledge and understanding. Teachers ensure that pupils embed key concepts in their long-term memory. Key skills and concepts for curriculum areas are revisited throughout the year and applied in different contexts. Pupils revisit prior learning and make links between subjects. Assessments are reliable and are moderated to ensure that expected outcomes are fully understood by all staff.
