Curriculum

< Back to Menu

The aim of our curriculum is to provide opportunities for children to develop as knowledgeable, independent, confident, successful learners with high aspirations who know how to make a positive contribution to their community and the wider society. The pillars of our curriculum are Knowledge, Exploration and Communication.  

Knowledge: Our curriculum builds knowledge over time within carefully selected topics that are carefully sequenced to ensure that pupils have the component knowledge they need to tackle concepts and apply skills as their knowledge increases. We do this through explicit teacher instruction; teaching for memory through low-stakes testing and opportunities for repetition and practise. We use explicit teaching to build cultural capital cultural capital; through subject-specific terminology and the skill of reading different texts.  

Exploration: We carefully plan opportunities for engagement and hands-on experiences where this can be authentic in order to enhance learning. Our curriculum builds opportunities to develop skills through enquiry, analysis, critical evaluation and problem solving. Children learn through paired talk, discussion, debate and role play, using exploratory talk as a tool to enhance their understanding.  

Communication: Oracy is at the heart of our curriculum. We have a strong emphasis in every lesson on the systematic teaching of explicit vocabulary. Both through explicit oracy units and through talk opportunities built into every lesson, children learn to communicate their ideas formally through presentations, performances and showcases. Children at Foxborough learn to use their voice literally and figuratively as active citizens in the school and wider community.  

Beyond this, staff at Foxborough value the individual children at the heart of our school. We seek to value the talents, personalities and strengths of children holistically so that they can achieve their full potential beyond our school. We seek to nurture active global citizens who take responsibility for their actions, their learning and their world.  

We have a strong focus on developing children’s moral, spiritual, social and cultural understanding and ensure that children are well-prepared for life in modern Britain. Teachers carefully plan opportunities to explore how our and other communities and societies function and to explore the values and beliefs of others. Our curriculum is planned to promote equality of opportunity for all; it meets pupils’ learning needs.  

Our curriculum principles include the requirements of the centrally-prescribed aims of the National Curriculum and our curriculum mapping ensures sufficient coverage across each subject over time.  

We are passionate about our curriculum and take the time to review regularly and enhance our provision strategically over time. 

Our Curriculum Implementation

At Foxborough, we know that the curriculum is never a finished piece of work. We also know that at Primary level, in a small school, we do not have the capacity to improve every curriculum area at all once. By prioritising areas of the curriculum for improvement, we have been able to ensure that subjects are given dedicated focus, training and development so that we can carefully plan, implement and sustain improvement. We have named these ‘Spotlight subjects’.

In order to do this, we have used the EEF document, ‘Putting Evidence to work – A School’s Guide to Implementation’. We have followed these recommendations to ensure that all staff are using an evidence-based approach to implementation that can be communicated effectively. The first and second principles have been embedded over time and set the foundations for good implementation. The following principles have been applied as part of the implementation process over a period of years in order to ensure that this school improvement work is thorough and embedded.

EEF-Implementation-Recommendations-Poster

The following table demonstrates how we have used the EEF implementation guide to inform our curriculum development over a 4 year period.

Curriculum Spotlighting:

The full rationale for these curriculum decisions can be found here: Curriculum Development Plan updated 2023-24

Assessment

Each lesson, SOLO (Taxonomy) colours are applied by teachers to assess how each child is progressing through their topic, challenging and intervening where needed with children and using this information to refocus learning in future lessons. Our children’s books, practical work and investigations showcase their learning, progression and enjoyment of Foxborough’s curriculum. A full explanation of SOLO taxonomy assessment can be found in our Assessment Policy.

The Impact of our Curriculum

Thematic Units give our children to opportunity to really delve into their topics learning about their topics from the perspective of historians, geographers, artists, designers and engineers. They have opportunities to deepen and apply their knowledge and subject-specific skills throughout each unit.

Whole class teaching with a focus on collaboration and discussion ensures that all learners are able to access the curriculum. Our inclusive pedagogy ensures that assessment for learning is used systematically and precisely in lessons to check for understanding and to identify the needs of pupils that may need further scaffolding provided. Our teachers use a range of subject-specific scaffolding to ensure pupils can achieve within each lesson. We ensure that all pupils have access to a broad and balanced curriculum; where children may need provisions to support their learning, we are intentional and prudent when deciding which children need this support, when the support takes place and for how long so as to ensure that no child misses out on the full breadth of the curriculum. 

Resources, trips and experiences not only give the children real-life, first-hand experiences of their topics but also enable them to have fun! The impact of this is an increase in ‘cultural capital’ for our children.

High expectations that are applied in core subjects are also evident throughout our curriculum, supporting our mission to narrow the gap between our school’s outcomes and national ARE.

Our most recent Trust evaluation report (July 2023) stated:

‘The implementation of the PKC this year is impressive. The impact that this has had on the pupils’ learning in the four PKC subjects is incredibly positive. The way that the pupils talk about the subjects demonstrates their depth of knowledge and understanding. The pupils are excited for their lessons and their memory has increased – the pupils’ retention is a clear strength. This has been supported through the spiral nature of the curriculum and the focus on retrieval of core knowledge that is clearly indicated in the unit plans. The routine structure of the lesson plans has removed cognitive overload allowing pupils to get more quickly into the content of each lesson and move more quickly through the curriculum.’

‘Pupil voice indicated that the PKC scheme is having a profound impact on pupils’ knowledge and understanding. Pupils could talk articulately about their learning this academic year in history, geography, science and art. They demonstrated a deep and sophisticated subject knowledge across the curriculum.’

National Curriculum Objectives

We use Read, Write Inc. Phonics and our reading scheme is the Power of Reading, our math’s scheme is Power Maths. Please click on the link below to find out more about our creative and engaging curriculum.

• Power Maths
• Power of Reading
• Phonics Read, Write, Inc.
• Jigsaw for PSHE