Here at Cloudside, our curriculum is bespoke to our school context, taking into account the children’s specific needs. All decisions made are based on the known needs of our children and the community.
Reading is the bedrock of our curriculum as it is paramount that children are confident and capable, where a number of our most disadvantaged children do not have access to books at home or a reading role model. Throughout every aspect of our curriculum, all children have access to high quality texts to engage and enthuse towards all subjects. Wider opportunities to promote a love for reading are embedded within the curriculum.
Our curriculum has been designed so that children understand and see the importance of discrete skills associated with each individual subject. Children recognise what skills and key knowledge are needed to become a scientist or a historian, developing so they can become problem solvers of the future. Within every subject area, a progression of skills alongside substantive and disciplinary knowledge has been created to show how children build upon prior knowledge to create a narrative within each subject.
Across the whole curriculum, oracy opportunities have been maximised so that children are encouraged to articulate their understanding and confidently speak like an expert. This includes supporting their presentational skills.
When constructing the curriculum, careful thought has been given to current research focused on how we remember key information in the long term and therefore have a pedagogical structure that is consistent through the school and aims to support children’s long term retention.
Whilst our curriculum is designed on an age by age basis, adaptations are made where needed to ensure that children receive appropriate support and intervention to acquire knowledge.
As a school we have identified a list of the most important opportunities to broaden children’s cultural capital, mapping out experiences that link to the curriculum and wider life skills. This will provide every child with additional experiences to support their learning and wider personal development.
While designing the curriculum, the school’s community context drove precise decisions within each curriculum area. Within Design and Technology, a food curriculum was developed ensuring that children learnt the essential life skills of planning, preparing and creating a meal being made. Cloudside’s PSHE curriculum has a strong emphasis on healthy relationships and positive mental health. As Cloudside’s community is in increasing in diversity, children’s understanding and awareness of other cultures and religions is paramount.
Each subject leader has written an individual rationale based on our whole school vision for their subject, where barriers that may impact children’s learning have been identified and how these will be overcome.