School Curriculum Vision

Our curriculum is knowledge and skills based and taught through topics.  We feel this approach to learning helps the children learn new knowledge and skills and apply them in a range of contexts. Our topics are relevant and in-line with the demands of the National Curriculum and support our children becoming independent, yet collaborative learners. We embed our core values throughout the curriculum as well as uphold the British Values.

For RE, we follow the West Sussex Agreed Syllabus, which helps us to plan and differentiate our teaching to enable children to learn from religion and learn about it. In addition to this, we hold daily Collective Worship, which is in-line with the legal requirements of a Church of England Voluntary Controlled School. Our worship is Christian in character and enables the children to share and reflect on a chosen Christian value or biblical theme. Also, we have close links with our local church, All Saints' and our local vicar holds bi-weekly worships at the school.

The duration of the topics are usually a whole term (with some exceptions in Early Years) and this allows us to build a rich learning environment as well as allow the children to be ‘experts’ in an area. Our topics have a ‘Stunning Start’ which aims to ‘hook’ the children in and has a ‘Fabulous Finish’ so that they have a goal to work towards (e.g. a presentation afternoon to their parents). Whilst we aim to link all areas of the curriculum to our topic, in some cases it is more appropriate to teach it discretely e.g. some aspects of maths and grammar. Phonics is taught from Early Years right through to the end of KS1 and into KS2. We use ’Song of Sounds’ a DFE approved synthetics phonics programme as a platform for planning and assessment. We adapt and differentiate phonics throughout the school based on the children’s needs.

We pride ourselves on ensuring that we provide opportunities for all types of learners and this approach gives us the opportunity to do this. We are able to be flexible when planning, which means that the children can help steer their learning journey. Throughout our topics we provide a balance of indoor and outdoor learning with regular visits and visitors. We feel this makes the learning more memorable and exciting for the children.