Our Longney Curriculum
At Longney, we offer an ambitious curriculum for all of our pupils that is underpinned by our school vision – ‘Building Community, Enriching Lives’ – which is at the heart of everything we do. As such, we aim to create a learning community built around our school values that enables all of our pupils to flourish academically, socially and spiritually. Through evidence-informed practices, our highly inclusive and nurturing ethos, we aspire to enrich the lives of all of our pupils, helping them to become citizens of the future.
Our Curriculum Drivers
Our curriculum is designed around a number of themes which encompass the key skills and aspirations we want our children to experience and develop during their time with us. These 'key drivers' underpin the learning and experiences we undertake in all areas of school life and enrich our curriculum offer.
Our three drivers of curiosity, experiences and community have been selected through consultation with staff who have identified the specific and unique needs of the children at Longney.
Curiosity
Curiosity means eager to learn or know and being confident to ask for information. We desire for our children to be curious about the world around them and ask questions. We encourage our children to be inquisitive and questioning through their learning and school life experiences. This approach to learning enables inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation and learning and nurtures problem solvers.
Experiences
At Longney we want children to enjoy coming to our school and will provide exciting opportunities for them to learn in fun, creative and engaging ways. We will make learning imaginative and creative as well as providing opportunities for children to carry out real and purposeful learning experiences. We will make the most of the local community, of visitors and visits and provide children with real life examples.
Community
Our curriculum has also been shaped by our community driver. When designing our curriculum, we believed it was vital that our children develop a secure understanding of their local and wider community, and how they fit into these as individuals. We want our children to know about their local history and town, in order to be successful members of the community as they grow older. Alongside our children’s understanding of their local and wider community, we aspire to educate our children about the wider global issues we currently face. Our curriculum ensures our children are successful members in their local community, but we also believe that they should develop as global citizens, individuals who one day will become confident, agents of change.
Curriculum Implementation
To ensure effective delivery of the curriculum, the statutory requirements for each subject within a key stage are identified and cross-curricular links are harnessed to provide cohesion within units of learning. This is outlined in our curriculum maps
Progression is achieved by identifying the skills and knowledge that children need over time; these are outlined in our progression grids for each subject which contain carefully chosen components crucial for subsequent learning.
As a school with mixed-age classes, we have devised a two-year rolling programme, split into Cycle A and Cycle B, to ensure that children experience the full breadth and depth in their learning; leading to sustained mastery and greater depth of understanding for all. You can find our rolling programmes below.
The curriculum at Longney draws on the knowledge of successful evidence- informed strategies and draws upon our Principles for Effective Teaching and Learning. Staff regularly review educational research (such as EEF research, Hattie’s Influences and Rosenshine’s Principles) to inform curriculum pedagogy.
Curriculum planning enables learners to make connections and interconnections in order to ensure that knowledge (substantive) and skills (disciplinary) are learned progressively to reach agreed end points. Lessons enabling retrieval practice (reviewing previously taught objectives), formative assessment, metacognition and opportunities for teachers/support staff to address misconceptions, means that learning is moved from the short-term memory and embedded into long term memory so that learners know more, remember more and do more.
Curriculum Impact
School evaluates how well our children are learning the content outlined in the curriculum through:
- School progress data which is analysed by SLT, middle and subject leaders and class teachers
- Book scrutiny
- Lesson observation
- Pupil/parent voice
The curriculum that we offer is broad and balanced and aims to not overload pupils with information but enables them to know more and remember more through connecting to prior learning. The impact of the curriculum is that children are well-motivated and engaged in their education with a growing knowledge base which prepares them for effective transition for their next stage in learning and equips them for life.
The curriculum is continuously under review to ensure we provide the best offer for our children and planning grids will be updated as they are developed.
