Intent

Our aim is to ensure our pupils are able to make sense of and improve the world they live in, to enable them to grow into citizens who are empowered to make a good contribution to the community they live in and understand one another.

Children need powerful knowledge to understand and interpret the world because without it they are dependent on those who have it. Powerful knowledge opens doors and it must be available to all children. We take into account the locality in which we are based and consider the advantages and disadvantages we face. Research informs us of the significant word gap between some of our pupils by the time they start school so we act from the minute they join us. Evidence also informs us that a wide vocabularly is closely linked to good reading comprehension and being able to successfully access the wider curriculum.

We believe that developing children’s vocabulary is the most important thing we can do as teachers.

 ‘A rich vocabulary supports learning about the world, encountering new ideas, enjoying the beauty of language. A rich vocabulary enhances an interview, allows one to see the humour in word play, shores up what an individual wants to say, and, especially wants to write.’

Beck, (2013)

 All stakeholders of St Meriadoc strongly believe that every child is entitled to a rich and demanding curriculum. Staff have worked extensively on designing a curriculum that is exciting and challenging, whilst covering the objectives within in the National Curriculum. Ensuring pupils have access to ‘deep learning’ is our principle goal so that pupils are able to retain and transfer learning.

Implementation

Each of our topics start with an over-arching question which allows children the opportunity to explore and discuss the content of what they will learn over the term as well as making links to prior knowledge. Lessons are carefully sequenced so children have a clear understanding of what they are learning about and why it is important. This ensures that children can see where the lesson links into the wider picture and are able to make connections and enjoy learning. Careful attention has been paid to ensuring clear progressions in subjects which gives pupils the opportunities to build on their prior knowledge and skills. Revisiting key concepts with our pupils also ensures that ‘sticky knowledge’ is moved from their short -term memory to their long-term memory. Knowledge Organisers are used to support both pupils and parents in capturing key facts, dates and vocabulary for a topic and help pupils to understand the key information they need to acquire over time.

Visits and visitors cement our curriculum, enhance and deepen knowledge. At St Meriadoc we ensure that children have access to a range of different experiences as we believe that they are a trigger for bringing aspects of the curriculum to life. They provide opportunities for generating questions, further research and extended writing opportunities.

Impact 

Leaders and Governors of St Meriadoc are continually evaluating the knowledge and understanding pupils have gained against expectations through a range of different methods. We strive to ensure that all of our pupils meet or exceed age-related expectations. We also celebrate the progress made by individual pupils in a variety of ways.

By the end of each term all pupils will have acquired the necessary skills and knowledge to enable them to create an end product or composite. This may be the things pupils say, write, make or draw which inform us of knowledge and skills pupils have acquired from their learning. Staff ensure time is given to ask children questions and listen carefully to their answers, as well as giving us an idea of what a pupil has learnt, it also gives further opportunities for pupils to develop their oracy skills using subject specific vocabulary. We believe in giving children ‘real audiences’ with whom to share their knowledge with, so we regularly invite members from our community into school to do this. Governors of our school enjoy being invited into school to monitor the knowledge and understanding of pupils through discussion. 

At St Meriadoc we prepare pupils to live full active lives as part of their community and into adulthood. Pupils leave our school having been exposed to a strong spiritual, moral, social and cultural education which has been weaved into every school day. Pupils are reflective about their own beliefs and have respect for others beliefs, views and feelings. They have a sense of enjoyment in learning about themselves, others and the world around them. Pupils learn the difference between right and wrong and are able to apply this understanding to their own lives, they understand the consequences for their behaviour and actions. The social development of our pupils is shown by their ability to use a range of social skills in different contexts and environments and their willingness to engage and work with a wide range of other pupils and adults. The cultural development of our pupils is shown by their deep understanding and appreciation of cultural influences that have shaped their heritage and those of others. We ensure that our pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain.

 

If you would like to know more about our curriculum please contact Mrs Wilkins through the school office.

 

Below are our Knowledge Organisers, these represent the information and facts that we would like the children to remember from this terms unit of work. These are reviewed and improved upon each year. The information on these are developed from Curriculum Drivers. 

For each Knowledge organiser there will be:

• Facts they should already know from previous learning.
• Key vocabulary
• The topics Big Question!
• The Golden threads that tie all the learning together
• Key facts to remember