Curriculum Overview
Our Curriculum Intent
At Birkdale Primary School we believe that the curriculum we offer is a powerful tool that promotes a love of learning, the opportunity to explore beyond the classroom and the time to be creative.
Our ambitious curriculum has been designed to take account of the legal requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework and the Primary National Curriculum. We use this as a starting point for a rich, broad and balanced learning experience for our children. Our children will have the opportunity to be creative, to be physically active and to be academically challenged. We are committed to developing the whole child from the moment they enter our school.
We enrich the curriculum by our strong ethos based on respect for ourselves and others, equality and a sense of wonder of the world we live in. We want the children to understand how diverse our world is and to be respectful of everyone, no matter their background or circumstances. We ensure each and every one of our pupils understands and embraces modern British values.
Through teaching a coherently planned and sequenced curriculum, we aim to provide pupils with opportunities to embed knowledge and skills, which will enable them to make connections between topics and build a conceptual understanding. We encourage our children to approach learning positively so that children enjoy coming to school, and acquire a solid basis for lifelong learning in our modern world.
We want our children to become good learners, through our 'what makes a good learner?' values. These are; listening, engaged, asking questions, resilience, neighbourly, enthusiastic and respect.
Curriculum Information
At Birkdale Primary School all our children will study the 2014 National Curriculum for both core and foundation subjects.
In Nursery and Reception children will follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework. It includes the following key areas:
- Communication and Language
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Physical Development
- Mathematics
- Literacy
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Arts and Design
- Wider Experiences
These areas underpin the organisation of the learning environment, the activities provided for children and the monitoring of children's progress and development.
In Key Stage One and Key Stage Two, children are taught the standards and skills required in the 2014 National Curriculum for both core (English, Mathematics and Science) and foundation subjects (History, Geography, Computing, Music, Art, Design and Technology, Physical Education, Life Lessons, Religious Education and Modern Foreign Language).
At Birkdale we aim to ensure that all learning is matched to the individual needs of our children. As far as possible a cross-curricular, thematic approach is used to teach the core and foundation subjects. By adding this dimension to learning we are able to provide opportunities for key skills to develop across the curriculum and to cultivate creative thinking. We aim for our curriculum to be exciting and to inspire children to nurture a passion for learning, encouraging inquisitiveness and confidence in our pupils.
During the year we have theme weeks, such as Arts Week and Design and Technology Week, which allow children to develop their skills in a more focused approach. We have various celebration days throughout the year too. There are also educational visits which reinforce the learning which takes place in the classroom.
Please see our year group learning overviews that are published below for further information. Furthermore, if you have any questions about what your child is learning please contact your child's class teacher to arrange an appointment to discuss further.
More about the National Curriculum and using as a source for vocabulary support...
The National Curriculum is a set of subjects and standards used by primary and secondary schools so children learn the same things. It covers what subjects are taught and the standards children should reach in each subject.
Our schools planning and approach to teaching and learning stems from this document. For those of you who wish to know more or even if you wish to give your child in-depth support at home, this is the ultimate port of call! The document not only deals comprehensively with what we teach in English, Maths and Science but it is what we use to inform our planning for Foundation subjects.
From page 176 onwards, you will find good examples of not only the content of what we teach, but examples of some of the vocabulary we use at different ages. For example, at Key Stage 1 in Geography, children will use basic geographical language including: beach, cliff, coast, vegetation, season, weather and so on. In Key Stage 2 History, they will gain an understanding of vocabulary such as : empire, civilisation and parliament etc.
Again, please feel free to contact the Headteacher and any member of the teaching staff if you wish to know more about the current National Curriculum. Please find a link to the document in full below.
Please read our Curriculum policy for more information
Staff Meetings
We regularly meet as a staff to share good practice with each other. We share examples of planning, work and assessment. Here are the staff in action...
