‘Curiosity, Knowledge and Aspiration’

Our Wider Curriculum aims to offer a broad and balanced curriculum, that gives all our learners the opportunity to gain the knowledge and understanding that will lay the foundation of success both in further education, and future life.

Teaching and learning is designed to be inclusive, and facilitate personal and academic success, that will play a part in raising our pupils’ aspirations, increase their cultural capital, and challenging social injustice.

Our goal is for children to become independent learners, intrinsically motivated, with an innate curiosity that will prepare them for the next stage of their learning journey.

Effective teaching will:

• Revisit ‘big ideas’ over time to gain a secure understanding, and knowledge base
• Draw links between concepts
• Introduce new content in a coherent teaching sequence
• Encourage metacognition
• Encourage curiosity, and a thirst for knowledge
• Encourage further study, and foster high aspirations for academic and personal development

Our Curriculum and Continuing Profession Development

To teach a carefully sequenced, coherent curriculum, that builds on prior learning and addresses misconceptions, teachers must have a sound knowledge of the key concepts and principles of each discipline.

This knowledge should encompass the nature of a subject, the appropriate pedagogies to teach that subject and a strong awareness of how that subject appears in the curriculum - that is, ‘what is being taught when, how and why’.

To achieve this, continuing professional development is essential. At All Souls’, our teachers will continue to expand their subject knowledge throughout their career. It is essential to effective teaching, for motivating and inspiring pupils, and for helping them to succeed academically, and be ready for each subsequent stage of their education.

Our Curriculum

Our curriculum is knowledge rich, and supports our philosophy that all learning should facilitate the development of children’s curiosity, knowledge and aspirations.

We focus on four learning stages:

Engage stage- Whilst building on prior learning, children will have memorable, first-hand experiences to begin their learning journey. This could be anything from a visitor to the school, or a trip out to the local area. It may also entail initial research into each new subject area, developing language related to the discipline, or having sensory experiences.

Develop stage - Children will ‘dig deeper’ in order to develop their knowledge and understanding in each area of the curriculum. This will include explicit teaching, investigating, exploring, and researching.

Innovate stage- Children will develop and apply their new learning, and be challenged to build on, and consolidate their learning as much as possible.

Express stage - Children will have opportunities to communicate what they have learnt and recognise their achievements. This may be through parent open afternoons, sharing with the church and local community, or other year groups and performances. 

The curriculum is based on a two-year rolling programme to ensure that all objectives from the National Curriculum are covered in each Key Stage.

MFL (French) is taught is Key Stage Two, and follows the Salut scheme of work. Science, as a core subject, follows the Snap Science scheme (building of EYFS early learning goals, particularly ‘The Natural World’; R.E. teaching follows the ‘Understanding Christianity’ Curriculum.