Our Curriculum Statement

At Arboretum Primary School, every member of staff is committed to giving our children the best possible education. We know that children only get one chance, therefore in line with our trust vision; we want our children and young people to be able to ‘experience life in all its fullness’. (taken from John 10:10)

Our aim is for every child to be successful, enjoy learning and be suitably equipped to move on to secondary school with the skills, knowledge and understanding that will enable them to thrive as effective citizens of the 21st century. We want to build the foundations for learning which in turn make our children enthusiastic, life-long learners.  We aim to give them the skills and knowledge that will open doors to their future educational and life success. We want our children to be responsible, independent and caring; resilient and honest with a personal ambition and drive to aspire to do their very best. 

We acknowledge that the school curriculum incorporates all experiences that we offer to the children. As a result, we evaluate our school curriculum regularly to ensure that it continues to meet the developing needs of our children and community. Our curriculum defines what we want our children to experience, know and be able to do by the time they leave our school. We call this the ‘Arboretum promise’.

Our curriculum has, at its core, the National Curriculum. We believe that an exciting, engaging, and effective curriculum is essential to enable high quality teaching and learning to take place. We have designed our curriculum to ensure that it is based around the development of progressive knowledge and skills, leading ultimately to understanding. This design ensures concepts become embedded in children’s long term memory, enabling them to know more, do more and remember more, whilst applying this across the curriculum. Our design allows for cross-curricular teaching, as we believe that this ensures that the content is relevant to our pupils, enabling them to put their knowledge into context. 

Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage follow topics that address the requirements of the EYFS Curriculum, and enable all children to make progress across the three Prime Areas of Learning and four Specific Areas of Learning. In Reception, the children engage in a structured phonics approach, Read Write Inc, which enables them to develop early reading and writing skills. Our EYFS curriculum has a strong focus on the basic skills of reading, writing and maths, as we know that children must have a good grasp of these skills in order to make progress across the wider curriculum and as they move through to KS1.

Children in KS1 continue to develop phonological awareness through our Read, Write Inc provision.  Those pupils in KS2 who are new to the country or not proficient in these skills, continue to receive this important provision.  We are set according to stage, not age. 

In KS1 and KS2, children follow the school’s bespoke curriculum with a strong focus on the core skills of English and Maths. Our Maths and English teaching is well-structured and we are confident that our delivery of the NC in these subjects ensures progression through the core skills. Our broader curriculum of all other subjects is designed by looking at the key skills, knowledge and understanding required by the NC; creating a foundation structure to meet these and then identifying appropriate topics to contextualise and meet our children’s interests that will enable these skills to be taught. 

Our Orchard pupils follow a bespoke curriculum that is based on the core knowledge and topics at a developmentally appropriate level.  This design is based on the whole school curriculum, thereby promoting inclusivity.

Topics studied are designed to be relevant, motivating and engaging for the children and inclusive of all groups of children and individuals across the school.  We also use elements of commercial schemes where we feel these complement our ambitious curriculum design.  Our rationale for the use of these can be found within our subject specific intent statements.

Learning beyond the classroom is firmly embedded within our curriculum design. Children undertake regular educational visits linked to their core knowledge and topics studied.  Visitors are invited into school frequently yet purposefully. We recognise the important role our parents play in their child’s education and as such they are a key feature, taking part in regular curriculum activities. We also actively support learning at home and share information with parents so that they are able to support and encourage their children’s learning outside of school. 

Our assessment processes have been developed over time to encompass both formative and summative assessment processes. These enable us to make accurate judgements of both attainment and progress ensuring that all children are supported to be the best they can be and are supported to ‘Reach for the Stars.’

The intended impact of our curriculum is to develop well-rounded, confident children who achieve their personal best and are well prepared to leave us to move to the next stage of their education, ready for the exciting new challenges ahead.