Primary Curriculum
tHE VISION OF THE AMBITIOUS PRIMARY CURRICULUM AT GILDREDGE HOUSE
Throughout the Primary phase, we seek to continue from the excellent start from the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), by providing a caring and supportive learning environment, developing firm foundations to be built upon throughout the students’ school journey and beyond.
Just as in the EYFS stage, we aim for the students’ school experiences to be happy, active, exciting, fun and secure, while allowing them to take risks and develop their growth mindset through giving students opportunities to see that mistakes are not failure, but opportunities to learn. Students are actively encouraged to engage in their learning, both inside and outside the classroom and to develop physically, verbally, creatively and intellectually, while embedding a positive attitude to their learning.
We believe that kindness, consideration for others, resilience, perseverance and courage are all equally as important life skills, as academic attainment. Through our Gildredge House Way of being ‘Ready, Respectful and Safe’, we encourage our students to relate to one another with confidence, care, openness, and respect. We believe that a strong partnership with parents influences the good attitudes to learning at home and in school.
CURRICULUM INTENT STATEMENT
At Gildredge House, we provide a progressive, ambitious and inclusive curriculum that is rich in language for all learners. This:
1. Prepares students for future careers, with appropriate knowledge and skills.
2. Creates aspiration for lifelong learning.
3. Develop independent, resilient people who positively contribute to their own lives and the wider community.
VALUES
The values that underpin our curriculum are:
| Ambition | Support | Perseverance | Integrity | Reflection | Empathy |
ATTITUDE TO LEARNING
| READY | RESPECTFUL | SAFE |
| · Ready for Learning | · Appreciating the actions of those around you | · Allowing others to learn |
| · Ready to do the right thing | · Sharing things with others | · Looking after the school environment and the wider environment |
| · Ready to admit when something has gone wrong | · Being polite to those around you | · Making good choices |
| · Ready to put things right |
Implementation
Our three key intentions are used to drive curriculum implementation, alongside appropriately evaluated educational research. With these in mind, the Primary curriculum is designed to provide a broad and balanced education that meets the needs of the students. At Gildredge House, we believe that this should build on the students’ starting points when they leave the EYFS.
In the Primary phase, the students from Years 1-6 follow the National Curriculum. As we know that Primary students learn best when they are able to make connections across their learning, we plan termly themes in History, Geography, Science and Art and Design, with the students generating the questions they want to find out the answers to as a starting point.
Our Subject Coordinators ensure that the different curriculum areas are progressive in terms of their objectives, with opportunities to revisit learning to ensure it is embedded.
Being an all-through school provides Gildredge House with a unique opportunity to ensure that the curriculum offer continues into Key Stage 3 and beyond, as students move through the Primary phase, having access to Secondary specialist teaching in Physical Education, Computer Science and Science. Key Stage 2 classes in French, Spanish, PE, Science and Computing, and for the whole school we access Music teaching provision from Create Music.
Curriculum Principles
- Each subject has time to contribute effectively to learning.
- High quality texts.
- Reading, first and foremost.
- Sequencing of concepts and progression of knowledge and skills.
- Closing the vocabulary gap.
- The promotion and use of an accurate and rich cross-curricular vocabulary throughout the Primary phase, planned in all subjects.
Wider Curriculum
- Students offered the opportunity to learn a musical instrument.
- Students offered the opportunity to be part of a student leadership group.
- Educational visits, including residential opportunities.
- Student-led assemblies and performances.
- Visitors.
- Learning outside the classroom.
- Responding to events in the news.
- Charity events led by students.
- Competitive sports opportunities.
- Wide range of extra-curricular activities on offer from Key Stage 2.
- Visits to sites of historic, spiritual and cultural importance.