CURRICULUM PRINCIPLES

We are committed to providing quality and excellence through an exciting, stimulating environment that stretches and develops the child as a whole and to provide an education which will develop social skills and encourage children to become more active citizens within the school community and beyond.

Creative teaching leads to creative learning.

Tell me and I forget,

Show me and I remember,

Involve me and I understand.

Creative learning encourages a climate for young people to explore how to apply their knowledge in original ways and with purpose.

CURRICULUM AIMS

The Curriculum has three broad aims. It should enable all young people to become:

1) Successful learners who enjoy learning make progress and achieve

2) Confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives

3) Responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society

Within each whole school theme, children should be practising the ‘essentials for learning’.  They include Literacy, Numeracy, ICT capability, Learning and Thinking skills and Personal, Emotional and Social skills.  These essentials for learning should be the basis for the objectives in each lesson. If you require further information abouth the curriculum in our school, please contact the school office to make an appointment with the Head Teacher.

English

Here at Costock we believe that good communication skills are of prime importance. Our pupils develop expertise in speaking, listening, reading and writing during daily literacy sessions linked to the requirements of the National Curriculum. We aim to achieve very high standards of literacy throughout the school. Our pupils learn to become confident, enthusiastic and critical readers of fiction, poetry and non-fiction texts and also support one another through our weekly buddy reading sessions in school.

We follow Read Write Inc when teaching phonics in the Early Years and Key Stage 1.

Maths

Maths is taught daily following the requirements of the National Numeracy Strategy. Our pupils have the opportunity to practice and consolidate their skills and knowledge and to develop and extend their techniques and strategies.

 

Further details on these areas of our curriculum are available if required - please contact the school office in the first instance.

Please visit our Class pages on this webiste to see the curriculum plans specific to each class.

You may find the following guide useful in respect of the National Curriculum National Curriculum Parents Complete Guide 

Religious Education

Details about the RE curriculum can be found in this document Rolling Curriculum RE  

Physical Education

Details about the rolling PE curriculum can be found in this document PE Curriculum long term plan 

Relationships and Sex Education

Details about the RSE curriculum can be found in this document RSE Curriculum Overview and RSE Curriculum Statement  

The Learning Challenge Curriculum at Costock C of E Primary School 

We hope that from the moment pupils’ start with us they embark on their most exciting learning journey ever.  We believe children learn best when they are actively engaged in their own learning and it is for this reason that we are putting so much effort, energy and enthusiasm into our Learning Challenge Curriculum.  We have worked with education consultants Focus Education to introduce the ‘Learning Challenge Curriculum’.

What is the Difference between the National Curriculum and the Learning Challenge Curriculum?

The National Curriculum outlines the essentials that every child must learn, for example it outlines that children must learn to read but does not determine which texts they should read, It outlines the main geographic and historical principles and key events that need to be taught but does not determine how children should learn them. 

The National Curriculum is only one part of the much broader curriculum children should experience at school, it should not be all that children learn.  At Costock C of E Primary we have developed our teaching and learning based on the Learning Challenge Curriculum.  Our Curriculum is central to teaching and learning at Costock C of E Primary, it is constantly under review and evaluation and is kept fresh by the contributions made by learners. 

What is the learning Challenge Curriculum?

It is a curriculum which starts with the learner.  We believe all learning starts with a BIG Question and from that other questions, or subsidiary questions arise, at various points along the way.  Each half term or term pupils' work with teachers to plan their own BIG question and subsidiary questions based on their Learning Challenge.  This ensures pupils are motivated and well engaged because they are learning about things that interest and excite them. BIG Question – BIG Response

How are the basic skills taught?

We put a strong focus on the basic skills of reading, writing, oracy, mathematics and technology, as we believe these skills are essential to success.  These basic skills are closely linked to the National Curriculum and all year groups put so much emphasis on these skills that they have their own non-negotiables in these areas, which grow as the year progresses.  Teachers plan around the needs of their pupils, and ensure that the basic skills are a strong feature of learning.  During a Learning Challenge teachers may take a cross curricular approach which means that several areas of the curriculum may be developed at the same time, or specific skills may be developed through a unit block of learning.  All Learning Challenges take an enquiry based approach where pupils help to decide upon what they will find out about and formulate their own questions. Teachers, skilfully, weave aspects of what pupils want to find out about into a series of lessons to ensure pupils acquire the skills and knowledge they need. Throughout the Learning Challenge pupils have multiple opportunities to practise and embed the basic skills of reading, writing, maths, oracy and technology.  

What are some examples of Learning Challenges pupils have tackled?

We have had trialled different learning topics. We hope you will agree that Costock pupils' have helped devise a truly exciting set of Learning Challenges. We are sure there will be several new ones to add in the future.

Would a dinosaur make a good pet? Why are Rainforest important to us? Would the Beatles have won X factor? Were the Vikings really viscous?

Rolling Curriculum Overview

The curriculum topic maps which show how the topic links into the areas of the curriculum for each Learning Challenge can be found on the individual class page.

For information regarding our remote learning provision, please see the ''Costock Remote Learning Provision" document in the Policies page under the Key Information tab.