Curriculum
A Knowledge Rich Curriculum
At Langdale we provide our children with an engaging, exciting and empowering curriculum, which prepares and equips them with the knowledge, skills and understanding for life in modern Britain and the twenty first century.
At the heart of our curriculum is our school’s vision:
"Together we strive for excellence, driven by a pride in our achievements and our ambition to succeed. We are resilient in the face of challenges, supporting one another and never giving up. We are united in our pursuit of a brighter future, where every member of our school community can be champions for life."
Our curriculum is knowledge rich and ambitious.
How is our curriculum knowledge rich?
Our principles for a knowledge rich curriculum:
- Knowledge is specified
- Knowledge is well sequenced and connections are made
- Core knowledge is taught to be remembered
- Knowledge and skills are intrinsically linked
Knowledge is specified
Throughout the 3 weeks block the knowledge that is taught is carefully chosen so that the children are able to answer a specific enquiry question at the end of the block. The knowledge taught is broken down into small steps.
Knowledge and concepts are well sequenced
The knowledge that we have chosen is sequenced to build up over time.
Medium term plans show the rationale for each block and where it fits into the whole school jigsaw. Subject specific concepts are planned to show where links are made to each year group.
Connections are made across the curriculum in order to provide children with essential background knowledge needed to access the next stage. For example in Year 3 children learn about Italy and it’s position in Europe before learning about how the Romans invaded Britain. In KS1 the children learn about the countries of the United Kingdom so that when they are studying Anglo Saxons the Scots and the Vikings they have secure knowledge of where Scotland is.
Knowledge is taught to be remembered
Subject leaders have identified the ‘core knowledge’ that they want children to remember in each block. This is shown on the pupil knowledge organiser. Core knowledge is retrieved and reviewed at all opportunities to ensure that it is retained.
Subjects are taught discretely because we want our children to understand and appreciate the uniqueness of each discipline. For example we want our children to leave in year 6 understanding what History is and what Historians do. Each subject is taught over a 3 week ‘block’.
Knowledge and skills are intrinsically linked
We believe that if you want to develop skills you have to teach the knowledge. Children need substantive knowledge to make meaning.
For example, you can’t analyse a source in History if you don’t have the background knowledge and you can’t think critically without having something critically to think about.
Subject leaders have written skills progression documents for each subject. Skills are taught and are woven into each lesson where appropriate.
What does a knowledge rich lesson look like?
Our teaching and learning structure is based on Rosenshine’s principals of instruction:
- Retrieval practice
- Explicit focus on vocabulary
- Explicit teaching of new learning broken down into small steps.
- Models and scaffolds to support the children.
- Questioning to check for understanding.
- Independent tasks
The opportunity for retrieval is important and is an integral part to all of our lessons. Spaced retrieval opportunities are also planned for.
How do we plan for Cultural Capital?
The government have placed great emphasis on schools developing Cultural capital. Cultural capital is the essential knowledge that children need to prepare them for their future success. It is about giving children the best possible start to their early education.
At Langdale, we see Cultural capital as the accumulation of knowledge, attitudes, habits, language and possessions that enables individuals to demonstrate their cultural competence and social status. Our school plays a crucial role in developing this through immersing children in dance and music, visiting theatres, galleries and historic sites and by introducing them to literature and art. This is further developed through the range of texts the children are exposed to and the vocabulary that they are taught and expected to use.
Embedding cultural capital into our curriculum is a way of closing the gap between children from differing socio-economic backgrounds by ensuring that children from all backgrounds have the same opportunities in society to achieve their full potential.
Enhanced Curriculum
Our enhanced curriculum aims to run alongside and compliments the National Curriculum, but aims to broaden the horizons of our children and links to our school's values. The opportunities offered, aim to provide our children with unique experiences outside of the National Curriculum.
We broaden horizons by developing global learners, which underpins all of our values, by planning for opportunities to be aware of the wider world and its current issues and to understand and respect cultural diversity and differences with an understanding of how the world works and encourage participation in the community at a range of levels, from the local to the global. We teach our children to make the world a more sustainable place and to take responsibility for their actions. We do this by providing learning linked to:
- International/Cultural understanding
- Respect for others and our differences
- Community participation (local and global)
- Sustainability and environmental issues
- Challenging stereotypes
Impact
Pupils leave Langdale Primary School with a secure understanding of the academic content; with the understanding of how to be socially, morally, spiritually and culturally responsible and aware; how to make positive contributions to the local community and how to endeavour to be the best that they can be. We aim for all of our children to leave Langdale respectful, skilful, ambitious and with a thirst for life and all it has to offer.
