The Curriculum at Crane Park

At Crane Park Primary  School, we encourage all children to: Aspire to be successful learners who enjoy learning; Believe in themselves to make progress and achieve and become confident individuals who are able to live safe and fulfilling lives; Achieve as responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society. 

Our aim is to deliver a curriculum which is enjoyed by all and is fit for the 21st century. There is a high focus on developing children’s moral, spiritual, social and cultural understanding. The school’s focus on curriculum development has been carefully designed to ensure coverage and progression. The children's own community is frequently used as a starting point for engaging interest. For example, we have close links with the Crane Park Learning Zone (based at the Shot Tower) where children enjoy visits to promote their learning.  We aim to provide pupils with memorable experiences, in addition to diverse and rich opportunities from which children can learn and develop a range of transferable skills. We recognise that the children need both a sense of valuing themselves, and developing aspirations for their future and for their community. From year 3 onwards, children learn Spanish or French which enables the children to gain an understanding of learning an additional language. 

At Crane Park Primary School we believe that our curriculum should be rich, exciting, engaging and inspiring, and meet the needs of all children whatever their ability. Our school curriculum includes the requirements of the National Curriculum and the knowledge, skills and activities that meet the need of our school community. There is also a range of extra-curricular activities that the school organises in order to enrich the experiences of the children. Through our curriculum, our intention is to provide opportunities for the children to develop both knowledge and skills, promoting critical thinking and equip them with the ability to apply a deeper understanding to new concepts and link together concepts previously taught. We follow a child-led enquiry based curriculum based on the interests of the children so that it is both enjoyable and purposeful. 

Crane Park Primary School has identified values to support our aims. Our values have evolved through discussion with children, staff, parents and Governors.

We aim to teach our children to be prepared for their future, have the skills to succeed, know how to think and learn in order to overcome whatever challenges they might meet and to make the most of every opportunity. 

2. School Values and Aims 

Our curriculum is underpinned by our school values and moral purpose. These are: 

Aspire: Aspiration and Kindness 

Believe: Respect, Integrity and Co-Operation

Achieve: Responsibility and Aspiration 

We aim to be a school where: 

• All members of the school community are valued and respected as individuals for the contribution they make to the life of the school; 
• All children are encouraged to develop respect and care for themselves, for others and for the world in which they live; 
• All children have equality of opportunity to participate in a rich, exciting, engaging and inspiring curriculum, equipping them for the future; 
• Opportunities are provided through the curriculum and extra-curricular activities to extend children’s talents 
• Good behaviour is actively promoted and children develop a sense of self-discipline and an acceptance of responsibility for their own actions; 
• The involvement of parents and the community is promoted and encouraged, so as to support successful learning; 
• We are compassionate, focusing on what we share in common whilst developing empathy. 

3. Curriculum intention 

Our intention is to ensure that every child receives a rich, exciting, engaging and inspiring education. This is based on more than the objectives from the National Curriculum programmes of study and includes specific school focused speaking and listening objectives and has been mapped out in our curriculum plans. 

4. Curriculum implementation 

The implementation of our curriculum is based on cross curricular links where appropriate, wow days to introduce a topic or concept, a range of texts to link English with our foundation subjects and links made across the curriculum and the wider curriculum. 

Our values are linked to each year group’s curriculum and we acknowledge what we do to consolidate children’s understanding of each value in school. 

Staff plan in a collaborative way to ensure pace, challenge and consistency. Staff also share their varied expertise to support their colleagues in developing the quality of education for the children. This is achieved through peer learning, team teaching and Staff Continued Professional Learning (CPL) opportunities. 

We deliver our curriculum by supporting, guiding and inspiring our children through excellent teaching practices. By working with our families we will create an aspirational school community in which everyone is valued and successes are celebrated. High quality visits and visitors enhance the curriculum and provide opportunities for writing for a purpose. We encourage the children to take part in fun activity days such as World Book Day, plus many other specially themed days where the children can dress up, create projects and models and experience a totally different school day and further enhance their Topic in their year group. 

We expect all children and staff to have high aspirations in order to perform and succeed. 

5. Curriculum objectives 

The objectives of our school curriculum are: 

• To enable all children to learn and develop their skills to the best of their ability 
• To promote a positive attitude towards learning, so that children enjoy coming to school, and acquire a sound basis for lifelong learning 
• To teach, and achieve high standards in, the basic skills of English and Maths 
• To enable children to think creatively and to develop their problem solving skills 
• To enable children to acquire knowledge and skills in Science 
• To enable children to be confident in the use of computing 
• To teach children about how their environment and society have changed over time 
• To help children understand Britain’s cultural heritage 
• To understand, value and respect diversity, and the contribution made by all groups to our multicultural society 
• To enable children to experience learning an additional language 
• To enable children to be positive citizens in their community and wider society 
• To promote physical and mental development and an awareness of the importance of a healthy lifestyle 
• To enable children to be aware of the importance of, and participate in, the arts 
• To develop children’s personal and social skills 
• To promote spiritual development 

6. Organisation and Planning 

In order to provide continuity and progression, the curriculum is planned in three parts. 

- We agree a long term plan for each year group, building on the learning and experiences children bring year on year and from Early Years and KS1 into KS2, setting out which areas are to be taught across each year group over the school year. 

- Our medium term plans show specific objectives to be taught within each area of the curriculum over the period of a term. 

- Our short term plans are those that our teachers write on a weekly or daily basis. These are used to set out the learning objectives for each lesson, based on prior knowledge and understanding and focused on the next steps of learning for each child. 

We endeavour to make curriculum links in order to maximise the opportunities for developing reading, writing, speaking and listening and maths skills across other subjects. Our PSHE lessons provide children with opportunities to discuss and learn about personal health, wellbeing, safety, relationships (including anti-bullying work), differences and aspirations. The Thrive approach is currently being developed into our school curriculum and offers our children the chance to raise questions, discuss important issues, 

learn to listen to others views and share their own thoughts. 

Over the course of an academic year, children have the opportunity to experience the full range of subjects, although there may be a focus on one term on history, then geography the following term. 

Extra-Curricular Activities 

We endeavour to extend the curriculum by offering a range of before and after school activities, mainly delivered by specialist coaches or teachers. To promote physical health and wellbeing, a range of extra-curricular clubs gives learners an opportunity to access a variety of sports clubs after school hours such as basketball, Gymnastics and a variety of additional clubs such as cookery. 

7. Inclusion 

The curriculum is designed to be inclusive and ensures that the needs of individual and small groups of children can be met within the environment of high quality first wave teaching, supported by targeted, proven interventions where appropriate. In this way it can be seen to impact in a very positive way on pupil outcomes. The curriculum is designed to be accessed by all children. If we think it necessary to modify some children’s access to the curriculum, in order to best meet their needs, then we do this in consultation with our SENCO and parents. 

If children have specific special needs, we endeavour to meet these as set out in our SEND Policy. 

We aim to challenge children by differentiating learning effectively and through challenging their thinking and through enrichment activities. 

8. Roles and Responsibilities 

The Headteacher, Deputy Head and SLT are responsible for overseeing the day to day organisation of the curriculum through: 

• Tracking pupil progress in Reading, Writing and Maths and reviewing formally with teachers on a termly basis 
• Monitoring planning and carrying our work sampling 
• Observing learning and teaching, including that of intervention groups 
• Formal and informal discussions with staff 
• Discussion with pupils 

Parents are made aware of the curriculum through our start of year Welcome meetings and through the newsletter. Regularly, parents receive an updated review of the objectives for the year group across all subjects so that they can support their children’s learning at home. 

Subject Leaders monitor and review the way the subjects they are responsible for are taught throughout the school. Each subject leader reviews the curriculum plans for their subject, ensuring there is full coverage of the National Curriculum and that progression is planned into schemes of work. Subject leaders and Year Group leaders have been involved in the review of the curriculum to ensure the progression of skills and knowledge is implemented across the school. They each collate evidence and engage in monitoring activities such as book looks, questionnaires to staff and they hold pupil 

interviews in order to check on knowledge and skill acquisition. Subjects are planned to ensure progression of knowledge and skills across school. It is the role of each subject leader to keep up to date with developments in their subject at both national and local level, thereby providing a strategic lead and direction for the subject alongside supporting and advising colleagues. 

Class teachers are responsible for the day to day planning and delivery of the curriculum within their year groups, and assessing children’s learning to monitor how successfully their aims have been achieved. Through Planning, Preparation and Assessment time, staff meet and discuss the outcomes of the lessons through monitoring the past weeks’ learning and prepare for the week ahead. 

We belong to a number of partnerships which support curriculum planning, delivery and provides opportunities for the monitoring and moderation of standards. 

9. Curriculum impact 

We are continually reviewing and developing the curriculum as a staff with the intention of improving children’s learning. 

The Teaching and Learning Committee of the Governing body is responsible for monitoring the way the school curriculum is implemented. This includes reviews of specific subject policies in line with the school’s monitoring and evaluation schedule. 

The impact we are aiming for is to raise standards across the school (applying their English and Maths skills to foundation subjects in the wider curriculum) and our aim includes an increase in enjoyment for what the children are learning and relevance for the children to help them in the future. We encourage them to make connections between what they are learning to have full impact. 

The impact of our curriculum will not only be measured by assessment procedures which allow us to measure outcomes against all schools nationally but also achieved through monitoring activities such as: pupil voice, subject standards reports, monitoring and evaluation activities such as book looks and pupil conferencing. Meetings with our School Council allow pupils to feedback ideas about the curriculum and whether our intention has been met. Our curriculum is measured by how effectively it helps our pupils develop into well rounded individuals who embody our values and carry with them the knowledge, skills and attitudes which will make them lifelong learners and valuable future citizens.