Curriculum
Broad, balanced, enriched and relevant Curriculum
Children at Culmstock School follows the National Curriculum.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-primary-curriculum
This:
- provides children with an introduction to the essential knowledge that they need to be educated citizens. It introduces children to the best that has been thought and said; and helps engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement.
- is just one element in the education of every child. There is time and space in the school day and in each week, term and year to range beyond the national curriculum specifications.
The national curriculum provides an outline of core knowledge around which teachers can develop exciting and stimulating lessons to promote the development of pupils’ knowledge, understanding and skills as part of the wider school curriculum.
The curriculum is planned on a two year rolling programme. September 2023 we will be in Year A.
Structure
As a state school we must follow the national curriculum. The Secretary of State for Education is required to publish programmes of study for each national curriculum subject, setting out the ‘matters, skills and processes’ to be taught at each key stage. However schools are free to choose how they organise their school day, as long as the content of the national curriculum programmes of study is taught to all children.
At Culmstock the subjects are not always taught in isolation, learning is linked by planning through topics. We are a rural village school and take full advantage of our wonderful learning environment; the immediate grounds, the surrounding areas and the many areas of outstanding natural beauty.
How Culmstock delivers the National Curriculum
Our curriculum is influenced strongly by the principles of the Early Years Foundation stage: The Unique Child, Positive Relationships, Enabling Environments, and Learning and Development.
We believe that we should provide a creative curriculum with opportunities for our children to experience and succeed in many areas; a curriculum which reflects the fact that children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates. All areas of learning and development are important and interconnected. We need to provide a curriculum and environment for learning that enables the children to become successful.
The children will need to develop the essential skills of English, Mathematics, Science and Computing. However they also need to be able to express themselves through play, talk, song, music, drama, dance, arts, crafts, and design. They need to start to understand about the world in which they live. We need to provide for their physical development and good health. Our curriculum needs to provide for the social, personal and spiritual development of our children.
We do not believe our curriculum should just be about setting and meeting targets but about developing children who enjoy learning, experience success, are excited by the world around them and are motivated to achieve the best that they can.