Curriculum
The Newington Curriculum has been designed to give our pupils the learning experiences to develop and thrive both academically and personally. We ensure full National Curriculum coverage whilst tailoring our content through a curriculum which is specifically designed for the needs and context of our pupils.
Our Curriculum Statement outlines our approach to the curriculum, including our intent, implementation and impact:
NCPS Curriculum Statement
Basic Principles
- Our Curriculum Statement encompasses our provision for pupils at Newington Community Primary School, based on their academic development and their personal development.
- Learning is a change to long term memory.
Intent
The content and structure of our curriculum is designed with the following goals in mind:
1) To give pupils appropriate experiences and understandings, to develop as confident, happy and responsible citizens,
2) To provide all of our pupils with a rich ‘cultural capital’,
3) To provide a coherent, structured, academic curriculum that leads to sustained knowledge and understanding for all pupils.
1) Appropriate experiences
Our curriculum is shaped by our curriculum drivers. These are derived from the aims and values of the school, and needs of our community:
Citizenship: Pupils understand their role as a responsible and engaged citizen: of our school, the locality, our country and the international community.
Aspirations: Pupils have an understanding of the possibilities for their future lives and understand how to get there, aspiring to experiences and careers which will bring them fulfilment and happiness.
Diversity: Pupils have an understanding and respect for those who are different from ourselves, knowing the contributions and value of diversity in our communities.
Health: Pupils know that their mental and physical health is a priority for themselves and for our school community. Every area of school life is underpinned by the drive to help our pupils develop their strategies and habits, to be mentally and physically strong.
2) Cultural Capital
Cultural capital is the linguistic and cultural competences that will give pupils a greater knowledge of the world, to infer more meaning from what they read or hear. This includes being able to communicate in a clear and coherent way, drawing on a range of vocabulary to do this.
3) A coherently planned academic curriculum
To ensure that the curriculum drivers are fully realised, and that opportunities to develop cultural capital are embedded in learning, the academic curriculum sets out:
- A list of the breadth of topics that will be covered
- A curriculum planner for every unit, which details the curriculum coverage, skills and knowledge progressions and learning objectives
- A knowledge organiser which sets out the knowledge pupils should know and retain
- Curriculum sequencing to embed depth of understanding in every unit taught.
Implementation
Learning in each subject has been planned to ensure pupils build their knowledge, skills and understanding progressively from the Early Years to Year 6. Subjects are taught discreetly to ensure that our pupils develop a solid foundation in the skills and knowledge of every subject, achieving fully in the breadth and depth in that area of learning.
In addition to our academic content, our wider curriculum is a reflection of our commitment as a school to ensuring that our pupils all have a wide variety of experiences outside of the classroom. In order to enhance our academic curriculum, we incorporate a range of trips and visitors into our taught content.
Impact
The impact of our academic curriculum is that learning will have taken place- that is a change in long term memory, which means that the key information from the topic has been understood and retained. All pupils must secure this learning in order to succeed in further study. Throughout learning, pupils will consolidate this knowledge and use it in an increasingly flexible way, allowing the majority of pupils to develop a deep understanding of the content. A deep understanding refers to pupils retaining key knowledge, and using that knowledge to successfully approach non-routine problems. The knowledge gained through our academic curriculum will allow pupils to thrive academically, so that pupils are able to succeed in further study, beyond primary school.
The impact of our wider curriculum is that pupils experience a breadth of opportunities which allow them to thrive as healthy, well informed, responsible citizens who are able to contribute to society in a positive way.
The Curriculum Lead at NCPS is Mrs G Clements (Assistant Headteacher)
You can find out about each subject- policies, overviews and progression maps, here: