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Our Curriculum

The Knavesmire Curriculum

Our primary objective is to fulfil our School Aims and live by our Knavesmire Character Values. We view education as an all encompassing task that develops our pupils academically and socially, safeguards their physical and mental well-being, and develops them as responsible members of our community.

Intent

Our curriculum construction begins with the knowledge we want our children to acquire during their time with us.

We have carefully identified what children should know at various milestones in each curriculum subject.

Implementation

Our knowledge-rich curriculum is delivered through our innovative, cross-curricular ‘Big Idea’ approach. This enables:

Knowledge to be explicitly taught and learnt.
Knowledge synthesis between disciplines.
Purposeful, enriching, and real-life approach to learning.
Metacognition and pupil’s ownership of learning.
Effective, linked and meaningful delivery of our intrinsic and enhancement curricula, shaped through the values of Knavesmire Character.

Our schemes of work ensure the National Curriculum outcomes are achieved. Each year-group works as a team and follows the same scheme of work which is carefully sequenced in order to ensure that children gain the same knowledge, skills and experiences.

Our current Long Term Plans

Nursery Long Term Plan 2023-24

Reception Long Term Plan 2023-24

Year 1 Long Term Plan 2023-24

Year 2 Long Term Plan 2023-24

Year 3 Long Term Plan 2023-24

Year 4 Long Term Plan 2023-24

Year 5 Long Term Plan 2023-24

Year 6 Long Term Plan 2023-24

Our Curriculum Specifics

Progression of Knowledge for Reading

https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/

Early Years Sequencing of Knowledge for Literacy

Year 1 Reading Knowledge Assessment Grid

Year 2 Reading Knowledge Assessment Grid

Year 3 Reading Knowledge Assessment Grid

Year 4 Reading Knowledge Assessment Grid

Year 5 Reading Knowledge Assessment Grid

Year 6 Reading Knowledge Assessment Grid

Find out more about Reading and Phonics here.

Progression of Knowledge for Writing

Year 1 Writing Knowledge Assessment Grid

Year 2 Writing Knowledge Assessment Grid

Year 3 Writing Knowledge Assessment Grid

Year 4 Writing Knowledge Assessment Grid

Year 5 Writing Knowledge Assessment Grid

Year 6 Writing Knowledge Assessment Grid

We have also generated a progression of sentence types that we expect the children to learn and develop through the year groups. Click here for an outline with examples.

Find out more about English here.

The Big Idea

It is designed by us, and galvanises the school’s Aims and Values, entwining academic ambition and pupil personal development.

Our Big Idea approach is centred around key subject-disciplinary questions that enable us to continuously assess whether children grasp the component knowledge (the small manageable chunks) to enable them to learn about a subject exceptionally well.

The aim is that children know more and remember more (and are able to apply what they know and remember) as a result of our well-sequenced curriculum.

Our curriculum experience

Intrinsic Curriculum

We believe in our aims of: knowing more; being positive; caring for each other; and succeeding together:

Attitudes to learning
Positive behaviour
Behaviours for learning
Learning routines
Ethic of accuracy
High expectations

Living the shared values of Knavesmire Character.

Enhancement curriculum

We believe that education should support personal growth:

Personal accountability
Leadership
Excitement
Community & partnerships
PSHE
SMSC
Relationships and Sex Education
Health education
Mental well-being
Emerging issues
Decision-making
Celebration

Creative activities that inspire every pupil to go further than they ever thought possible.

Academic curriculum

We believe in a rich, broad, balanced, and enriching curriculum:

Reading, Writing and Maths
Cross-curricular links
Cross-cutting themes
Catch-up and keep up intervention
Extended learning
Creative Thinking and Renzulli’s 3 Ringed Model
Online learning programmes eg. My Maths, Spelling Shed

Purposeful and ambitious learning for all pupils.

Elective Curriculum

We believe in meaningful education beyond the classroom:

After school programme
Trips and visits
School representation
Pupil Action Groups and pupil voice
Performances and events
Residential experiences
Community work
Arts and Sports

And 50 things you’ll do before you leave Knavesmire!

Would you like to know more about Our Curriculum?

At Knavesmire Primary School, all of our children follow a broad and balanced, empowering curriculum.

To know more is our first school aim so Knavesmire’s Curriculum is a knowledge-based, strategically planned, sequence of learning.

The National Curriculum is a statutory requirement in England. Progression in the long and medium term is assured through the school’s curriculum frameworks and schemes of work. Our schemes of work ensure the National Curriculum outcomes are achieved. Each year group works as a team and follows the same scheme of work in order to ensure that children gain the same knowledge, skills and experience.

Our Curriculum is The BIG IDEA.

Children are partners in their learning, there is in built flexibility, and educational benchmarks are clear. Progress is measurable. Attainment, achievement and broader educational outcomes are transparent. Challenge is from this sequencing of knowledge, engagement and motivation is from its delivery.

CURRICULUM INTENT

The school BIG IDEA Intent is principle and value based, as it is this, which guarantees impact and excellent educational outcomes for all of its pupils.

Knavesmire’s Curriculum is with a capital C, as it is the all, the everything, the universal set. All pupils and stakeholders ‘sing from the same script’. There is purpose and intensity to learning. It is broad, balanced, enriching.

Driving the school Aims and Values, the principles of the Curriculum are:

Purpose – purpose is the point, the reason, the why something is being learnt. With this as a principle of the Curriculum, pupils join the dots. Their network of knowledge creates the whole picture approach.
Interest – learning is exciting and must be exciting. It motivates, inspires, cements ambition and forms goals. It is diverse, broad, relevant and develops pupils.
Ownership – we know our pupils and we are ambitious for every child. We use National Curriculum benchmarks so we can be held to account, but our bespoke Curriculum is drawn from our Values, for our pupils, inclusively, so every child can achieve their very best.
Substantive and Disciplinary Knowledge – prerequisite substantive knowledge is the bedrock of our learning. These are the foundations that all learning is built upon.
Creative Thinking – is the disciplinary knowledge of the Curriculum. The reasoning in Maths, the enquiry in Science. It is the tactics in Sport and the ability to lead a healthy life, and the application in MFL. It is creative thinking that makes learning more than memory, and the future proofing of pupil’s next steps.

All learning is impactful, efficient, and effective.

CURRICULULM IMPLEMENTATION

Pupils are both partners in learning, and in their curriculum shape. This ownership ensures accountability and enthusiasm, and a passion and excitement for learning.

Pupil’s questions create the Learning Journey that maps out their route to achieve their Guiding Purpose or answer their Guiding Question. This ensures teaching is built on previous knowledge. This Guiding Purpose or Guiding Question provides the purpose to learning – an end goal that is relevant and is achievable – and a process that can be evaluated and improved.

Substantive and Disciplinary Knowledge is integrated into a curriculum. Pupils understand about the recycling of knowledge such that discrete subject knowledge is built on to accelerate progress.

The enrichment and diversity of the curriculum enthuses learners and teachers, creating heightened ambition and high standards across the full breadth of the curriculum. Its diversity showcases talents and conceives inspiration. Inbuilt flexibility embraces New Technologies and fosters knowledge of a fast changing world.

Breadth of quality of provision is built on expertise of staff and well-developed, sustainable partnerships. Learning is systematically planned.

A sense of community at school, local, and international level flows through a curriculum rich in relevance for Knavesmire’s pupils. Pupils embrace an understanding of their place in their community through:

developing empathy, care, and an ownership of behaviour in the school community;
creating partnerships and accountability in the local community; preparing for our future through innovation and enterprise, and social responsibility in the national community;
and using information and communication skills necessary in a changing world to develop our role in the international community.

Pastoral responsibility is developed through an emphasis of choice and decision making – and individual and collective spiritual growth.

CURRICULULM IMPACT

The evolution of a bespoke curriculum is dependant of a clear shared goal, core principles and robust foundations to build upon.

The model of giftedness in Renzulli’s three-ringed model, and the key principle of creative thinking as a key element outlines not only expectation, but the curriculum’s vision and core purpose. The continued growth of the curriculum builds on the shared principles of relevance and purpose, creativity and ownership – but the accountability to acquisition of knowledge is its key evaluative criteria.

The Curriculum’s continued evaluation, growth and improvement – is equally as key as its uniqueness, diversity, and spiritual/cultural accountability. The BIG IDEA Curriculum is accountable to all stakeholders, and is evidenced through measurable outstanding outcomes for all pupils. It is significant in its contribution to an outstanding school.

The Knavesmire Curriculum

Intent

Implementation

Our current Long Term Plans

Our Curriculum Specifics

Progression of Knowledge for Reading

Progression of Knowledge for Writing

Mathematics Knowledge Sequencing

Maths Calculation Knowledge Sequencing

Science

History

Geography

RE

PE

PSHE and RSHE

Modern Foreign Languages

Computing

Art & Design

Design & Technology

Music