Curriculum Overview

Curriculum Intent

At Moreton Church of England Primary School it is our INTENT that our curriculum provides an excellent foundation for our children to develop as learners fulfilling their potential to make a difference in our world.  Our vision and values are at the core of everything we do.  They underpin our teaching and learning, and provide an environment which prepares our pupils to be inquisitive and creative learners, who fulfil their potential with a love and passion to do God’s work.  We want to be able to foster a culture of aspiration and self-belief by providing a supportive and challenging learning environment.  The aim of our provision is to encourage and foster a love of learning by developing key learning behaviours; we believe that this is the key to academic success.  These behaviours form the basis of everything we do and how we behave in and around school, from EYFS to Year 6, in all aspects of school life.  

Our provision is based on the understanding that learning is a change to long-term memory.  Our curriculum drivers shape our curriculum and through our strong links with the local farming community, we will develop outdoor experiences and forest school activities to develop our children as thoughtful members of our community. 

At Moreton, we will provide:

• A unique curriculum experience built on knowledge and rich vocabulary
• A curriculum where prior knowledge provides the roots for future learning opportunities
• A broad and balanced curriculum which distinguishes between subject topics and threshold concepts to bring together those subjects in a meaningful way
• Learning journey where the same concepts are explored through a wide breadth of topics to gradually build confidence and a greater depth of understanding of them
• The practice of skills to become embedded, feeling secure before learning is moved on
• Challenge in pupils learning opportunities on a daily basis
• A curriculum that is progressive and based on prior learning
• A curriculum which encompasses our learning behaviours to develop children to become creative, inquisitive, motivated, respectful, healthy and to make a difference in the world

Our school’s catchment area extends from Stanford Rivers and Toot Hill in the south up to Magdalene Laver in the north, also taking in High Laver and, of course, Moreton. However, children travel from as far afield as Chipping Ongar, Shelley, Matching and Harlow (some even further!) to come to our school. We are an inclusive school and welcome the diversity that a wide range of personalities and abilities brings to our community.

Whether you are new to the school or a returning parent it is very important to us that children feel comfortable and secure at all times, therefore we strongly recommend you contact the school, via the office to arrange a tour. 

We have a 5-point transition for those children joining us in EYFS. This takes place throughout the Summer term and into September. The transition starts with an information evening where parents have the opportunity to discuss school procedures with the headteacher and EYFS class teacher. There are opportunities for your child to spend time in their new class and even have some lunch in order to become familiar with the new surroundings. We then continue building a complete picture of each child by visiting their pre-school/nursery and home.  Parents will be sent details of these visits by the school office.

Implementation

Our curriculum design is based on evidence from cognitive science and three main principles underpin it:

• Learning is most effective with spaced repetition
• Subjects will be woven and mixed rather than blocked
• Retrieval of the previously learned content will be frequent and regular

Therefore, whilst we teach specific subjects these are linked with other subjects to strengthen pupils learned content.  The main 2-year overview indicates the key elements that structure our creative curriculum and how our it will be IMPLEMENTED.  Each topic is planned using the whole school curriculum map, below, which shows the skills the children will learn throughout their half term/term.  At the beginning of a topic we have an inspiring entry called the ‘key’ to open the learning by giving a purpose to the learning journey.  At the end of the topic a ‘padlock’ is used as a metaphor to secure the learning.

Where possible, we will use our outdoor environment to develop children’s passion to care for the world around them.  Lessons will have differentiated learning outcomes which ensure each child’s ability is catered for. The progression across the school will be monitored to make sure each class is challenging their children.

Impact

Learning cannot always be seen in the short term and sustained mastery takes time. The impact of our curriculum will be seen through our focus on the environment and natural world, which will spark children’s curiosity and passion for learning.  

Through different tasks and observations, we will make a judgement of the IMPACT of our curriculum by comparing pupils’ work over time.  We use pupil asset to record and evidence these judgements using a point in time assessment model.