Curriculum Overview

Brownhills West Primary School has developed a well-resourced, intelligently sequenced, knowledge & skills - rich curriculum, informed by the best research evidence available. The curriculum is being constantly refined and our approach adapted based on feedback from teachers who teach the lessons. We will continue this feedback and refine cycle.

Materials are presented in a highly consistent approach, which we believe makes our curriculum coherent, as well as both inclusive and easy to implement. We also believe that this approach serves to help train teachers in effective teaching and learning approaches as they teach.

Within Early Years, we carefully design our new curriculum to help ensure we meet the requirements of the Early Years’ reforms, while still prioritising broad and balanced provision across all seven areas of learning and a play-based ethos. Our EYFS curriculum is matched to the Early Learning Goals (ELGs) and aligned with the new, non-statutory Development Matters guidance.

All subjects are taught in-line with the subject policies devised by our subject leaders with guidance from the Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher. Across KS1 and KS2, sequences of lessons are planned in order to build on prior knowledge to help make knowledge stick and cross-curricular links to other subjects are made where appropriate (although we do not encourage teachers to make superficial cross-curricular links). Providing that by the end of an academic year all of the long-term planning objectives have been covered, teachers have the autonomy to shape the learning sequences to the exact needs of the children.

From the long-term planning that subject leaders devise, teaching staff organise the learning into learning sequences with stimulating and meaningful outcomes for the children. The learning content may be linked into a ‘topic’ or ‘theme,’ however, we as a school do not necessarily link every single subject together in tenuous, irrelevant ways: if there is a purposeful link between two or more subjects/objectives that will impact the learners positively, the links are exploited; if not, they are not. Long-term planning becomes more detailed in the form of medium-term planning, where teachers devise their learning challenges, success criteria and outcomes from the long term planning requirements. It is the intention that the medium-term planning is a flexible, working document that may change as the unit progresses. Change and adaptations are possible because we acknowledge that the children’s needs (or interests if suitable) should influence the exact content/outcomes of the unit.

Sequences of lessons are planned onto Flipchart or PowerPoint presentations to support the teacher in delivering the content of lessons clearly and concisely. The slides aid pupil memory. Within units of work, progression of vocabulary, pre and post unit assessments and regular retrieval opportunities are weaved together to help children know more, do more and remember more.