Colville Primary School Curriculum

Our intention at Colville Primary School is to provide pupils with the experiences and skills they need to succeed in the 21^st Century. Primary school is not simply a means to an end but a valuable experience in itself. We want all children, regardless of background, to have opportunities to build core characteristics and develop deep knowledge of key academic areas. Our curriculum is implemented through high quality teaching backed up with well-designed and thorough opportunities for personal and social development. As a Local Authority school we must teach the Early Years Foundation Stage and the National Curriculum. However, these provides only the skeleton framework for us to follow. Our curriculum includes many more opportunities, topics, activities and ideas for our pupils to explore during their time at Colville. The content of our curriculum is detailed in our Curriculum Maps. These show what we intend to deliver to our pupils in their studies across the different year groups and subjects. Throughout our Foundation Stage Curriculum we aim to encourage active learning through first hand experiences, both in indoor and outdoor play, and through verbal and non-verbal communication. 

Our curriculum is based on both knowledge and skills. We believe the best learning takes place when students can demonstrate knowledge and skills together. The three core pillars of our curriculum are our substantive concepts, disciplinary knowledge and our values. These essentially mean we try hard to integrate higher level thinking to academic subject knowledge through well matched teaching strategies. We know that primary school is a vital experience to be enjoyed and valued itself. However, we also acknowledge that our overall aim must be to produce students who are equipped to succeed after they have left us.

The somewhat subtle differences between facts and skills, declarative and substantive, pedagogical and metacognition and conditional knowledge can make a confusing landscape for parents to understand. Our curriculum aims to show the totality of pupils’ lived experience at school in a way that is both open to outside scrutiny and deliverable in the classroom. These documents are not simply the National Curriculum on Colville Headed paper. They set out the guiding principles of what we would like our pupils to learn, how our students will learn it and how we know what they have learned.

If we could summarise our Curriculum Approach with a quote it would be that of Carl Jung.

The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.

These documents are broadly presented as Curriculum Maps (What we intent to teach) and End of Year Expectations (Impact on learning). That way it should be easy to find what your child will be learning and what we expect them to be able to demonstrate at the various waypoints to be confident the learning is secure. 

Our pupils are further supported by our Curriculum Passport, which details the many exciting enrichment experiences we plan in each year for all pupils. Altogether our curriculum these provides the framework for achieving across all areas of learning and developing opportunities for all pupils to progress personally and spiritually during their time at school.

You can find the relevant Curriculum documents under the subject/area headings below

We know that our curriculum has had the desired impact in a variety of different ways. This includes but is not limited to

• When pupils demonstrate their resilience and confidence in moving to a new setting, such as secondary school.
• When students take great pride in representing their school at an external event
• When pupils perform well against national expectations and statutory examinations
• When the school receives positive feedback about the character and behaviour of our pupils
• When the children themselves agree that their school journey has been positive

Want to know more?

There are plenty of options available to you should you require any more information about our curriculum. Parents of existing pupils can contact their child’s class teacher in the first instance. For information on Key Stage curriculum you can contact the Early Years, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 leaders via the school office. For information on whole school curriculum development and provision please contact the School’s Senior Leadership Team using office@colville.cambs.sch.uk.