The Curriculum at Friars
Our curriculum has been designed to raise standards and improve outcomes for the children at Friars. Children enter our school with a wide range of needs and experiences, which are sometimes limited. Our approach has been developed to meet the needs of all our pupils and enrich their lives; whatever their starting point. Our diverse community and its multicultural heritage is instrumental in enriching our curriculum provision.
The curriculum at Friars is underpinned by our core values of Compassion, Creativity, Endeavour, Resilience, Respect and Responsibility. It is best understood by answering the following questions:
- Why do we teach what we teach? (Intent)
- How do we teach what we teach? (Implementation)
- How do we know what pupils have learnt and how well have they learnt it? (Impact)
Why do we teach what we teach? (Intent)
We aim for all pupils to acquire a body of knowledge and skills that are specific to individual subjects, that can be applied creatively across subjects, and that prepare the children for the next stage of their education and life in modern Britain.
Creative learning helps to equip young people with the skills, ability, confidence and attitudes to enable them to work creatively and to transfer and apply knowledge in different contexts towards new and valuable goals. It encourages creative, critical and reflective thinking and produces excited, enthusiastic, enquiry-driven, active learners.
Our curriculum is planned to:
- follow the National Curriculum
- be progressive, sequential and cover the subjects in depth
- ensure that wherever possible, subjects “hold hands” thus enabling children to make meaningful connections and their learning journey relevant and engaging.
- be broad, balanced and cross curricular, making links to prior learning, knowledge and skills so that the learning is meaningful
- have a strong focus on Literacy, including opportunities to read, write, speak, debate, discuss and question across a range of styles and subjects
- help children to become INDEPENDENT, RESILIENT, ACTIVE learners
- be MEMORABLE, fun and engaging
- provide opportunities for children to be creative and allow time for them to explore and develop their own ideas, solve their own problems and use and apply skills – TINKERING
- be child centered and based on children’s interests, allowing them to direct the learning where appropriate
- encourage children to make informed choices
- be flexible and allow us to respond to personal, local and national events