Curriculum Provision at Burton Bradstock CE Primary School 

At Burton Bradstock Primary, we have worked with our partner schools in the Minerva Learning Trust, using Cornerstones to support our planning.  Our curriculum is planned using a two-year rolling programme which aims to ensure that we make the most of our staff’s expertise and passion for different subject areas. This helps us to provide a challenging and exciting curriculum that prepares children for the future. 

Alongside our Church School status, we also have a strong Rights Respecting ethos. This comes directly from the Convention on the Rights of the child. Children in every class acknowledge and use the language of rights and articles. Our daily acts of collective worship often include these rights as well as our school values of Hope, Respect, Love, Friendship, Courage and Happiness. Staff and pupils treat each other with dignity and respect because we all have the right to be treated this way and because we believe it is an appropriate way to conduct ourselves.  

English

Our literacy curriculum comprises of a systematic approach of teaching Read Write Inc phonics for younger children (and spelling in key stage two) and a writing-based cross-curricular approach for the older children. We use Talk for Writing techniques (by Pie Corbett) to give structure and progression in writing.  Our talk for writing units are planned in a rolling programme with a range of genre, both fiction and non-fiction, are covered each academic year. 

Reading is central to our whole curriculum. We strive to foster a love of reading in our pupils, and children of all ages are helped to read widely, both at home and at school. Children read in school every day and for all sorts of purposes. They will discuss a range of texts and their meaning, pick out interesting and new vocabulary or simply enjoy it!  This may be done individually, in groups or as part of wider class work.  Children reflect on their own reading knowledge and skills. Children are also read to by adults, familiarising them with exciting and stimulating stories, poems and texts.  

Mathematics

Our mathematics curriculum is delivered through the White Rose Maths Curriculum. We want pupils to become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, to be able to reason and to solve problems. Our curriculum embraces these National Curriculum aims, and provides guidance to help pupils to become: 

Visualisers – we use the CPA approach to help pupils understand mathematics and to make connections between different representations. 

Describers – we place great emphasis on mathematical language and questioning so pupils can discuss the mathematics they are doing, and so support them to take ideas further. 

Experimenters – as well as being fluent mathematicians, we want pupils to love and learn more about mathematics. 

Our topic-based learning brings together science, humanities and the arts, giving a cross-curricular approach to learning. The topic may be driven by one particular area of the curriculum but incorporates other subjects as well.   

Science

Our science curriculum equips children with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future. We want children to develop understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiries, so that they can answer scientific questions about the world around them. Science therefore, wherever possible, is taught through a hands-on approach and our children are encouraged to experiment and discover for themselves. The sequencing of projects ensures that children have the substantive knowledge and vocabulary to comprehend subsequent projects fully. Each project’s place in the year has also been carefully considered. For example, projects that involve growing plants or observing animals are positioned at a suitable time of year to give children the best possible opportunity to make first-hand observations. Within all the science projects, disciplinary knowledge is embedded within substantive content. Through building up a body of core knowledge and concepts, pupils are encouraged to recognise the power of rational explanation and develop a sense of excitement and curiosity about natural phenomena. We want all pupils to understand how science can be used to explain, to predict, to describe, and analyse causality.  

Humanities

Our wider curriculum is rich, diverse and challenging. When studying for History and Geography, we encourage children to develop a respect and understanding of the lives of others, through an enquiry-led approach. From learning about ancient civilizations, to thinking about the diversity of our own region, right through to studying the future through a knowledge of climate change and global citizenship, our pupils enjoy learning about people and the planet.   

Computing

In computing and technology, we have a clear and simple vision: the children should be: online-safe, online-inspired and online-confident. Computing is an integral part of our everyday life and will play an immeasurable part in our children’s futures. Whilst teachers promote creativity and enthusiasm, children at Burton Bradstock Primary will learn the skills to thrive in a world that is becoming increasingly dependent on computing. As computing underpins today’s modern lifestyle, it is essential that the children gain the confidence and ability to prepare them for the challenge of a rapidly developing and changing technological world. 

Religious Education (RE)

As a Church school, we believe that meaningful and thought-provoking religious education makes a distinctive contribution to the school curriculum.  We follow guidance from Salisbury Diocese and teach about Christianity and other world religions using Understanding Christianity and Discovery RE schemes of work. 

Art and Design

Our children develop their skills and expression through a creative curriculum in Art, Design and Music. Children work with paints, clays, charcoals, pastels and many other media in our art lessons. Children are encouraged to find practical solutions to real-world problems in our design lessons. 

Languages

Our languages curriculum, through which all children in key stage two learn French, encourages children to become confident speakers of French. Through role-play and recitation, our children learn quickly, and have fun doing so.  

Physical Education

We enjoy an energetic physical education curriculum, in which children develop skills and physical fitness across a range of different sports and physical disciplines. Children receive teaching not only in conventional team sports and athletics, but benefit from units of Gymnastics, Dance and Swimming. Our children’s aptitudes are developed further through our extracurricular provision of a wide variety of sports clubs.  

Relationships, Sex and Health Education

Our RSHE curriculum is an ongoing thread that can be seen woven into many aspects of school life. Learning tackles bereavement, the language of safeguarding and relationships education, as well as issues of friendship, relationship and self-esteem building. Teachers are skilled in determining whether children need to be taught individually, in small groups or as a class when tackling the more complex issues associated with RSE. Visits and visitors to the school enhance this work over the course of a child’s journey through school.

Expectations

Early in the academic year, each class teacher meets with parents to explain the expectations of the children in their class and to provide other important information.  There are also a variety of other handouts which are not available here because of copyright restrictions.  Please contact the class teacher for further details of other handouts regarding subject expectations.

Personal, Social, Health & Economic Education incorporating Relationships and Sex Education

It is now a statutory requirement for primary schools to deliver Relationships Education and the Department of Education (DfE) encourages schools to deliver Sex Education that ensures both boys and girls are prepared for the changes adolescence brings and – drawing on knowledge of the human life cycle set out in the National Curriculum for science – how a baby is conceived and born.

Curriculum Maestro

Since 2018 we have provided a creative curriculum based around the Cornerstones Curriculum: a nationally recognised approach for delivering outstanding learning opportunities for children.

What is the Cornerstones Curriculum?

The Cornerstones Curriculum (now being re-branded as Curriculum Maestro) is a creative and thematic approach to learning that is mapped to the 2014 Primary National Curriculum to ensure comprehensive coverage of national expectations. Our new curriculum will be delivered through Imaginative Learning Projects (ILPs) which will provide a rich menu of exciting and motivating learning activities that make creative links between all aspects of our children’s learning. 

Phonics information

We use Read, Write Inc. to teach phonics. As the children progress through the school, they move onto the Read, Write Inc. Spelling programme.