Whole School Curriculum Intent Statement

Our Vision and Values

Through our core Christian values of Love, Trust and Truth, within a distinctively Christian context, our vision is to ensure that all children are happy and confident; achieving their full potential through focused, high quality teaching and high expectations.

Our Aims

We aim

To try our best at everything we do.
To develop the ability to work independently, co-operatively and with self-discipline.
To value and appreciate one another.
To listen with respect to one another.
To prepare pupils for the responsibilities, opportunities and experiences of adult life.
To foster a caring attitude to the world around us.

Basic Principles

Learning is a change to long term memory.
Our aims are to ensure that the children at Manor experience a wide breadth of learning which enriches their knowledge and experiences, is purposeful and appropriate building on their foundations.

Curriculum Intent

Curriculum Drivers shape our curriculum. The purpose of our curriculum is to motivate learners in a purposeful way, building on prior knowledge and experience. We aim to provide a rich curriculum which exposes our children to knowledge and understanding that they otherwise would not receive. The curriculum is underpinned by our core Christian values of Love, Trust and Truth.
Cultural Capital gives our pupils the vital background knowledge required to be informed and thoughtful members of our community who understand and believe in British values. We plan learning experiences that many of the children would not necessarily experience in their everyday life eg trips to the theatre, places of worship, places of historical interest.
Our Curriculum breadth is shaped by our curriculum drivers, cultural capital, subject topics and our ambition for children to learn in different ways, for example through real life experiences both inside and outside of the classroom.
By learning through different topics, children are exposed to a progression in skills and knowledge for each subject in the national curriculum. Our curriculum planning is informed by the National Curriculum, HeartSmart, Living Difference III and Understanding Christianity.
Subjects are planned progressively through topics into meaningful schemes of work whereby children return to the same concepts over and over in order to build greater understanding.
Within each unit key vocabulary and key knowledge is taught. By the end of the key stage all children are expected to be able to use all vocabulary and recall key facts taught in a unit.
Progression is highlighted on every medium term plan.

Global Neighbours

‘Equipping young people with the knowledge, skills and confidence to act against inequality and work towards a world free of poverty.’

Another key aim is to encourage children to be active global citizens. Within each class there are School Councillors and Planet Protectors who strive to make a difference.

For our children at Manor, we recognise the constraints on cultural provision in a rural area of the U.K. By promoting international mindedness, we develop children’s understanding of the world that they live in.

Our curriculum encourages children to:

- Recognise their own culture and have a sense of identity. This means to value our unique setting as a school on the edge of the New Forest, an area of outstanding natural beauty
- Be open-minded
- Be respectful of other cultures and beliefs (be sensitive to other cultures and beliefs)
- Be aware of and be able to celebrate diversity AND commonality
- Have respect for and value other people and their ideas and opinions
- Be able to communicate (have good interpersonal skills)
- Be adaptable
- Be aware of and have an interest in global issues.

At Manor, as well as promoting an international mindedness, our broad and balanced curriculum also promotes the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance.

As one of the first two infant schools in the Country to achieve the Bronze Global Neighbours accreditation, we aim to empower children to show courageous advocacy by being active global citizens and to see the connections which link all human beings together. In this way, they can become active in the hope of a more just and joyful world. It combines their needs and aspirations, their character, and their hopes for the world in which they are growing up. In exploring these concepts, Global Neighbours contributes to improved outcomes across the curriculum and in pupils’ personal development, through enhanced skills in critical and creative thinking, reasoning and communication. Formal opportunities for learning about being a good Global Neighbour are planned across the curriculum whilst we also respond to global events as appropriate.

Implementation

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

Learning is most effective with spaced repetition.
Our topic approach aids long term retention.
Retrieval of previously learned content is frequent and regular, which increases both storage and retrieval strength.

In addition to the three principles we also understand that learning is invisible in the short-term and that sustained mastery takes time.
Our content is subject specific. We make links across the curriculum where possible.

Curriculum Design

Children at Manor are provided with appropriate, ambitious broad and balanced curriculum opportunities. Whilst we ensure a clear focus on the teaching of phonics, reading, maths and writing, we also want to ensure high quality learning in the arts, music, computing and sport.

In each subject, children have an opportunity to learn key objectives as outlined in the National Curriculum.

Our Subject Guidelines and Overviews based on the National Curriculum requirements, outline clearly the expectations in each subject and the sequence of learning in each subject. Before planning lessons, teacher are expected to check the National Curriculum and refer to the Subject Guidelines and Overviews.

In learning activities, teachers when teaching, will explicitly refer back to previous year group learning in a subject, making links so that children can be reminded of previous learning and then as a result, children will better develop their long term memory.

Wherever possible, links between subjects are made. Teaching is always planned to be enjoyable. Learning each term will include an exciting ‘Entry Point’ and a motivating ‘Hook’.

Assessment is used to inform planning and next steps. Assessment will also be used to gauge progress in relation to core concepts / big ideas. For example, in history, assessment can judge how children use evidence to tell us about the past, their understanding of chronology, and historical vocabulary. See our separate Assessment policy for further information.

Phonics / Reading

We prioritise the teaching of phonics and aim for all children to master the phonetic code as quickly as possible. Believing that reading is the key to success and underpinning all learning, we have high expectations and a consistent approach to phonics ensures children are given the best possible foundation for reading, writing and language skills. We teach phonics daily from Year R to Year 2. We follow a scheme called Little Wandle Letters and Sounds and the priority is that children develop their knowledge of the 26 letters in the alphabet, the 44 phonemes and 140 letter combinations. By teaching high-quality phonics sessions that allow for progression and continuity, we plan and deliver engaging and well-paced phonics lessons as part of a broad and rich curriculum. Ongoing assessment of children’s progress against phonemes learnt takes place and the books children take home are carefully linked to each child’s next step in reading. Children take home a fully decodable reading book based on their secure phonic knowledge (that a child can read at 90% fluency). Reading for pleasure books also go home for parents to share and to read to children.

Maths

At Manor we use the HCC sample Medium term plans as a starting point for planning. These are adapted to suit each cohort of children. Children are encouraged to develop fluency, reasoning and problem solving skills through a concrete, pictorial, abstract approach.

Specialist Music Teachers and Sports Coaches

At Manor, we believe that high-quality music and physical education are important and we use Sports coaches to teach sport and specialist music teachers from Hampshire Music Service in Year 1 and Year 2.

HeartSmart

We are a HeartSmart School. HeartSmart is a creative approach that we use to build character, emotional health and resilience. Equipping children with foundational principles and skills that will improve mental health and relationships and academic achievement. At Manor, we want everyone to know that they are loved, cared for and valued. We recognise the value of educating the heart alongside educating the mind. We use HeartSmart to do that. Through the story of Boris the Robot, children learn to be HeartSmart.

Our High 5 Heartsmart principles are displayed around the school and in every classroom and referred to regularly.

Relationships and Health Education

In line with Department of Education Guidance, our school has a clear policy for Relationships and Health Education. This sets out clearly how content will be covered in Relationships and Health Education.

Religious Education

We value and are committed to high quality teaching of R.E. The school follows ‘Living Difference IV’, the locally agreed syllabus for R.E., and also makes use of Understanding Christianity. Our R.E. policy contains further information.

Assessment

At Manor, we use three broad overarching forms of assessment: ‘Day to Day In-School Formative Assessment’, ‘In-School Summative Assessment’ and ‘Nationally Standardised Summative Assessments’. We aim to continually assess whether children have mastered and deepened their understanding of age related key concepts, skills and ideas in all subjects. Our curriculum takes into account end of year expectations in the National Curriculum which clearly define what children should be capable of for their age. These end of year expectations consist of key concepts, key areas of knowledge and skills in different subjects. Teachers continually assess children’s understanding and mastery of these key concepts, knowledge and skills through a range of assessment opportunities. Teachers make use of ongoing formative assessment to plan effective, differentiated lessons at appropriate levels. Further information is contained within our Assessment policy.

Impact

The impact of learning can be seen in the long term.
We constantly review planning in order to ensure that teaching is matched to our learners needs. Real time assessment is used within lessons to take learning forward and ensure that all children achieve well in lessons.
Pupil interviews, work sampling and observations highlight good quality outcomes for learners.
We use learning walks and learning observations to track the implementation and pact of our Curriculum Intent.
Results from national tests illustrate the high expectations and outcomes for our pupils.
Our curriculum provision ensures that children are secure and ready for the next stage in their education, whether joining a primary or junior school.