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Our Curriculum Journey

The aim for for all pupils at Pennine Way Primary School is to have access to a curriculum which is  broad and balanced with each individual subject taught to a high quality. This is vital for all pupils beginning with our youngest learners in Nursery and continuing right through their learning journey until they leave Year 6, ready to embark on their Secondary education.

At the beginning of our journey, we researched many schemes and looked at what other schools had in place but didn’t feel that any were personalised enough or fit with the needs of our pupils. After speaking with staff (subject leaders, class teachers, and staff support staff) as well as consultation on pupil voice and the opinions of the wider school community about what we felt our pupils need, we decided upon a skills based curriculum with a focus around experiences to broaden children’s outlook, aspirations and awareness of cultural diversity. 

Curriculum offer:

Our aim is for all pupils at Pennine Way to receive a curriculum offering which is consistent across each cohort of pupils within each year group. Fairness, equality, parents know and understand what the offer is for their child. 

Pupil passports:

Pupil passports are designed to help to build upon pupils range of experiences, character and resilience to help them along their Pennine Way Pathway to Success. Throughout their time at Pennine Way we hope that you will complete as many of these fun activities as possible. There are 20 activities in each year group as well as a space for each class to choose a challenge to complete during that school year together.

We designed pupil passports with a range of childhood experiences, e.g. climbing a tree, having a water fight, life skills, e.g. eating with a knife and fork, tying shoe laces, cultural visits, e.g. visiting a theatre, visiting Samye Ling, local experiences, e.g. visit Scotland, walk up a mountain, paddle in the sea, community work, e.g. visit a care home, pick up litter in your local area and social skills, e.g. play a board game, go orienteering, have a debate. Visits are set so that throughout their school journey, each child gains a broad range of different experiences from these. 

Subject advocates and curriculum badges:

At Pennine Way, we want to celebrate and promote every single subject within the curriculum. We want pupils to be excited about these subjects and have a good understanding of what each subject area gives them. Curriculum badges can be earned in all curriculum areas (beginning with CARE, times tables and Reading). Pupils either apply for these or staff recommend pupils who they think have achieved the skills for that badge level (green, blue, bronze, silver, gold). Subject advocates promote, advertise and celebrate their subject within the school. 

Curriculum maps:

Each subject and year group has a curriculum map with study headings for each subject / year group identified, as well as which term these will be delivered. Visits, visitors and experiences are included on these and they are shared with parents to support poverty proofing and parents being able to budget. 

Skills:

Each subject and year group have a skills map which includes the National Curriculum objectives as well as the skills underpinning each of these areas to ensure clear progression within each subject as well as links being made to previous subjects being made, e.g. Geography: comparing Edinburgh and Carlisle in year 4. 

Knowledge:

Alongside the skills that we aim for our pupils to develop is the knowledge that we aim for them to learn. The 2 work hand in hand and our curriculum skills documents are being developed to fully reflect this. Throughout our curriculum the links between this knowledge and skills allow connections to be made between concepts, ideas, studies and experiences, supporting the development of pupils long term memory and ability to apply skills to a broadening range of experiences. 

Vocabulary:

Our curriculum carefully incorporates and plans for subject specific vocabulary to be taught progressively as pupils progress through studies and year groups. This is shared and modelled with the children, including displaying these words and including them on knowledge organisers and maps. As well as this subject specific vocabulary, all staff at Pennine Way strive to develop academic vocabulary that can be used and applied across a wide range of studies and subjects.