Curriculum Rationale
Curriculum Aims
The curriculum at Brambles Primary Academy puts children at the centre, where positive relationships, built on mutual trust and respect underpins everything we do. Our ambitious curriculum exposes the children to enriching experiences, immersing them in progressive knowledge and skills, which are revisited and built upon over time. Our curriculum equips the children with the fundamental skills and qualities required to succeed in life.
At Brambles Primary Academy, we understand the importance of teaching a broad and balanced curriculum. We know the importance of fostering a love of learning and supporting children to express themselves as individuals.
Our curriculum aims are:
- To ensure that every child is able to confidently read across a wide range of rich texts and genres within the curriculum for different purposes.
- To ensure that our children can communicate in different ways effectively to be heard in their world.
- Help children develop an understanding and appreciation for the wider-world around them and how to be an active, global citizen.
- Ensure our children respect themselves, others around them and those who are different to them.
- To make sure that our children experience and broad and balanced curriculum which ignites passion and enthusiasm for life-long learning.
Curriculum Intent
We are committed and passionate about providing a curriculum with breadth that allows all of our children to achieve their full potential. We believe that children must be able to orally communicate effectively, accurately write for a range of purposes and apply their knowledge of mathematical patterns and concepts. When this is achieved, children can then access a wide range of new knowledge that will then build over time as our curriculum progresses. Children must be able to hook new knowledge onto existing prior knowledge to fully appreciate and understand the subject of study. Ensuring these building blocks are carefully planned and revisited over time, along with our commitment to mastering skills across core subjects, will ensure that our children are successful throughout their journey with us at Brambles.
All children will access our curriculum and will experience success, no matter their barriers or starting point.
Breadth and depth
Our curriculum is structured to meet all of the requirements and objectives within the Early Years Foundation stage and the National Curriculum. Our children have access to all subjects through a curriculum which is precisely sequenced and builds on prior knowledge. We believe that learning through experiences will support children to make connections to their learning, therefore it is vital that our children experience a range of learning opportunities both in and out of the classroom.
Helping them understand, appreciate and access the wider world through our curriculum underpins our whole curriculum approach.
Social and emotional development
We understand the importance of ensuring children are socially, emotionally and mentally ready to learn. Therefore we place a huge emphasis on ensuring our children feel safe enough and regulated to take chances, try new things and be in a position to make rapid progress academically.
Through a strong commitment to our pastoral offer and a well embedded PSHE/SMSC/RSE curriculum, we are able to meet the specific needs of our children and work through their issues and concerns to ensure they are ready to learn. We are committed to child and staff mental health and wellbeing and believe that this is a barrier that we must help to remove for our children.
Curriculum Implementation
Our core subjects of Reading, Writing and Mathematics are taught everyday. Where topics link to our foundation subjects e.g. History, Art, Geography, carefully planned cross-curricular activities are delivered. These links are mainly through the high-quality texts that have been chosen to broaden children's understanding of subject areas.
Reading is the curriculum driver that runs through and interlinks the whole curriculum. Our aim is to expose children to books and authors that they would not usually access or 'that they could purchase in a supermarket book isle'. Our books meet the needs of our children, inspire a love for reading and cover many aspects of wider-world issues such as : race, religion, LBTGQ+ and disability.
We also understand that our hidden curriculum is vital for the community that we serve. We have created an ethos of acceptance and curiosity of those who are different to us and the wider-world. Our theme-days, awareness days and carefully planned personal development calendar creates a curriculum that enables children to develop into well-rounded individuals.
Curriculum Impact
Pupils leave Brambles Primary Academy with a secure understanding of the academic content which has been carefully sequenced. They also develop an understanding of how to be socially, morally, spiritually and culturally responsible and aware. Our children are taught how to make positive contributions to the local community and how to endeavour to be the best that they can be. We aim for all of our children to leave Brambles as respectful, skillful, ambitious children with a thirst for life and all it has to offer.
