Curriculum

The aim of the curriculum, at North Denes Primary School, is to provide pupils with a rich, relevant, broad and balanced education, in line with the National Curriculum. We seek to provide a high quality curriculum that brings Norfolk and the locality into the classroom, whilst providing rich experiences and opportunities to recognise what lies beyond in terms of the history, culture and diversity of our world. Our intention is for all pupils, irrespective of their background or the challenges they face, to make good progress and achieve to the best of their ability in all subject areas.

In planning the curriculum, we considered what we want the children to learn, why we are teaching it and how it would be taught and assessed. Different contexts focus on skills, enquiry, research and knowledge; they make use of a variety of approaches including using drama, film, computing, real-life experiences and outdoor learning (to name a few), all of which contribute to providing opportunities to achieve outstanding learning and significant growth in pupils’ knowledge. The methods and strategies used are left to the discretion of the year group to ensure that learning and teaching remains fresh, focused and inspiring.  The National Curriculum provides the statutory content so that the school can ensure progression and coverage across the key stages.

We have strong values, developing in every child the skills to be responsible, ambitious, active learners who are effective communicators and respectful global citizens. Our children will be empowered with a range of knowledge, skills and experiences that give them pride in their local community and the courage and resilience to take on the world.

We aim to provide outstanding teaching so that every child learns new things every day and is motivated to attend school. Learners and teachers inspire each other by offering hope and encouragement and by setting a good example through our own behaviours. We encourage the children to be creative and innovative and to use their special talents to express original ideas and solve problems. We strive to be the very best that we can be. We nurture endurance, resilience and hope by persevering in all things. In our school, we don’t fear making mistakes because we know that this is part of the learning process. We have growth mind-sets and believe that anything is possible with hard work and commitment. Our curriculum has been organised through a subject specific approach in which our teachers’ own subject knowledge is supported by collaboration with others and training from subject experts to ensure that the children at our school achieve strong outcomes. The integrity of each subject is maintained.

Each subject is carefully planned to incorporate the key knowledge, skills and understanding set out in the National Curriculum whilst also reflecting the needs of our children, as part of the local and wider community. Where appropriate, teachers make links between subjects; use technology, in both the teaching of the specific subjects and in the opportunities for children’s independent learning, and link key texts to subjects to enhance opportunities for writing across the curriculum and provide a context through which English can also be taught and vocabulary increased.

We recognise each child as an individual, so that our teaching specifically targets their learning needs, develops their social skills and nurtures their talents. We put thinking and questioning at the heart of our curriculum so that children are encouraged to explore, enquire and extend their learning by talk. We support our children to be active, independent learners and people. We teach them to show courage by never giving up, going for their goals and standing up for what they believe to be right. We foster confidence in their own abilities and encourage them to try new things, as well as being confident in those around them.

We provide a calm, purposeful environment in which to learn, with a clear focus on rewarding positive behaviour. We encourage the children to take responsibility for their learning and actions. We teach them to be honest and to understand that knowing the difference between right and wrong will be of only partial use if we do not have the courage to speak the truth and do what is right.

Talk is at the heart of all learning. Communication and chat is actively encouraged across the school from the very start of their journey at North Denes Primary School so that every child will become an avid reader, a fluent writer and a confident speaker. We want the children to be approachable, willing to listen and to go the extra mile to help and be kind to others. We encourage them to be supportive, warm, friendly and caring and show respect and friendship towards others at all times. We would like the children in our school to be confident enough to speak their minds and yet respectful of the many differing views of others. We provide many opportunities to learn new vocabulary and for the children to apply this knowledge in context across different areas of the curriculum. 

We believe that excellent teaching and learning, combined with a high-quality academic curriculum and the highest levels of support and nurture for all pupils, will ensure the highest standards are met. We help our pupils build independence, character, resilience, leadership skills and a love of learning.  Our culture is focused on promoting excellence and respect; supporting our pupils to achieve academic success who enjoy learning and developing aspirational children with bright futures ahead.  We encourage our children to develop a lifelong love of learning so that they become confident, intrinsically motivated children who are open-minded, positive learners who believe, succeed and achieve.  

We have set high standards for everything we do and believe strongly in the importance of the core skills of communication, reading, writing and mathematics. All staff share in the belief that all of our children can achieve success, with the right teaching, guidance and the nurturing environment that we promote in our school.  We encourage our children to develop self-belief and we set high expectations for them, because we know that they achieve their best when they are challenged, engaged, and motivated.