Our Curriculum

Curriculum

‘A curriculum exists to change the pupil; to give the pupil new power’ (Christine Counsell). At Yardley we aim to empower children by developing emotional, academic and physical skills.

The aims of our programme of education are:

• To provide a learning environment where children are happy, emotionally secure and enjoy coming to school.
• To teach a broad and balanced, progressive curriculum through which each child has the opportunity to fully develop their individual talents.
• To develop resilience, empathy, self-confidence and independence.
• To promote aspirational values and have a wider understanding of the world beyond their local communities.
• To teach the skills to prepare children for the next stage in their education and support lifelong learning.

These aims are at the core of all our teaching and underpin all aspects of our curriculum.

We ensure this by planning a wide breadth of study where core and non-core subjects carry equal weight. We teach our basic reading, writing and maths skills through a progressive daily curriculum that builds on prior knowledge. We ensure the teaching of reading underpins all children’s learning and they have the opportunity to apply their core skills across all subjects.

The majority of foundation subjects are taught, where possible, in themed topics. Topic drivers are determined through links across subjects and based around children’s interests and fascinations.  The topics work on a two-year cycle (Year A and Year B) as we are a mixed year school. Usually, each class will cover three topics per academic year, therefore six over their time in each class.  Where aspects of the curriculum do not readily fit within a topic, we teach these through discrete lessons or focussed days. 
In each of our foundation subjects, we ensure that there are strands or key concepts that are revisited to enable alteration in long term memory. Children have the opportunity to revisit learning and apply skills in a variety of contexts. Where the National Curriculum does not make explicit links within subjects, we have created strands in which key subject content is revisited. These strands are driven by the ‘Purpose of Study’ in the National Curriculum. In order to develop understanding, children connect new knowledge with existing knowledge to develop subject fluency.

We follow the Jolly Phonics scheme for phonics, along with the Big Cat reading programme.

As a small, rural village school, we recognise that children need to broaden their knowledge of life beyond their own context and environment and to realise that they are in the universe but not necessarily the centre of it. As such, we have embedded a Global Curriculum into our teaching. This equips learners for critical and active engagement, in a fast changing world and helps children to develop a global perspective.

As part of the curriculum’s intent to empower children, we also focus on key learning skills and how these can prepare them for lifelong learning and their future roles in society. Our SMART values are embedded into our curriculum planning and are recognised and rewarded throughout the school. We actively encourage independence and we teach, support and reward resilience in all aspects of school life.

Children’s emotional literacy is developed by teaching a range of emotions and enabling children to have the vocabulary to articulate how they are feeling. They start each day with period of self-reflection on how they are feeling alongside weekly PSHE lessons to support their emotional development.

Our curriculum is ambitious for all groups of learners and allows for a breadth of opportunities so children can attain the cultural capital needed for lifelong success. Nobody’s success is capped. Adaptive teaching ensures we provide open ended activities at which children of all abilities can work and succeed.

Our Class Curriculum Overviews can be found on each Class Page as pdf documents, which is for both our core learning and our topic curriculum. Click the class to go to their page and view these along with our Class Blogs.

Class 1

Class 2

Class 3

Class 4

Below, is a table that maps out our Topic Curriculum and contains the pupil speak documents that provide information about the different subjects that are taught through our topic learning.  These can also be found on the Class Pages. 

The Topic Curriculum coverage for each subejct is identified in our Curriculum Roadmaps below.  These show where the strands and concepts are taught and revisited through the children's primary education from the Foundation Stage up to Year 6.