Curriculum
Intent
We have designed our curriculum at Penny Bridge to ensure it is cumulative, coherent, and connected to aid the development of long-term memory in our young learners. Our progression model begins in the Early Years where we build forward a sense of understanding. Each phase of the curriculum is a door that is opened to the next stage of learning with careful consideration of what has been learned previously. We believe that all learning is built from prior knowledge and experiences where appropriate, we have made relevant and conscious connections with a deliberate choice of learning modules, units, and texts.
We have committed to ensuring that every child leaves our school as a competent reader, regardless of their ability. This commitment to reading is evident in all aspects of school life.
At Penny Bridge our children learn to read,
they read to learn and they love to read…
Every class has a carefully designed reading spine which contains high-quality literature with a wide range of language and structures for our pupils to explore. This ensures our pupils are enthused by new books and have the prior knowledge, fluency and confidence to comprehend and enjoy them.
Our curriculum provides multiple opportunities to use our unique locality on the Furness Peninsula to inspire and engage our children with a variety of rich experiences, utilising the outdoor environment so the children develop a growing understanding of our local area, the contrasting places within and beyond the UK and the challenges and issues of the wider world.
To ensure coherence we teach towards cumulative end goals, supported by the key concepts that help to hold all the learning together. They are the golden threads that run through our subjects, and are cumulatively built upon, from EYFS to UKS2. As a school, we position learning around these, making conscious connections to develop long term memory. The concepts and end goals are what we want our children to become better at as they make their journey through our curriculum at Penny Bridge Academy. One example of a key concept is chronology in History or fluency in reading.
Our Learning Ethos
Our curriculum is designed for children to improve their knowledge and skills with the well-being of our pupils and staff central to our learning ethos at Penny Bridge Academy. Children are taught what well-being means and are given a variety of opportunities in school to understand how to support their mental health through learning about the five pillars of well-being.
- Giving
- Taking notice
- Being Active
- Connecting
- Learning
This is supported further through our key drivers, which underpin our curriculum at Penny Bridge CE Academy.
Our Drivers
Cultural Diversity
From the moment our children begin their journey at Penny Bridge, we want them to have a strong understanding of their place in the world, but it is also important that they develop a growing awareness of contrasting places, people, and faiths within the world in which we live. We want our children to be respectful and tolerant of others and to celebrate differences in one another. This is achieved through the taught curriculum and the daily experiences and interactions that school life brings, enhanced further through carefully selected texts and images to grow ideas, promote diversity, and expand our pupil's minds about the world around them.
Spirituality
Our vision is rooted in theology and is supported by twelve Christian values that are delivered over a two-year cycle. These values are key to developing good behaviours, valuing others, and exploring big questions. Spiritual development encourages children to have a deeper understanding of themselves and others and helps children gain an appreciation of their place in the wider world. Our children have many opportunities to explore and enjoy the natural and man-made delights around us, providing time for peace and reflection during the school day. Children are encouraged to ask questions and explore the importance of reflecting on the world around them.
To nurture and develop spirituality we want our children to:
- Feel a sense of awe and wonder.
- Care for nature and living things.
- Wanting to love and to be loved by people.
- Develop positive relationships.
- Feel a sense of belonging and acceptance.
- Help create an environment of trust and respect.
Spirituality is not something we can see; it is something we feel inside. It is about awe and wonder, asking questions, inspiration and being aware of something ‘bigger’ outside of ourselves”.
Active lifestyles
We encourage our children to take part in regular physical activity each day, from the morning walk to active break times and lessons within our wonderful school grounds. We also encourage healthy competition for all, in school and against other schools. In addition, we have a purposeful outdoor enrichment programme, that promotes purposeful learning opportunities and helps take the children’s learning further, deepens understanding and enhances what we want them to know about. Learning in the outdoors helps to foster and forge pupil and staff relationships, encourages teamwork, resilience, and an opportunity for pupils to challenge themselves in a different setting.
Learning Behaviours
As a school, we look carefully at the needs of each academic year and choose key learning behaviours to support the children’s development academically and socially. These also form the basis for our praise assemblies- encouraging behaviour development over tasks. We believe through our commitment to learning partners, teamwork and respect that children need to develop the skills to work well with other people. Children need to know how to speak and listen with respect in a variety of situations.
Implementation
On the right are the pages for each subject. Included are the intent, implementation and impact statements along with each subject's policy and vocabulary documents. The Yearly Overview is shared via the class pages for Robins, Sparrows, Starlings, Kingfishers and Ospreys.