For more information about any area of our curriculum, please feel free to speak to your child's class teacher or the Principal Mrs Anne Bunning.
Curriculum Vision:
Intent:
Our Curriculum has been designed to ensure each and every child can ' Nurture,flourish and succeed..' by offering stimulating and awe-inspiring learning experiences with Christian values at its heart.
It is bespoke to the needs of the pupils at Bridgerule C of E Primary School, not only by focusing on appropriate subject specific knowledge, skills and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum but by developing individual and collaborative learning experiences, a positive growth mind set, a sense of responsibility and challenges that take them beyond the classroom.
We are a small village school with a constantly evolving curriculum which responds to the needs of learners and their interests by enhancing learning experiences and raising awareness from the local area to national and global arenas. Thus, we will develop outward looking pupils who are able to engage in learning about themselves and have an understanding of the wider world and its complex cultures.
Ultimately our curriculum has four features:
is carefully and coherently planned and sequenced;
is successfully adapted, designed and developed for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities;
is broad and balanced for all pupils.
DMAT Base Curriculum
In September 2021, in response to the Covid pandemic and identified gaps in learning, we adopted a new Base curriculum. This will form the base for a new, mixed age class specific Dartmoor Curriculum.
Our curriculum covers all aspects of the National Curriculum 2014: English, Maths, Science, Art, Computing, Design Technology, Geography, History, Languages, Music and Physical Education. In addition, we follow the Devon agreed syllabus for Religious Education 2019 and ensure progression in Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural education as well as Relationships and Sex Education. We believe in academic achievement as a partner to developing the individual child to become future community and global citizens.
The behaviour of children and adults within our school is rooted in mutual respect. We believe that children and adults should be caring and kind to one another throughout life. We discretely teach children life skills and reward positive behaviour at all times. As our children leave Bridgerule, we ask them to go into their community with the same care and kindness that they have shown at school. This is to all, regardless of race, sexuality, age, ability or religion.
Children within our school are encouraged to be ambitious in their learning – to take risks, make mistakes and learn. This is evident in our daily lessons and in the wider curriculum opportunities we offer. All children will take part in an offsite trip at least 3 times a year and have visitors to enhance their curriculum 3 times a year. In addition, we offer residential trips for our year 5 and 6 children. . We have close community links with the Anglican and Methodist churches, the local residential care home and businesses. These links provide us opportunities to perform Harvest, Christmas and Easter presentations, music and singing performances. These experiences build confidence in public performance and articulation in daily conversation. KS2 children also take part in a Summer Performance. These experiences allow our children to widen their horizons, grow ambitions and have greater aspirations for their future.
In addition to some of the experiences above, children have regular and high-quality opportunities to take part in sport. We use the ‘Real PE’ scheme which enhances teachers lessons and planning for our Physical Education lessons. Children also take part in competitive sporting events run locally. Children will have many opportunities throughout their school career to represent the school. This includes children with SEN needs – we regularly participate in the ‘Ability games.’ We want children to leave our school with a lifelong love of sport and a healthy lifestyle for the future. We provide swimming lessons for our Y4,5,6 children to ensure all children leave us with the ability to swim.
Our curriculum is ambitious for all learners, including those who are disadvantaged or with SEND. We firmly believe in inclusion for all and as part of quality first teaching, teachers adapt the delivery and scaffold the resources available for all learners to ensure the curriculum is accessible.
Our Multi Academy Trust links mean we are able to ensure children who display a talent in any area have the support they need to continue progressing and develop their skills by cross school and cross phase working.
Charity is one of our key values for our ethos. Each term we select a charity to support as a school. Our Community Action Group will organise and run events or activities to raise money or support for the charity. We also provide opportunities for children to be part of the wider community, for example singing or reading to the residents at the local residential care home or completing a two minute beach clean . We want our children to leave Bridgerule with a strong sense of community and an understanding how their actions can support others around them. During the recent Covid-19 pandemic our school was a beacon of support for our community. Providing food hampers for our most vulnerable as well as regular contact to ensure no one was isolated.
We have the same expectations for all of our children regardless of race, gender, SEN or background. Some children may require a support plan to ensure they are able to access our curriculum in the same way as others whilst some may need support from Pupil Premium funding. We expect parents and carers to support their children and the school in accessing the curriculum in full.
Implement:
Through quality teaching of knowledge and skills coupled with a strong focus on vocabulary across core and foundation subjects, all children will be challenged to be inquisitive, compassionate, courageous and creative learners. They will have opportunities to influence their own learning through age appropriate and progressive themes and topics. Effective learning characteristics including being ambitious, reflective and imaginative will drive teaching and learning.
Our class teachers deliver the curriculum in an engaging and creative way. All our lessons are designed to be accessed by all learners and focus on the knowledge and skills the children need. Teachers select precise content and sequence learning accordingly to ensure that pupils acquire new knowledge and skills incrementally. Children have the opportunity to revisit learning throughout their school career, making links and referring back to past learning they have experienced.
Phonics
Bridgerule Primary School follows the RWI phonics scheme. Children will then progress onto the ‘No nonsense’ spelling pathway from Year 2. However, phonics will be revisited as necessary throughout the children’s school career and children will be reminded of phonics sounds and spelling patterns through the use of sound mats.
Reading
Reading is a key skill which underpins all else. Throughout the school we foster a love of reading and model positive reading attitudes.
Children will have access to RWI phonically appropriate books then progress onto Devon’s book banding scheme. We expect parents and carers to read at home with their child 3-4 times a week.
In addition to this, children will take part in guided reading using a range of resources - for example the ‘Re-think reading’ scheme as developed by Babcock Education. This group reading activity builds comprehension, vocabulary, prediction, summarising and inference. Adults in classrooms will read high-quality texts to the children on a daily basis.
Writing
Children are taught to write across the curriculum. In English lessons, writing teaching will be based around ‘Texts that teach’ and the ‘Talk for writing’ principles. The use of high-quality texts as a basis for writing allows children to experience how good authors manipulate their reader through the use of grammar and vocabulary. This covers fiction and non-fiction and a range of genres.
Handwriting is discretely taught until children have clear and legible joined writing.
Maths
Our maths curriculum follows the ‘White Rose’ maths scheme of work, teaching the mastery curriculum using small steps. Our approach meets the needs of many types of learner – we use manipulatives to physically show mathematics, images to show how maths can be represented, calculations and explanations. Children are challenged to experiment, explore and investigate mathematical theories and principles to further their understanding. Mental arithmetic is practiced daily as part of our maths lessons. As a school we encourage children to make connections across the curriculum; maths is a vital skill throughout their learning, including science, computing, geography and others.
Science
Our science curriculum meets the needs of the 21st century whilst giving the children core science knowledge. Our science programme of study covers all areas in the national curriculum and beyond. We believe in learning through practical experience so children will have the opportunity to experiment and explore around a wide range of scientific concepts. Children throughout the school will use their ICT and maths skills within science as well as links to other areas of the curriculum such as geography.
Foundation Subjects
Across the curriculum teachers will plan and deliver exciting, engaging and creative lessons. We expect children to make links across the curriculum and link this to their experiences and immediate environment. Trips and visitors are used to enhance curriculum lessons and allow the children to build upon their knowledge and experience.
Additional resources such as ‘Real PE’ are used to enhance the teacher’s lessons and provide a support mechanism to ensure constant high-quality teaching.
Religious Education
We use the Devon agreed syllabus for Religious Education. We believe that all children should have the opportunity to explore spirituality and the beliefs and traditions of world religions. RE lessons build upon children’s own experiences and widen their horizons to new ideas, beliefs and festivals.
Impact:
Our children will have a confident set of skills, knowledge and Christian values which will give them the tools they need to flourish and succeed in education and life. In short they will learn more, remember more, enjoy more and develop more spiritually, socially and emotionally enabling them to be ready for their next stage in education.
The purpose of measuring the impact of our curriculum has 3 priorities.
We measure academic progress by giving children elicitation tasks at the start of each unit and an application task at the end. Children will have a series of WALT's or WALA's within the unit allowing them to see the progress they have made. These statements can then be revisited regularly to ensure the knowledge in embedded, for example, in maths. Data is collated into an online data management system.
We regularly use standardised testing and scores. For example, in phonics we regularly track how many graphemes and phonemes the children have learnt and can quickly recall. In Maths and Reading we use nationally standardised tests 3 times a year to measure progress. Writing in moderated internally, with other Dartmoor MAT schools on a regular basis to ensure progression of knowledge and skills.
Learning walks, book looks and coaching provide additional evidence for the positive impact our curriculum is having.
Pupils know more, can do more and remember more over time and apply their prior knowledge and skills successfully in their learning.
We use a growth mindset model of learning where children are encouraged to take risks, make mistakes and learn from them. Our curriculum design allows children to take part in activities and learning opportunities that facilitate experimentation, exploration and discovery. Our classroom environments are supportive – children and adults will support learners and make suggestions for improvements.
Our curriculum design allows parents and carers to be part of collaborative curriculum projects, such as reading workshops. Parents have the opportunity to be part of their children’s learning at regular intervals which leads to many positive comments.
The relationship between adults and children in school is strong. We have an ethos of listening and supporting so that children feel confident to speak to adults, should they need to. The wellbeing and emotional health of our children is of upmost priority. As well as our curriculum for PSHE, SMSC and RE we build in daily opportunities for reflection and positive feedback.
Through careful planning of our curriculum, learners will have fully rounded characters with a clear understanding of complex values like cooperation, respect, achievement, friendship and trust... and many others. Only by really learning what these mean will our learners be able to develop a character that prepares them for living in the community demonstrating tolerance and equality. We measure this not just by the work our children produce, but in the behaviour we see each and every day in all learners on the playground, in the corridor, and in the many roles we give them. The impact of this intention is seen in the daily interaction of all members of our school community and beyond.
By promoting our values and ethos throughout the school our learners will be motivated by a strong personal sense of morality. They will make decisions for the right reasons and in the best interests of their community. They will be able to decide what is right and what is wrong and will be resilient to the influence of others. They will go out into the world and make a difference in their own life and to others. Our learners will be the owners of their own destinies.
The school uses the impact data from our pupils to identify strengths and weaknesses in our provision. We can quickly spot gaps and ensure that catch up sessions are put into place to fulfil these.
Our Accessibilty Plan for 2020 - 2022 seeks to ensure access for all students with the focus on the following strands:
Increasing the extent to which disabled pupils can participate in the schools’ curriculums.
This strand seeks to improve access to a full, broad and balanced curriculum. It covers a range of elements including ensuring that teaching and learning is accessible through school and curriculum organisation and support, especially deployment of staff, timetabling, curriculum options and staff information and training.
Schools will be expected to plan to improve progressive access to the curriculum for all disabled pupils although many adjustments to access will be dependent on individual needs and may be provided through the SEN framework. The accessibility strategies and plans will help to ensure that schools are planning and preparing to respond to the particular needs of pupils.
Improving the physical environment of school for the purpose of increasing the extent to which disabled pupils are able to take advantage of education and associated services.
This strand covers aids to improve the physical environment of the school and physical aids to access education. The physical environment includes things such as steps, stairways, kerbs, exterior surfaces and paving, parking areas, building entrances and exits (including emergency escape routes), internal and external doors, gates, toilets and washing facilities, lighting, ventilation, lifts, floor coverings, signs and furniture. Aids to physical access include ramps, handrails, lifts, widened doorways, electromagnetic doors, adapted toilets and washing facilities, adjustable lighting, blinds, induction loops and way-finding systems.
Improving the delivery of information to pupils with disabilities.
This part of the duty covers planning to make information normally provided by the school in writing to its pupils – such as handouts, timetables, textbooks, information about school events – available to disabled pupils. This will include alternative formats such as Braille, audio tape and large print and also the provision of information orally, through lip speaking or sign language, through a recognised symbol system or ICT. The information should take account of the pupils’ disabilities and views expressed by pupils and their parents about their preferred means of communication. The school should consider how all information normally provided in a written format including worksheets, timetables, school examination papers, newsletters, information about school events, trips and extra-curricular provision could be made accessible to all those with a disability.
Please see our Accessibility Plan in the Special Educational Needs section of our website:
https://www.bridgerule.devon.sch.uk/special-education-needs/
Curriculum Guarantee
Bridgerule C of E Primary School believes in the strength of collaboration and working together, as part of our local community, with our cluster schools and across the Trust. We have designed a curriculum guarantee that sets out a the experiences and skills our children will have the opportunity to access across the curriculum and beyond, for example during visits, residential trips and themed days.
RSE Policy and Curriculum content - Consultation with Parents
Dear Parents and Carers,
From September 2021, schools will deliver the DfE's Relationships Education and Health Education statutory guidance within the wider, PSHE (Personal, Social and Health) curriculum. This will require new or increased curriculum content for many schools, new policies and renewed consultation with parents.
With this information, you will find a short video to explain the statutory RSE (Relationships and Sex Education) curriculum and a copy of the draft RSE Policy for your school – this will be in place from September 2021. There is also a poster that explains the commitment from schools and the changes to RSE that are now statutory.
The video link is as follows:
Some points to note:
*The statutory guidance states that schools must teach about families of many forms and this includes LGBT parents.
*The public sector equality duty, created under the Equality Act, also requires schools to eliminate discrimination and to advance equality in its everyday business, in the design of its policies and curriculum.
*In Ruby Country Schools, within RSE, we include elements of Health Education and National Curriculum Science – puberty, reproduction and birth (which are statutory) but do not include sexual intercourse as part of conception as this is part of ‘non statutory’ sex education for primary aged pupils.
*You will see this identified in our draft RSE Policy in Section 9 – Sex Education:
At our school, we do not teach pupils sex education beyond what is required of the science curriculum.
*The statutory guidance states puberty should be covered in Health Education and should be addressed before onset so, as far as possible, pupils are prepared in advance for changes they will experience. Best practice states that menstruation education should be delivered to both boys and girls, as learning about menstruation is a concept of reproduction, as covered by the national curriculum science and fosters good relationships by breaking down the stigma of going through these changes leading to less bullying.
*The Health Education section of the new DfE statutory requirements have a whole section on mental wellbeing. This also comes into many of the Relationships Education outcomes – particularly the categories of Respectful Relationships (including bullying behaviours) Online Relationships and Being Safe.
You cannot withdraw your child from Relationships Education because it is important that all children receive this content, covering topics such as friendships and how to stay safe.
The science curriculum in all maintained schools also includes content on human development, including reproduction, which there is no right to withdraw from.
In our PSHE (including RSE) curriculum, we use recommended resources
from the PSHE association, NSPCC, Women’s Aid, SCARF (Safety, Caring,
Achievement, Resilience, Friendship) from Coram Life Education and Think U Know
online safety resources. We also use a range of story books to
support children’s engagement and understanding.
If you would like to know more about the RSE curriculum or have any questions about the draft RSE Policy, please note your questions and comments below and send them back to the Office in school. Alternatively, you can send an e-mail for my attention to the Admin e mail address.
Best Wishes,
Anne Bunning
SENDCO, PSHE Coordinator Ruby Country Schools
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Draft RSE Policy
Comments/Questions:
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...
Signed: