Curriculum

Curriculum Intent

Governors and staff at Garras Primary School believe the personal development of pupils, spiritually, morally, socially and culturally plays a significant part in their ability to learn and achieve. We therefore aim to provide an education that provides children with opportunities to explore and develop their own values and beliefs, high standards of personal behaviour, a positive caring attitude towards other people, an understanding of their social and cultural traditions and an appreciation of the diversity and richness of other cultures.

At Garras we offer a broad and balanced curriculum, alongside giving pupils a range of rich and purposeful learning experiences. Our curriculum has been developed to ensure that pupils are not only able to reach their best academically, but also to develop their love for learning and for pupils to discover their unique potential. The curriculum is designed to: recognise children’s prior learning, provide first hand learning experiences and allows the children to develop interpersonal skills, build resilience and become creative, critical thinkers.

Garras’ focus on curriculum development is carefully designed to ensure coverage and progression. The ability to learn is underpinned by the teaching of basic skills, knowledge, concepts and values with a vision to prepare them for life beyond primary school. It provides pupils with memorable experiences, in addition to diverse and rich opportunities from which children can learn and develop a range of transferable skills. Our aim is to provide our children with an engaging, exciting and empowering curriculum that equips them for today and tomorrow. Linking our subjects to previous learning means that skills and knowledge will be embedded in our children’s long-term memory.

We provide enrichment opportunities to engage learning. We believe that childhood should be a happy, investigative and enquiring time in our lives, where there are no limits to curiosity and there is a thirst for new experiences and knowledge.

Virtues in Education underpins our approach to behaviour and attitudes. The Virtues Project nurtures our children in the skills and qualities they need to be successful in school and in life. The virtues are interlinked with the teaching of British values and the Co-operative values of the Trust.

Curriculum Implementation

Implementation is how the curriculum is delivered; it is the journey of learning from Early Years through to Year 6.

We follow the National Curriculum (NC) so that children are provided with an opportunity to experience a broad and balanced curriculum.

The planning of the curriculum is based around a rolling programme to ensure coverage of selected topics by all children who progress through the school. Planning takes the form of a topic based approach and where appropriate teachers link subjects to provide an engaging and inspiring curriculum.

Whilst the core subjects are taught on a regular basis the foundation subjects may sometimes be taught as blocks of work over a matter of weeks.

This programme is regularly reviewed to ensure that we take into account the needs and characteristics of the cohort, the children’s experiences and prior learning as well as current local and global contexts.

Curriculum intent