Curriculum
At Edgewick, we pride ourselves in providing the very best learning experience for our pupils and therefore ensure that everything we do in school enriches the knowledge and understanding of every pupil.
We ensure that the curriculum reflects the needs and interests of our vibrate, multicultural and diverse community. We ensure that children make rapid progress, learn to love learning, and gain a sense of their place in the world and the opportunities open to them. We are ambitious for our children and therefore encourage them to have high aspirations.
Leaders have designed an ambitious curriculum that meets the needs of pupils. Learning is well structured. It allows pupils to develop their knowledge in a broad range of subjects and in a coherent way. It provides pupils with a step-by-step structure to build their knowledge and skills from Reception to Year 6.
Ofsted, 2023
Click here to see our Curriculum Coverage
Click here to see our Curriculum Coverage EYFS
Click here to see our theme map
Click here to see our Curriculum Progression
Click here to see our Maths Progression
Click here to see our Reading Progression
Click here to see our Writing Progression
If you would like further information regarding your child’s current themes or yearly coverage, please visit our theme maps page
Curriculum Strands/threshold concepts
What do we mean by ‘curriculum’?
Curriculum is broadly defined as the totality of pupil experiences that occur in their educational journey, typically made up as a planned sequence of instruction. As curriculum theorist Christine Counsell highlights, it is a “fiendishly complex” area that is continual and never-ending. Establishing a clear common language around curriculum is therefore important. A shared understanding and vocabulary will allow us to think and talk critically about our curriculum intent and spark a culture of continual improvement. Ultimately, our curriculum will never be ‘done’; we aim to refine, develop, add and remove elements where necessary to provide the best possible outcomes for our pupils.
Why are we focusing on subject ‘strands’?
The curriculum that we have created is not the same as the National Curriculum. While the National Curriculum prescribes objectives that pupils must be taught, our curriculum is content chosen by us (albeit influenced by the National Curriculum) and is structured to be taught over time. By moving away from simply sequencing history and geography topics, for example, we aim to deepen pupils’ knowledge of the topic that they are learning about, creating a more ‘ knowledge-rich’ curriculum. Reducing an entire curriculum to remembering a collection of facts fundamentally misses the point of curriculum. By focusing on teaching over time and subject-specific strands, we hope to make the learning ‘stick’.
To make knowledge ‘stick’, it needs to become connected to existing knowledge, and, over time, familiar knowledge (also known as forming a schema). A schema is made up of many interconnected webs – the bigger these webs become, the easier it is to acquire related information and recall it. Using curriculum strands throughout the school supports our pupils in building these schemas across different subjects. For example, displaying and discussing the ‘Conflict’ strand in History during a Year 5 WW2 lesson can be linked back to previous History topics the pupils have been exposed to and allow children to add to their knowledge and understanding of ‘Conflict’ over time. Similarly, displaying and discussing the ‘Physical Processes’ strand in Geography throughout a Year 1 lesson on seasonal changes and pupils seeing this again in Year 4 when exploring extreme weather supports and encourages pupils to make deeper connections and add to their schema on physical geography. In taking this approach, foundation subject themes are not taught in isolation and instead contribute to learning over time, where pupils connect and build on prior knowledge. Each ‘lesson’ has its own focus and objective but ultimately contributes to a wider narrative.
How are we going to achieve this?
By using the Chris Quigley Curriculum Schemas, we will provide a framework to structure our curriculum themes. By ensuring common threads are established, we will be able to intertwine concepts, knowledge and understanding throughout our themes, with each year group able to build on prior knowledge of each appropriate strand. Each different area of learning will be identified in the children’s books by using stickers allowing the children to become familiar with the individual subjects and strands that form the wider themes.
Click here to see all our strands/threshold concepts that thread through our themes
