Sharp Lane Primary School
Sharp Lane Curriculum
“Aspiration, Belief, Commitment and Discovery”
Curriculum Introduction
"At Sharp Lane we are on a journey where we want everyone to ASPIRE to be the best they can be. When children leave school we want them to have confidence and BELIEVE that they can achieve anything they want through hard work and COMMITMENT. Using knowledge and skills they have learnt, we want all children to be independent, lifelong learners and have the confidence to explore and DISCOVER."
At Sharp Lane Primary School, we have designed a unique curriculum rationale that is underpinned by our Aims, Values and Vision for our school community and the children within it.
At Sharp Lane, we have 6 Characteristics of Learning and Being. These essential attributes enable our children to fully understand themselves as learners and take charge of their own learning and decision making. These characteristics are woven into the curriculum and they are a valued part of daily life within school; they encourage pupils to understand that failure is part of the learning process and are they celebrated in weekly assemblies.
What are we trying to achieve?
At Sharp Lane, we have designed a curriculum that is not only fun, creative and interesting but also unique to us. We ensure that our curriculum:
- develops self-confidence, self-motivation and independence, cooperation, collaboration and teamwork.
- Provides exciting but safe and secure spaces, indoor and outdoor, where children can explore, discover and experiment.
- is stimulating and challenging, for every pupil, enabling them to reach their full potential across all areas of learning.
- celebrates the achievements of every child.
- Involves working in partnership with others to meet the needs of all the children and their families.
- Covers all aspects of British life and culture; celebrating differences, diversity, and core values and preparing children for life in Modern Britain.
- raises aspirations and a commitment to lifelong learning.
- Develops children who respect all adults in school and their peers.
- explores a wide range of experiences and opportunities.
- Creates happy children who are ready to leave us in year 6 to head out into our ever-changing world, able to make informed choices about their future
- will impact positively on our children’s mental and physical health throughout their time with us.
Implementation
How do we organise learning?
The provision we offer is guided by the requirements of the National Curriculum and the requirements of the Local Authority.
Our provision takes into account every aspect of a child’s development. The curriculum gives all of our children the opportunity to achieve the highest possible standards of numeracy and literacy and this is an embedded principal across all areas of our curriculum. To enable our children to develop socially, morally, physically, emotionally and spiritually, children are encouraged to learn through their own experiences and apply their knowledge independently. Where a child is identified as finding this difficult, further support and guidance is offered from our highly skilled Inclusion Team, including the SENDCo, and outside agencies where appropriate. Every child is supported in mastering the curriculum at an appropriate level.
Our planning and progression documents ensure that our curriculum suits the needs of all pupils. Lessons are practical and link closely to real-life contexts where possible to provoke curiosity. The individual needs of each child are met through well-planned and varied learning activities, including visits, workshops, the Sharp Lane Bucket List; taking learning beyond the classroom. We want all stakeholders to engage in a diverse and exciting curriculum journey from the moment they enter Sharp Lane Primary School.
Impact
What do we achieve?
Our curriculum, which encourages enquiry and discovery, creates aspirational learners who believe that they are destined for greater things. All pupils leave Sharp Lane feeling empowered, confident and resilient. These attributes are fundamental to our pupils continuing their learning journey at secondary school or in other, unique scenarios. In addition to a strong sense of self-worth and ambition, pupils leave us as respectful members of the community that understand the modern world and that tolerance of others, teamwork and communication are crucial to their success moving forward.
The Sharp Lane Bucket List
The Sharp Lane Bucket List - What will each child do before they leave?
Intent, Implementation, Impact
“Aspiration, Belief, Commitment and Discovery”
Curriculum Introduction
Our curriculum has landed – Let the journey commence! We are going on a journey to many real or imaginary places where our children will become different types of learners such as Scientists, Historians and Artists to learn knowledge and develop skills whilst exploring and discovering themes within each journey they are on.
At Sharp Lane, we are on a journey where we want everyone to ASPIRE to be the best they can be. When children leave school we want them to have confidence and BELIEVE that they can achieve anything they want through hard work and COMMITMENT. Using knowledge and skills they have learnt, we want all children to be independent, lifelong learners and have the confidence to explore and DISCOVER.
At Sharp Lane Primary School, we have worked collaboratively to design our curriculum rationale which is underpinned by our Aims, Values and Vision for our school community and the children within it.
School Aims:
- To ensure that our teaching and learning enable children to flourish in an environment which is friendly, welcoming, well-organised and caring.
- To ensure that all children are able to maximise their learning potential to explore a rich and varied curriculum full of opportunities to explore and develop knowledge, understanding and skills which are transferable across all areas of learning.
- To provide, for every child, a broad, balanced, relevant and challenging learning experience which matches their needs and develops a wide range of skills and knowledge.
- To ensure that our children leave us having acquired academic, social and life skills ready for the next stage in their lives as responsible citizens.
- To build a good working relationship with parents, our local community and other agencies involved in our school.
Intent
What are we trying to achieve?
At Sharp Lane, we have designed a curriculum that is not only fun, creative and interesting but also unique to us. We ensure that our curriculum:
- develops self-confidence, self-motivation and independence, cooperation, collaboration and teamwork.
- Provides exciting but safe and secure spaces, indoor and outdoor, where children can explore, discover and experiment.
- is stimulating and challenging, for every pupil, enabling them to reach their full potential across all areas of learning.
- celebrates the achievements of every child.
- Involves working in partnership with others to meet the needs of all the children and their families.
- Covers all aspects of British life and culture; celebrating differences, diversity, and core values and preparing children for life in Modern Britain.
- raises aspirations and a commitment to lifelong learning.
- Develops children who respect all adults in school and their peers.
- explores a wide range of experiences and opportunities.
- Creates happy children who are ready to leave us in year 6 to head out into our ever-changing world, able to make informed choices about their future
- will impact positively on our children’s mental and physical health throughout their time with us.
At Sharp Lane, we have 6 unique Characteristics of Learning and Being which are essential attributes for our children to enable them to fully understand themselves as learners and take charge of their own learning and decision making.
Another key attribute of our school is our ethos. Sharp Lane is a caring, kind and inclusive school where all children and staff members feel safe. Everyone achieves this by following our Sharp Lane Rules at all times:
Pupil Development Centre
Another key part of our caring ethos is our Pupil Development Centre (PDC). Our fantastic pastoral team provide support for pupils and their families, linking with outside agencies where needed to ensure for the safety, mental health and well-being of our children. The PDC lead various interventions to further support those children in need.
Implementation
How do we organise learning?
The provision we offer is guided by the requirements of the National Curriculum and the requirements of the Local Authority. Our provision takes into account every aspect of a child’s development. The curriculum gives all of our children the opportunity to achieve the highest possible standards of numeracy and literacy which is integrated across all areas of our curriculum. To enable our children to develop socially, morally, physically, emotionally and spiritually, we provide stimulating learning environments in which children are encouraged to learn through their own experiences and apply their knowledge independently. Within this framework of both a broad and balanced curriculum, our planning and progression documents ensure that our curriculum suits the needs of all pupils in school where lessons are practical in real-life contexts where possible to provoke the curiosity we want our children to have in order to fully engage in our exciting journey curriculum. The individual needs of each child are met through well planned and varied learning activities, including visits, workshops and specialist tuition.
Teaching for the breadth of learning
At Sharp Lane primary school, we carefully design, plan and implement our curriculum to provide balance and breadth across areas of learning to allow for children to develop both academically, personally and socially. It is part of our underlying belief that every child should feel valued and experience feeling success in a wide range of curriculum areas as responsible and resourceful pupils who reflect on their learning, building resilience and taking risks whilst understanding that we learn from our mistakes. In addition to this, we want to ensure that our children build and develop and maintain good relationships.
Furthermore, we place a high priority on ensuring children’s physical and mental well-being are met. We understand that children will not be successful learners unless they are emotionally secure, therefore we work closely with our PDC (Pupil Development Centre) which allows us to adopt a flexible approach so that we can meet and respond to the needs of our pupils.
Our balanced curriculum is not at the expense of high standards in core subjects. Our cross-curricular approach to learning ensures that high standards and expectations of our children’s work and outcomes are consistent across all areas of their learning.
Our full, rich and varied curriculum, with its excellent range of experiences, ensures that every pupil at Sharp Lane Primary School makes excellent progress both academically and personally. It is unique to our school and allows our children to flourish.
Beyond the Classroom
We are fully committed to providing the children with a wide and rich range of learning experiences beyond the classroom.
Educational Visits
We build opportunities for children to visit museums, galleries, theatres, parks, places of worship and historical landmarks. Not only do our children regularly explore our local area, visiting places such as Middle Park and Woods, we also take full advantage of the wealth of museums and historic buildings in Leeds and the surrounding areas. We expect that all children will participate in all educational visits as it links and enhances their classroom learning.
Specialist Visitors and Projects
Artists, musicians, authors, sports coaches and theatre groups frequently visit Sharp Lane Primary School to work with children, providing specialist support in developing new skills.
School Residential
We feel it is important that children experience a residential as part of their learning experience to help in their personal and social development. Children get the opportunity to experience a residential within the school or an external residential in Years 3, 4, and 6. Parents pay a contribution towards the cost of these.
Teaching for depth of learning
At Sharp Lane Primary school, our progressive curriculum has been carefully designed, organised and planned to ensure that our children are not merely covering the statutory content of the National Curriculum but achieving a depth of learning through the widening and deepening of essentials skills, understanding and concepts thus allowing these to be used across all areas of the curriculum. Within our curriculum, we build in many opportunities for repetition and practice to ensure that children are able to revisit previous learning, which allows them to gradually develop and build upon this to ensure depth. Our intent is to ensure that our children develop the knowledge and understanding needed in what we must cover statutory from the National Curriculum as a starting point, but to also take their learning deeper to ensure it has ‘stackability’.
Teaching for knowledge, understanding and skills
Our subjects are taught discreetly under our Umbrella Topic (Journey) so that our children are aware of the many subjects within our curriculum and the skills within these (both subject-specific and transferable), alongside knowledge and understanding. We plan very carefully to always ensure there are purposeful links to interweave subjects where it naturally fits. This ensures that planning and learning are sequenced appropriately to help support understanding and for progression and to allow children to be able to obtain knowledge whilst applying the skills necessary and vice versa.
Curriculum Content/Progression Documents
Curriculum Long Term Plans
WOW Moments!
| Name | Format | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Files | |||
| Recovery Curriculum Letter to Parents.pdf | |||
| Recovery Curriculum Outline.pdf |