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Evington Valley Primary School

Curriculum Intent

Intent: 

‘Caring and Learning Together’ underpins the work of the school.  We want the children at Evington Valley to be articulate, confident speakers who are well prepared for the next stage in their education and for success in life.  We celebrate the diversity of Leicester City, supporting the children to gain a sense of their own identity, coupled with an understanding and a deep respect for others based on race, ethnicity, culture, disability, religion and gender. We actively thread the core British Values through the life of the school, and democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance pervade our school ethos.

Language and vocabulary knowledge sit at the heart of the curriculum.  We teach language knowledge explicitly and provide practice of this throughout the whole curriculum. We support children’s acquisition of everyday language, as well as the subject specific academic language which will provide children with an equality of opportunity to access future education and employment. 

The ambition for our children is reflected in the breadth and balance of the curriculum we have designed which has been based on both the national curriculum expectations and the perceived needs of the community.  We value highly the development of children’s health and wellbeing (physical and mental), their cultural capital and their knowledge and skills. These lead children to recognise and develop strengths and interests that they may not have otherwise identified which widen their horizons.  We recognise that the deeper the knowledge that the children have, the more we can increase their chances to succeed in later life. We believe that our curriculum supports our children to gain fairer access to a wider range of future opportunities.

Our spiral curriculum, that is coherently planned and sequenced, allows the teaching and learning of all subjects to ensure that children revise their prior knowledge and connect this to their new learning. We invest time in supporting the retention, and deepening, of children’s knowledge and understanding that they have gained during their primary years at Evington Valley.

Children’s development of knowledge also comes from reading. We celebrate and encourage all children to read for pleasure, ensuring that they understand that books can provide them with experiences, understanding and entertainment they may not otherwise receive.

The school is fully inclusive. We welcome children with a very wide range of needs whose parents recognise that we are unrelenting in our desire to ensure that all children achieve their learning potential.

At Evington Valley we recognise that skills for future learning and employment should be firmly established from a young age. We teach the key tenets of Growth Mindset Theory, with focus on developing resilience, perseverance, curiosity, a thirst for learning and collaboration. This supports our learners to understand that learning is not always easy but it can be achieved with the combination of a positive mindset and good learning skills. Our aspiration for the children at Evington Valley is that they develop as independent learners who are able to tackle the increasing challenge of each new stage in their learning.

Implementation:

The curriculum is delivered to children working in mixed age-phase classes using a 2 year rolling programme of knowledge in all subjects. The curriculum is adapted in all subjects to meet the needs of the children.

At Evington Valley, all members of staff hold high expectations of the achievement of every pupil. The needs of each child are assessed and support is put in place where necessary beyond the high quality whole class teaching which we provide. Our commitment to the success in learning for all children is evident in the range of learning scaffolds used in the class, our deployment of additional adults to support class teachers to work with children with a range of needs and the use of Circle of Adults to support those with social and emotional needs.  We believe firmly that no child should be left behind, so we work hard to raise children’s levels of self-esteem and confidence alongside developing a sense of physical and mental wellbeing.

Carefully designed curriculum intentions, which have been written with contribution from all members of staff, drive the learning and progress for all children in all subjects.

We invest curriculum time in trips and visitors to support children’s experiences beyond the immediate community in which they live that extend the learning in most subject areas to ensure that learning is memorable as well as meaningful. These contribute to developing children’s background knowledge and cultural capital further.

Impact:

The school has a carefully designed plan for monitoring and evaluating the success of the curriculum, overseen by the curriculum leader. Information is gathered by subject leaders from different sources including learning walks, pupil interviews and work scrutinies (including learning journeys), with discussion with colleagues about the findings and ways of moving forwards.

 

Subject Curriculum Statements