Overview
The Manor CofE Primary School ensures the learning children experience in school incorporates the national curriculum and government initiatives. To find out more about the national curriculum, follow the link below.
Our Curriculum at The Manor
At The Manor, we aim for exemplary behaviour supported by a strong knowledge-rich curriculum that is well-sequenced curriculum and allows pupils to develop their knowledge of the world systematically over time.
Our curriculum for English and Maths is built around the White Horse Federation’s ENRICH curriculum which is specifically designed to be challenging, aspirational and inclusive so that every child learns about ‘the best that has been thought and said’. The curriculum increases the quantity and quality of what our students know. The knowledge selected to be in the curriculum is carefully organised and sequenced, allowing students to build a schema, or ‘mental picture’, of a subject
As a school we have invested time in developing a knowledge-rich curriculum in other subjects to give our pupils access to the very best curriculum content. This ensures that pupils secure a solid base to build on as they move through school and into Key Stage 3 and beyond. Our curriculum is ambitious and goes above and beyond the requirements laid out in the national curriculum.
The Manor’s curriculum is designed with knowledge at its heart to ensure that children develop a strong vocabulary base and an extensive understanding of the world. The curriculum promotes long-term learning and we believe that progress means knowing more and remembering more. As pupils learn the content of the curriculum they are making progress. We have developed a curriculum built on current research regarding how memory works to ensure that children not only have access to 'the best that has been thought and said' but are taught this in a way that ensures children can remember the curriculum content in future years.
We make use of knowledge organisers to ensure children know exactly which information is expected to be learned over the course of their study in a particular subject. We carefully check and activate prior knowledge to ensure our pupils are able to understand and remember new things they are learning.
This is why we place particular emphasis on children knowing by heart and building rich webs of knowledge as they progress through the curriculum. We regularly quiz children on the knowledge organisers to check they are remembering their learning over time.
Our knowledge-rich curriculum is built on the following principles:
1. Acquisition of knowledge is at the heart of the curriculum from which skills can be applied
This means that pupils learn knowledge which empowers them to not only understand the world around them but to understand how each subject discipline works in order to extend this knowledge of the world.
2. Knowledge is specified in fine detail
This means that we set out very precisely what pupils will know and be able to do in each subject. This means that we don't leave anything to chance. If we want pupils to know a specific piece of knowledge we specify when and how this is learned over time making links to previous learning and other subjects.
3. Knowledge is acquired in long-term memory
This means that we expect all pupils to remember their learning into the future. We have planned the curriculum so that there are many chances for pupils to review what they have already learned and secure it in their memories.
4. Knowledge is carefully sequenced over time
This means that we have thought carefully about the most effective order to learn new curriculum content in. We have planned the curriculum so that each unit of work in a subject builds directly on what has been learned before. This helps pupils understand and remember their learning more effectively.
The children have daily reading, writing and maths lessons and our foundation subjects are taught as follows:
- Geography, History, Science, DT and Art are taught in three-week blocks. PE, RE, Music and MFL are on-going
- The key knowledge for each Geography, History and Science topic is identified and put into a Knowledge Organiser. This key knowledge is broadly based on ‘what a literate person needs to know’ (Hirsh)
- Alongside this, a multiple-choice quiz is used at the end of each unit to assess the knowledge learnt.
- The children revisit these quizzes later in the year to help them retain the knowledge in their long-term memories.
- An event or performance to share the learning with parents is planned at least three times a year (each old term)
- Home learning projects and research are encouraged and shared in school.
- To ensure the curriculum learning is memorable and joyful, enrichment activities and regular trips are planned based around our 11 by 11 (eleven experiences every child who attends The Manor will have by the age of eleven). This ensures that it is an entitlement for every child to visit the Houses of Parliament, enjoy theatre performances, see key historical sites and sing in a choir of 8000 as part of the Young Voices choir.
EYFS Overview