Curriculum Design

 

Our curriculum sits within our High Standards pillar. We believe that exemplary behaviour and explicit teaching create the conditions for high‑quality learning. It ensures that pupils can focus on learning and teachers can focus on delivering a curriculum that is broad and balanced, in line with the expectations of the National Curriculum.

At Scarcliffe, our curriculum provides a knowledge‑rich, interdisciplinary approach that nurtures our core abilities, builds strong foundations and helps children become the best individuals they can be—now and in the future. We place great emphasis on developing a rich vocabulary and a deep understanding of the world around them. Our approach to long‑term learning is informed by research into how memory works, where progress is understood as knowing more and remembering more.

Our curriculum:

• Builds interesting and meaningful links through curriculum themes, helping children think more deeply.
• Connects with pupils’ lives and our community, while broadening their understanding of the wider world.
• Is shaped by core concepts and big ideas so pupils can make sense of their learning.
• Specifies substantive and disciplinary knowledge clearly so that nothing important is left to chance.
• Is carefully sequenced and ambitious for all, with knowledge building on what has been learned before.
• Supports long‑term learning by providing regular opportunities for review, recall and retrieval practice.
• Secures high standards in reading, writing and mathematics, while remaining broad, balanced and enriched with wider experiences.
• Provides explicit opportunities to promote British Values and develop our core abilities. 
• Is brought to life through high‑quality teaching.
• Uses purposeful assessment to help children embed key concepts and apply their knowledge fluently.

As a primary school, reading, writing and mathematics sit at the heart of what we do. We build strong foundations in these areas so that children can access the curriculum with confidence and go on to achieve their full potential.

 

Why do we have core abilities in our curriculum?

All stakeholders agree that our curriculum should be broad, balanced but also provide opportunities to develop core skills children need to support their development and success as they progress through school and into later life. 

Our core abilities:

• Communication
• Creativity
• Critical thinking
• Curiosity

The core abilities are delivered through subjects across the curriculum.  Click on the link below to read more. 

SPS Links between core abilities and subject areas (PDF)

Core abilities form an aspect of our curriculum which has a strong commitment to Personal Development, recognising that children learn best when they are emotionally healthy, confident and secure. Personal Development education supports children to:

• look after their wellbeing,
• build positive relationships,
• understand and manage feelings, and
• tackle issues that may affect their ability to learn, such as anxiety or unhealthy behaviours.

We aim for our curriculum to support children in becoming the best versions of themselves, and aligns with research showing that emotionally healthy children are more successful in school.

Subject Specific Information

For every area of the curriculum, we have drawn up our own curriculum intent.  These explain what we want children to achieve at the end of their time at our school.  The documents include what is expected to be covered in each class so we can plan to help the children achieve the intents in a progressive and structured way.  For every subject area, we have also put together some information about how we teach it at Scarcliffe and how we monitor standards. 

Please visit our 'Subjects' webpage to find out more about any of our subjects. 

Want to know more about our curriculum?

If you want to find out a little more about our curriculum, you can either contact your child's class teacher or email the head teacher (headteacher@scarcliffe.org.uk) and we will be happy to help.