What is the Intent of our Curriuclum at Ordsall Primary School?

At Ordsall Primary School the ancient proverb I hear things, and I forget them. I see things, and I remember them. I do things, and I understand them is the central pillar of what we do. This means that we implement our curriculum through the delivery of learning opportunities, in a contextualised and creative way, across the whole curriculum through first-hand experience. It is our mission that Ordsall children will not only understand and remember what they learn but they will learn how to learn, apply their knowledge and cement their learning and the strategies they develop for the future.

Excellence in teaching and enjoyment of learning is at the heart of what we do. It is our intent that our curriculum provides children with rich, vibrant and memorable experiences that promote a progression of skills, knowledge and understanding which can be applied across the whole curriculum. Our curriculum incorporates the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum 2014 alongside the Religious Education agreed syllabus of Southwell Diocese and Relationships and Health Education using a scheme of work developed by the PSHE Association. All of this is set alongside other experiences and opportunities which best meet the learning and developmental needs of the children in our school. (These documents can be found by clicking on the subject links below)

How is the Curriculum at Ordsall Primary School Implemented?

The aim in implementing our curriculum is to offer our children a rich and exciting curriculum and experiences which are influenced by the local area and local needs. The curriculum offers breadth and cultural diversity, through work such as Black History Month or through work in music and RE, so that our children can develop a deep body of knowledge which they can not only apply creatively in their learning but that they will also become aware of wider society. In this way we are preparing our children for the next stages of their lives and building systematically on their knowledge and vocabulary.

Our curriculum his coherently planned using set milestones and progression maps within each year group. These documents indicate not only the knowledge that the children will gain across the year, but they also indicate the vocabulary and skills progression within each subject. This means that the children develop detailed knowledge and skills across the curriculum which move them forward, in a sequenced way, towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge for future learning.  This ensures not only that we are planning for the children to do more, know more and remember more but they are also developing key skills in each subject that are transferable across the different topic areas that they will study. In short, they are learning how to learn not only for today but for their future through the development of subject specific skills.

Our curriculum is underpinned by Fundamental British Values which are are embedded through many areas of the curriculum. Assemblies focus on issues such as tolerance, understanding, equality, resilience, diversity and democracy as well as cultural and annual events and celebrations. Music and the cultural significance of it is celebrated and explained through the celebration of different styles of music from different times written and performed by a range of composers and performers.

How do we measure the impact of our curriculum?

At all points of a child's journey through Ordsall Primary School we measure the impact of what we do by checking in with the children to find out if they are knowing more and remembering more. In school we will use a variety of different strategies to do this but the most important way we do it is by talking to the children and looking at their books in different areas. We also use quizzes and checkpoints to see where the children are and what they need to do next. We also use the knowledge and vocabulary progression maps that we have devised using the National Curriuclum and Early Years Handbook. These documents map out the knowledge that the children will acquire in different years of their time in school, along with the new vocabulary they will learn when they study different topics. This is done not only by the Governors, the Head Teacher and the Deputy Head Teachers but it is done by all our subject leaders who design an action plan every year to plan out how they will do it. At the end of the year we share everyone's achievements in the Record of Achievement and, although we focus on what the children do and say, we also look closely at the outcomes of National Testing to check that the impact of what we are teaching our children is as positive as we want it to be. This can be seen by looking at our outcomes on the website at our Assessment Outcomes.