Curriculum Information

"One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world"

Malala Yousafzai

At Bedgrove Junior School we are proud to be an inclusive school that provides a high quality, creative and challenging education for all of our pupils.  Every child experiences a sense of enjoyment and achieves their full potential within a secure, caring and happy environment.

In short, at Bedgrove Junior School, we aim, with every child to...

'INSPIRE, CHALLENGE, SUCCEED'

Intent

The aim of our curriculum at Bedgrove Junior School is to provide endless opportunities for children to develop as independent, confident, successful learners who have high aspirations of themselves; who know how to make a positive contribution to their own and the wider community and who are excited by learning opportunities around them. There is a determined focus on developing children’s moral, spiritual, social and cultural understanding and we ensure that children are well prepared for the next stage in their education as well as life in modern Britain.

At Bedgrove Junior School, our curriculum places the learning journey of ALL of our pupils at its very heart and is based on our three core values of ‘Inspire, Challenge, And Succeed’ as well as our Trust drivers of ‘meta-cognition, oracy and well-being’. Throughout our curriculum, we offer rich and vibrant opportunities, which draw upon purposeful real-life experiences, to offer meaningful outcomes. Our curriculum aims to promote curiosity and instil in our children, a strong passion for life-long learning. 

All aspects of our curriculum are accessible to all children, irrespective of their background, gender, disability, religious or linguistic background and complies with our duties in the Equality Act 2010 and the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014.  We strive hard to meet the needs of those pupils with special educational needs, those with disabilities, those who are more able and those children learning English as an additional language.

As a school, we strongly believe that children learn best when experiences are first hand and lessons are delivered in a variety of ways to suit different learners. We provide a highly inclusive environment where all learners enjoy their education and pupils at all levels are supported to achieve their full potential. We focus heavily on quality first teaching for all pupils within the classroom, which is further supplemented by differentiated work, adult support and intervention as appropriate.

Our growth mind-set approach to learning allows our children to understand the learning, be fully involved in the process and set high expectations for themselves to achieve their very best.

Bedgrove Junior School’s focus on curriculum development is carefully designed to ensure coverage and progression.  Our curriculum recognises and builds upon children’s prior learning, is designed to allow children to develop interpersonal skills, build resilience and become creative, critical thinkers. Knowledge, skills and concepts are clearly developed in an age-appropriate and progressive way from Year 3 to Year 6, in all subjects, so that the children’s skills, knowledge and understanding are extended and built upon, year upon year.  Our curriculum focuses on ensuring that all of our children are as prepared, for the KS3 curriculum in all subject areas, as they can be.  Through our planned, progressive curriculum, children have the opportunity to know more and remember more and learning is regularly re-visited so that it is fully embedded.

Oracy is a key part of our curriculum and this is a key driver of our curriculum. Pupils are given the opportunity to talk regularly, using high levels of vocabulary and learning the skills of debate and conversation. This results in pupils who are fully engaged in their learning.

Physical and mental wellbeing is prioritised within our curriculum, allowing children opportunities to develop skills that will foster positive mental health and well-being in the future. We consider our duty to foster equality, ensuring our curriculum addresses disadvantage and aspires to close the gap; meaning equity for all pupils. Children leave our school with a sense of belonging to a community where they have developed the confidence and skills to make decisions, self-evaluate, make connections and become lifelong reflective learners. 

Implementation

Our curriculum is well planned and designed ensuring a smooth transition from KS1 and with a clear focus, throughout KS2, on secondary school readiness. We have the National Curriculum, which we use as a starting point for all subjects, to ensure progression and coverage across the four years.

We embellish and deepen learning, exposing pupils to diversity, quality experiences and lessons with a large element of choice and need for independent thinking. All subjects have a clear curriculum statement, alongside planned implementation through long and medium term planning which outlines key objectives and progression of knowledge and skills from year to year and term to term. Enjoyment of the curriculum promotes achievement, engagement in learning, confidence and good behaviour. High quality visits and visitors are also well planned to enhance the curriculum offer.  

The curriculum design ensures that the needs of individuals and small groups of children can be met within the environment of high quality teaching, supported by targeted, proven interventions where appropriate. Short term planning is evaluated and adapted regularly to ensure we are meeting the needs of all pupils.

The curriculum is implemented through our structured weekly timetable that sets out expectations for daily core lessons in maths and English with additional lessons for daily whole class guided reading and arithmetic sessions. There is a strong emphasis within the timetable on non-core subjects such as topic (which incorporates the knowledge and skills of history, geography and art/DT through a thematic approach) and subjects such as science, French and healthy minds. Specialist teachers deliver sessions in PE, performing arts and computing, allowing our pupils exposure to an enriching wider curriculum. RE is taught once a half term as a full day to fully engage in and explore themes.

Impact

At Bedgrove Junior School, we strive for all pupils to achieve their maximum potential, by having high expectations and excellent standards. All of our subjects have clear end points identified so that staff are aware of the expectations of all children, in all subjects, by the end of each year.

We achieve high outcomes at the end of Key Stage Two in our core subjects and our children make strong progress during their time with us across the board. Our outcomes show that we do extremely well when compared with national and local outcomes. This is replicated in our own assessment of non-core subjects where high levels of pupils achieve age related expectations and beyond.

Our stimulating curriculum teaches core skills and knowledge in English, maths and science whilst actively promoting all other curriculum areas, ensuring that expectations are high across the curriculum. Our children enjoy lessons and we believe this early love of learning stimulates children to become lifelong learners. Our work on promoting social skills and preparation for life beyond Bedgrove enables the majority of our children to become fantastic role models and the very best version of themselves.  A vast majority of our pupils leave our school ready for the challenges of the KS3 curriculum and where children are not yet ready for this curriculum we ensure transition is strong so that progress will continue for all pupils.

Our pupils say...

"Lessons are really fun at Bedgrove. I am never bored and when a lesson ends I am always excited for what is going to happen in the next lesson."

"Our teachers make learning fun and I always know I have to try my very best. I enjoy working towards the titanium activity in maths as I know this is going to make my maths brain hurt!"

"In topic we always learn about lots of different things that I am really interested in such as about the Stone Age. When we go on a trip it always helps me to understand what we have learnt. I feel like all of my learning in topic links and I can always remember key facts from the year before."

"I used to hate writing. Now I know that I have the model text, which will help me to think about the words I need to use or how to lay my work out. Now I always feel really proud of my hot writes and have received a couple of gold books this year."

Science lessons are the most fun. I nearly fainted when we cut up a heart but I will never forget now what it looks like and how it works."

If you have any questions around our school curriculum then please speak with a member of the SLT in the first instance. They may be able to answer your question or will direct to you to the subject lead or most appropriate staff member.