Curriculum

Our Curriculum

Intent

Our school motto ‘A School for all, with community at its heart’ and our values: Ambition, Creativity, Respect, Resilience and Kindness underpin and are at the heart of our curriculum.

At Little Kingshill Combined School, we prepare children with the essential knowledge and skills for their future through the teaching of the full curriculum. We offer a rich and vibrant curriculum which is ambitious for all learners where high standards are always sought and attention is always given to motivating children to be lifelong learners. We make creative, meaningful connections between our subjects. Our main aim is to connect the curriculum through termly themes, with a clear focus on coherent planning; integrating and cumulatively building and developing essential knowledge, skills and understanding which are the building blocks for later life. Our curriculum encompasses not only the formal requirements of the National Curriculum, but goes beyond the experiences of the classroom to ensure that our children are exposed to the richest and most varied opportunities that we can provide. Our aim is to enrich every child’s school experience by creating an environment where they are encouraged to succeed and be the best they can be. The exploration of new skills and experiences help to nurture resilience, curiosity and creativity. We emphasise the importance of learning from mistakes to enable learners to become confident, creative, independent and inquisitive learners.

Implementation

At Little Kingshill Combined School we ensure that:

• teachers have good knowledge of all subjects they teach. Leaders provide effective support for those teaching outside their main areas of expertise.
• teachers present subject matter clearly, promoting appropriate discussion about the subject matter they are teaching. They check learners’ understanding systematically, identify misconceptions accurately and provide clear, direct feedback. In doing so, they respond and adapt their teaching as necessary.
• over the course of study, teaching is designed to help learners to remember in the long term the content they have been taught and to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts.
• teachers and leaders use assessment well, for example to help learners embed and use knowledge fluently or to check understanding and inform teaching. Leaders understand the limitations of assessment and do not use it in a way that creates unnecessary burdens for staff or learners.
• teachers create an environment that allows the learner to focus on learning.
• a rigorous approach to the teaching of reading develops learners’ confidence and enjoyment in reading. At the early stages of learning to read, reading materials are closely matched to learners’ phonics knowledge​​​​​​​

Our curriculum is designed to ensure that every child can experience, learn and achieve whatever their ability, age, disability, gender, race, religion and culture.  Parents are encouraged to discuss any concerns they might have in relation to the above with their child's class teacher in the first instance.  Every effort will be made to adapt how we offer aspects of our curriculum if necessary.  We are sensitive to children's protected characteristics and also make every effort to ensure that all school resources reflect our commitment to equal opportunities for all.

Each term there is a whole school overarching topic:- Autumn Term Step Back in Time, Spring Term Good to be Green, Summer Term Food Glorious Food.  This is then broken down into individual year group topics delivered each term in the classrooms.  Below are a series of documents which set out what the pupils will be covering in the curriculum through each topic and the subjects within the topics.

The children in Early Years and Key Stage One focus on the local area and as the pupils move on through the school they start to learn about the wider world and beyond.

Should you have any questions surrounding our school curriculum, please direct them to Mrs Clements-Ross (Curriculum Co-ordinator) through the school office.