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Curriculum Intent and Rationale

A Curriculum for the Federation

The Federation of Rawcliffe Bridge and Rawcliffe Primary Schools are located just under two miles apart in the East Riding of Yorkshire near the town of Goole. Rawcliffe Bridge Primary School is a Victorian school building, complete with the original house and extensive garden areas including a vegetable patch. There are currently two classes catering for pupils from Nursery to Year 6. Rawcliffe Primary School is more modern and was built 20 years ago and also benefits from large outside spaces. There are currently four classes catering for children from Reception to Year 6.

We are very proud of our community and our wonderful pupils who are inquisitive and eager to learn.

With this context in mind, we have designed and organised our Federation curriculum to promote learning, personal growth and development. It includes not only the formal requirements of the National Curriculum, which can be accessed here, but also a range of wider activities that enrich the experiences of our children. We also have a commitment ensuring all our children are inspired, and flourish as individuals. As such we are developing a programme of Federation Pledges which will be a bank of exciting, challenging experiences to support us to achieve this aim. 

Embedded in our ‘informal’ curriculum is the transmission of values and beliefs that the children learn from the way they are treated and expected to behave. We aim to teach children how to grow into positive, responsible people, who can work and co-operate with others, whilst developing knowledge, skills and attitudes to learning, in order to unlock their true potential.

Intent

It is our intention that The Federation of Rawcliffe Bridge and Rawcliffe Primary Schools curriculum is stimulating, relevant and meaningful. We want our pupils to understand how they can apply the knowledge and skills they are learning to life beyond the classroom in a range of contexts. We want the curriculum to open our pupils' minds and encourage them to be inquisitive, intrigued by their learning, question the world we live in and create a desire to want to learn more.  

Our curriculum, with a focus on human flourishing is designed to be aspirational, meaningful and creative and also to challenge pupils to be ambitious, reflective and resilient in their learning. We want our curriculum to lead to the development of educated citizens who will positively influence society.

Rationale for Implementation

In the Rawcliffe Federation of Schools, we continually work hard to design and refine a curriculum that meets these aims and intentions.

We utilise a range of resources to implement and deliver a high quality of education – including Little Wandle for the teaching of early reading and phonics, and a mastery approach to mathematics with the White Rose Maths programme. Please explore the other curriculum areas on our website to find out more about our whole curriculum offer.

Learning Means the World 

When considering the knowledge and learning in National Curriculum subjects such as history, geography, art, design technology and music, we have recently re-designed our approach so that we are now using the Dimensions ‘Learning Means the World’ Curriculum resources to achieve our outlined intent. We feel that this approach will engage and stimulate our pupils in their learning, whilst still providing high levels of subject specific thinking. This curriculum resource is underpinned by four highly relevant world issues, known as the four Cs:-

  • Culture
  • Communication   
  • Conflict
  • Conservation

Communication 

Within The Federation of Rawcliffe Bridge and Rawcliffe Primary Schools, we recognise the importance of effective communication within the learning process. We want our pupils to have the vocabulary and language skills to be able to communicate with different audiences both in and outside of school. Our curriculum builds opportunities to develop this within the themes and is rich in language development. We recognise that means of communication are constantly evolving and through the effective use of digital resources, our pupils will be better prepared for future challenges. We want them to be confident in choosing different ways to communicate and to believe and know that they all have a voice.

We also recognise communication is also the key to pupils successfully building relationships both now and in the future. We want our pupils to recognise the importance of listening to appreciate different points of view. We want them to see the power and understand the importance of communication.

Culture

Given the demographic makeup of the Federation schools, we are determined to offer a spectrum of opportunities to teach our pupils to fully appreciate and embrace the cultural diversity found in wider society. Our pupils are curious, and through our curriculum, we aim to build on this curiosity so that our pupils have a richer understanding of the diversity of the world beyond our local community. We want our pupils to be proud of their own culture, valuing themselves and their beliefs as individuals as well as supporting them in their open-mindedness as to the breadth and richness of other cultures and the positive impacts of these on our society both now and in the past.

Conflict

At The Federation of Rawcliffe Bridge and Rawcliffe Primary Schools we recognise that part of the learning process is to learn to deal with conflict. It is inevitable that pupils will disagree with each other at times. With our guidance and through our curriculum, we want them to understand the causes of these conflicts and explore who or what can be done to resolve them. We will help our pupils understand that resilience is important when dealing with conflict and equally as important as knowing who to ask for help, and when. We want all of our children to recognise their opinions are as important as others and to be confident to follow their own convictions and not just follow others.

Through our curriculum we want our pupils to have an age-appropriate informed view that there are differences in the world. We want them to understand that not everyone is the same or thinks the same and that this can be positive. They will also explore and learn more about wider conflicts within society past and present. It is our aim that as our pupils progress through the school they will be able to form a balanced view of the causes of conflict.

Conservation

Our pupils at The Federation of Rawcliffe Bridge and Rawcliffe Primary Schools are both inquisitive and caring and through our curriculum, we aim to extend this into a more global understanding. We are fortunate to have large outdoor spaces at both schools and we aim to build on this by providing further learning opportunities linked to our garden areas and planned allotment plots. We want to encourage our pupils to extend their understanding of conservation both locally and globally. We want them to understand that we are all responsible for our planet and realise that daily actions have an impact both positive and negative. Through the curriculum, we aim to bring conservation issues to life so that they have a greater understanding of sustainability in the wider world. We believe our pupils should be provided with the knowledge and skills so they are better informed to work as a whole community, and have the confidence to form their own opinions and plans for action.

 

Organising these 'Big Ideas'

Each year, our curriculum narrative includes these 4 'Cs.  One important theme is Communication, as we believe effective communication to be the foundation for successful learning and school life in general. We recognise it is the key to understanding and is the core thread that will continue to be developed through the year. Another theme visited is Conflict, as our pupils have an important role to play in establishing the behaviour expectations for The Federation of Rawcliffe Bridge and Rawcliffe Primary Schools. We want our pupils to take responsibility for their actions and realise other pupils’ opinions are just as important. We want them to be able to share their opinions sensitively across the whole community. Across the year we will focus on Culture - helping our pupils in their opening of minds both locally and globally. We want our pupils to recognise they are citizens of a much wider world. We want them to recognise the similarities and differences between cultures and embrace the richness of diversity.  We shall also focus on Conservation beginning with discovering the natural resources of our local area through practical opportunities and experiences. We want our pupils to take their new understanding of sustainability and their personal responsibility into the holidays and beyond.

Aligned with this we also encourage our pupils to have high aspirations by teaching them about human creativity and achievement through additional units of learning about famous figures and groups of people that focus on 'Creativity, Commitment, Courage and Community'.