Curriculum
Design
Our Curriculum
The National Curriculum provides pupils with an introduction to the essential knowledge that they need to be educated citizens.
The National Curriculum is just one element in the education of every child. It provides an outline of core knowledge around which teachers can develop exciting and stimulating lessons to promote the development of pupils' knowledge, understanding and skills as part of the wider school curriculum. There is time and space in the school day and in each week, term and year to range beyond the National Curriculum specifications.
Engaging, exciting and empowering lifelong learners through a creative, mastery-based curriculum
Our curriculum is centered around developing the whole child: from their head, to their heart, to their hand.
We have developed three curriculum drivers that shape our curriculum, bring about the aims and values of our school, and to respond to the particular needs of our community. Our drivers are designed to ensure that our children are personally successful, independent thinkers ready for their journey of lifelong learning. Life is not a straight line, therefore we want our pupils to be prepared to overcome their challenges and embrace new opportunities. Independence is a thread throughout all of our curriculum drivers.
Life-long learning
Cultural capital
Achieving milestones
Mastery approach
Developing skills
Connecting ideas
High expectations
Big questions
ENGAGE
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest”
Benjamin Franklin
A SMALL SCHOOL CURRICULUM THAT IS ASPIRATIONAL IN ITS PURSUIT FOR EXCELLENCE
Engaging the head represents a knowledge rich education: the passing on the 'best that has been thought and said' from one generation to the next. Our core aim is to provide a broad cultural knowledge which allows access and engagement in the conversations of the 21st century through a coherently planned, irresistible academic curriculum.
Co-operation
Collaboration
Respecting others
Community
The environment
Global issues
Resilience
Friendship
EXCITE
“Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.”
Immanuel Kant
AN OUTWARD LOOKING AND IRRESISTIBLE CURRICULUM THAT CELEBRATES INDIVIDUALITY AND PROMOTES RESPECT
Exciting the heart is about developing character, celebrating identity and developing the qualities that will be needed to thrive.
Beauty and discernment
Practical skills
Media and culture
Learning to create
Problem solving
Changing the world
Authentic experiences
Debate, question, challenge
EMPOWER
“The bits I most remember about my school days are those that took place outside the classroom”
Alan Bennett
A HANDS ON, CREATIVE CURRICULUM THAT ENCOURAGES MASTERY OF LIFE LONG SKILLS
Empowering the hand enables children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities.
We strive for learning experiences at East Farleigh to be meaningful and enjoyable for children. We aim to achieve this through incorporating these five essential aspects into our sequences of teaching and learning:
Jonasson (2007)ACTIVE
We believe pupils should be actively engaged in their learning – be it taking part in a discussion, engaging in a role-play or completing a project-based activity.
CONSTRUCTIVE
We aim to make learning constructive, both in the sense of developing pupils' mental model, and in the sense of physically making something.
INTENTIONAL
We endeavour for pupils to assume some degree of choice over how they tackle a task or project, or perhaps even over the task or project itself, to allow plenty of scope for individual creativity.
COOPERATIVE
Where possible, we construct activities so that pupils can work together and support one another: learning at East Farleigh is always a collaborative endeavour.
AUTHENTIC
We always strive to link activities with pupils’ own experiences, both within and beyond school; this may include cross-curricular projects, those linked to the life of the school or those valuing the rich cultural capital of our pupils.