Thornton Dale C of E Primary School

Curriculum

Curriculum Overview

The curriculum at Thornton Dale is relevant and inspiring! We have a creative approach which is specifically tailored to our children’s needs.

As staff we have given careful consideration to our children; their experiences and needs and developed a bespoke curriculum model that caters for them specifically.

Our curriculum intent is to:

Ensure that all children feel safe, happy and valued as individuals and embed values of love, kindness, self-belief and aspiration.
Have the highest expectations for what all children can achieve regardless of background or starting points.
Confidently challenge and confront injustice and inequality as articulate advocates of change, celebrating and respecting diversity.
Prepare children for their next steps; from key stage to key stage and beyond.
Be child-led, engaging and innovative through a creative and ambitious approach.
Encourage our children to consistently try hard even when they encounter difficulties.
Immerse our children in outdoor learning and use forest schools principles.
Ensure children receive valuable support at home through excellent parent partnerships.
There is emphasis on knowledge and vocabulary acquisition and teaching is carefully structured to enable pupils to remember what they have been taught.
Learning across the curriculum is sequentially planned to build on knowledge and skills.
Reading is an integral part of the curriculum.
Community links are central to ensuring our children have a broad understanding of the local world around them.
Children will be given opportunities to explore and appreciate different cultures and beliefs through global learning experiences, enriching through

Our Golden Threads of Nurture and Relationships, Highest Expectations and Creative and Innovative Sequential Approaches are embedded throughout our Curriculum.

Our curriculum is implemented through Learning Missions. These are whole school, cross curricular topics that aim to inspire and excite children about new learning.

Through each Learning Mission, the children go on a learning journey from launch to landing. Children use knowledge organisers to support their learning so they remember long term the content they have been taught.

Click here to find out more about our Learning Mission approach

We value each child’s contribution and individuality. Our individual Learning Mission books are full of published work with we are proud to share with others.

Click here for our curriculum progression document.

The impact of our curriculum approach is that it truly inspires learners, igniting a learning passion and developing ‘learning for life’. English and Maths are taught as discrete sessions in the morning, but wherever

possible they will link to the current Learning Mission. Weekly Science sessions link to our Learning Missions wherever possible. Teachers ensure a clear progression for all subjects and have high expectations for children’s

achievements in every subject. Knowledge organisers are used for science and foundation subjects to ensure children remember what is taught long term.