Curriculum Intent
At Sandlings, our curriculum is thoughtfully designed to ensure educational excellence, empowering all our children to thrive both now and in the future. We prioritise accessibility and inclusivity, ensuring the curriculum meets the needs of children with disabilities or special educational needs, in line with the Equality Act 2010 and the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014. This approach recognises the diverse needs of our children, ensuring all receive the necessary support to overcome barriers and achieve equitable outcomes.
Our curriculum is based on the “National Curriculum” and follows the Chris Quigley Essentials framework, which is clearly sequenced for progression, supporting both planning and teaching. Each core subject is led by a dedicated teacher who monitors curriculum delivery and provides training and support for colleagues. We take a collaborative approach to other subjects, sharing ideas and working with other schools to continuously improve teaching and learning.
Metacognitive strategies including Oracy, to help children understand and think deeply about their learning are at the heart of our curriculum. We believe strong speaking and listening skills are essential for both academic success and personal growth. Oracy is embedded across all subjects, enabling children to express their thoughts clearly and engage in active listening and constructive dialogue. This ensures that every child, regardless of their background or starting point, has the ability to communicate effectively, a skill vital for lifelong learning and success.
Through our broad and balanced curriculum, we encourage children to value and appreciate the world around them, inspiring them by introducing the best that has been thought and said in human creativity and achievement. We regularly review the impact of our curriculum to ensure it meets the needs of all children, fostering their academic and personal development. Oracy plays a key role in this process, enabling children to express their ideas, engage in dialogue, and deepen their understanding.
Our curriculum is cross-curricular in approach, while maintaining progression in subject-specific skills and knowledge. We aim to provide purposeful, interesting, and meaningful learning experiences. Teaching subjects in blocks has proven effective in achieving this.
Daily Maths and English lessons provide essential time for the development of these foundational subjects, with Maths taught using the mastery approach based on the Power of Maths scheme, and Early Reading taught through the Little Wandle phonics scheme.
We aim to build cultural capital by providing children with rich, diverse experiences that extend beyond the classroom, including learning about different cultures, visiting cultural sites, engaging in the arts, and introducing influential figures from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds.
We promote well-being and personal development through mental health awareness and ensure that children have access to support when needed. Our curriculum fosters personal growth, resilience, and responsibility, providing opportunities for leadership and reflection. We also prepare children for their futures by offering career-related activities, visits from professionals, and life skills lessons.
We celebrate the diversity of our school community by embedding inclusivity, equality, and respect for others throughout our curriculum. We actively promote British values and encourage children to engage with and appreciate diverse perspectives, ensuring all children feel valued and respected.
We recognise our responsibility to foster global citizenship and prepare children for life in an interconnected world. Our curriculum incorporates global issues, cultural understanding, and the importance of sustainability, encouraging children to become responsible and compassionate global citizens.
Implementation
At Sandlings, the curriculum is implemented through a well-structured, sequenced approach that builds on prior knowledge and ensures progression in all areas of learning. Our commitment to high-quality teaching and learning is reflected in the way we design, deliver, and evaluate our curriculum. Central to our approach is ensuring every child achieves their full potential, with Oracy and metacognitive strategies playing a central role in both teaching and learning.
Teachers model metacognitive strategies, encouraging children to think about prior learning and strategies to use during tasks. Collaborative learning opportunities are used so children can discuss their thinking processes and learn from each other. A strong emphasis is placed on using age-appropriate, rich vocabulary to help children articulate their thought processes. Teachers employ various strategies to engage all children and make learning accessible, including scaffolding support, resources, and adaptations for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
We implement a cross-curricular approach, linking subjects around a central theme each term. This helps children make connections between different areas of learning, fostering curiosity and promoting deeper understanding. Subject knowledge and skills are developed progressively, with opportunities for children to apply their learning in meaningful contexts.
Our curriculum distinguishes between subject topics and threshold concepts. Subject topics are the specific aspects of subjects that are studied. Threshold concepts tie together the subject topics into meaningful schema. The same concepts are explored in a wide breadth of subject topics over the primary years. Through this ‘forwards-and-backwards engineering’ of the curriculum, pupils return to the same concepts over and over, and gradually build understanding of them and provide a progressive model for the procedural and semantic knowledge pupils need.
Each new unit of work commences with the “big ideas lesson” which helps children to reflect on their prior learning and gives the children the big picture of the learning they are about to undertake including key vocabulary they will need. Teachers engage children with inspiring stimuli, such as visits, challenges, or new topics, which link to their prior knowledge and spark curiosity. Throughout each unit, we continue to challenge children through a variety of activities, including debates, discussions, drama, role-play, and investigations, ensuring that each child stays actively engaged.
Every week, children have life skills lessons that include PSHE, well-being activities, forest school, and other essential skills such as practical activities in the kitchen and garden. Regular whole-school meetings provide opportunities for children to discuss a range of topics, actively learn about democracy and British values, and engage with their community. Together, these experiences promote personal development, responsibility, resilience, self-regulation, and key learning behaviours for success.
To ensure strong foundations in Maths and English, these subjects are taught daily. The curriculum for these subjects is carefully planned and sequenced to build on previous learning, ensuring key skills are consolidated and deepened over time.
The Power of Maths scheme provides daily teaching sequences using a mastery approach. Children engage in practical, pictorial, and conceptual activities, and have access to manipulatives to support their learning. We also have a daily “maths meeting” session to revisit and consolidate previous learning, ensuring children make steady progress in developing a deep understanding of mathematical concepts. Teachers check understanding throughout lessons, identify misconceptions, and provide timely feedback to address gaps.
Reading is taught through a mix of whole-class and group guided reading sessions to develop decoding and comprehension skills. We use a range of high-quality texts in KS2 and Big Cat books aligned with our Little Wandle phonics scheme in Reception and KS1. We promote a love of reading by reading to children daily, providing well-stocked fiction and non-fiction libraries, hosting book weeks, holding competitions, and encouraging reading with parents.
Children are taught writing skills, drawing on the texts they have read, and are given opportunities to apply these skills across the curriculum, including extended “Big Write” sessions every fortnight. We aim to give children a real purpose for their writing whenever possible.
Ongoing formative assessment guides our teaching to ensure all children progress. Teachers use a variety of methods, including questioning, class discussions, and written work, to check understanding and adapt teaching. Summative assessments track pupil progress at key points throughout the year using PIRA, PUMA tests, and the Chris Quigley Depth of Learning tracker.
At home, children are expected to read daily, practice spelling, and complete a weekly maths fluency task. Every half term, children are set a project on a particular theme, with a “menu” of ideas to choose from. This project-based approach encourages independent learning and allows children to explore their interests.
Impact
Our well-planned curriculum ensures children are engaged and learning deeply, consistently demonstrating high-quality work with positive results. We’re committed to ensuring all children thrive, and where underachievement is identified, we have systems in place to provide timely support. Our robust tracking system allows us to monitor progress from individual starting points, ensuring that intervention and tailored support are implemented promptly. Children make noticeable progress across all subjects. We effectively use additional funding to support children with SEND, children in care, those eligible for free school meals, and children from service families, ensuring they receive the support they need to succeed.
Our commitment to global citizenship prepares children for life beyond school, teaching them to appreciate diversity and act responsibly in a multicultural world. By developing an understanding of social responsibility and environmental issues, we ensure our children are ready to make a positive impact.
Through effective communication with parents and the community, along with feedback from children, we create a learning environment that promotes long-term success and well-being.
Our curriculum, along with the integration of metacognitive strategies, helps children become more aware of their role in the learning process and has increased engagement through Oracy. Children are confidently using subject-specific and age-appropriate vocabulary, which is fostering both academic success and the development of the whole child.
We ensure our children are well-prepared for their future, equipping them with the academic, social, and emotional skills necessary for lifelong success, including smooth transitions from nursery to primary school to secondary school, and beyond.
