The Curriculum at Beckley

Curriculum Intent

We are incredibly proud of our broad, balanced, enriching and exciting curriculum at Beckley. We really believe that there is nothing that our pupils are incapable of learning and we built our curriculum based on this belief. 

Our curriculum is built on these principles: 

• Our vision - Soar on Wings Like Eagles - is everywhere. It underpins all that we do. We aim for excellence in all things. 
• Our values - Kindness, Courage, Responsibility - permeate through all of our learning. 
• Our curriculum is unique to us. It contains opportunities that are only possible at Beckley. 
• There are opportunities for pupils to learn from a range of cultures, races, religions and genders. 
• Knowledge and skills are built on and progress throughout the year, and from EYFS to KS1 to KS2. 
• There are opportunities for all pupils to significantly develop their cultural capital. 
• Links between learning are clear for pupils.
• Pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities are given all the tools they need to access our curriculum in full. 
• Fundamental British Values of democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs are taught throughout the curriculum and discretely. 
• The National Curriculum for KS1 and 2 and Development Matters for EYFS are covered in their entirety. 

Through this we aim to…

• Develop foundations and individual enthusiasm for life-long learning.
• Inspire curiosity, confidence and creativity in all pupils.
• Teach pupils with their strengths and interests in mind.
• Create many opportunities to spark interest for all pupils.
• Encourage a secure and positive attitude towards others and the environment.
• Be ambitious for every pupil, whatever their prior attainment or need.
• Encourage resilience through understanding the importance of making mistakes, listening and responding to feedback and being open-minded.

Curriculum Implementation

Our curriculum is delivered in a two-year cycle, which we call our Long-Term Overview:

Beckley School's Long Term Curriculum Overview

Our curriculum at Beckley School is delivered in a two-year cycle model and allows for the acquisition and accumulation of knowledge and skills, for pupils to build on what they know and embed knowledge to enter the long-term memory – making it stick!

Each term of the Long-Term Overview follows an overall topic. Topics have been planned with the pupils' needs in mind, ensuring that the local community plays a part alongside the wider world. In order to broaden pupils' experiences, visits and visitors are carefully planned to support and inspire the learning. Topics ensure curriculum coherence and motivate the pupils to seek patterns across subjects. As part of our planning, we ensure regular recaps of subject content and an opportunity to deepen the children’s understanding of their learning.

Our Long-Term Overview gives the 'headlines' of what pupils will learn, and when. We also ensure that knowledge for retention, skills, vocabulary and the National Curriculum for KS1 and 2, and Development Matters for EYFS, are built on over time and progress through year groups. Each subject has a 'Progression Grid' to show the speicifc knowledge, skills, vocabulary and NC objectives that will be covered during each term and topic:

Art and Design - Computing - Design Technology - English - French - Geography - History - Maths - Music - Physical Education - Science

Implementation in the Early Years

Details of topics taught in Reception sit alongside Key Stages One and Two on our Curriculum Long-Term Overview.

All of our documentation showing the progression of knowledge, skills and vocabulary across the school also contains this information for our Reception class. 

We present our EYFS curriculum side-by-side with other year groups as we believe it is important to show clearly how pupils progress through our curriculum from their very start with us.

The same curriculum information is also available separately in our Reception Long-Term Overview, where learning is separated into the EYFS seven areas of learning, rather than KS1 and KS2 subject headings. 

Curriculum Impact

Our cohesive curriculum places the learners at the centre and allows them to make connections in their knowledge, skills and understanding that are vital across all subjects.

At Beckley School, we strive to ensure that our pupils' attainment in core and foundation subjects is in line with or exceeding age-related expectations. We intend that our pupils will be fully prepared for their next stage of education and ready to contribute positively to society as a whole.

Our work on promoting social skills, including values, resilience and well-being enables the pupils to become the very best version of themselves.

We use a range of procedures to assess impact including feedback as part of the Marking and Feedback policy, formal and informal assessments. In writing, for example, we use ‘No More Marking’, an online platform that facilitates comparative judgement of children’s writing against 500+ schools nationally. We rigorously analyse the data provided by any assessment to inform teaching and learning as we move forwards. 

Curriculum Leadership

English is led by Miss Hutton. Maths is led by Mrs Cockhill. Personal Development is led by Mr Houston. 

Foundation subjects are led by Curriculum Teams, which are a team of teachers, who lead a group of subjects. 

Curriculum Teams:

Arts and Culture Team

Subjects: French, Music, Art, History, R.E., (PSHE)

Teachers: Mrs Cockhill, Mrs Saini, Miss Tooke

Science and Technology Team

Subjects: Science, Design Technology, Geography, Computing, P.E.

Teachers: Mr Houston, Mrs Marshall, Miss Hutton

If you want to find out more about our curriculum, contact the school by phone or email headteacher@beckleyschool.org.

The National Curriculum