Baldwins HIll Primary School 

Growing Great Minds 

Baldwins Hill Curriculum Intent

Our goal is for learners to be successful, confident individuals, who make a positive contribution to society, both now and in the future.

We believe this can be achieved through our school vision of ‘Growing Great Minds’, fostering a passion for lifelong learning that we can enable through an irresistible curriculum. Our Core Values of Respect, Compassion, Responsibility and Courage drive our curriculum and how we will be as a community.  Through our connected curriculum, we enable learners to develop learning and life skills which develop their well being and understanding of mental health.

What do we want?

• To understand and address the impact on well being and the gaps in learning.
• Learners to be emotionally literate and understand the importance of a healthy mind and body
• All children to have a voice and know who can help them
• An irresistible curriculum that engages learners
• Well rounded learners
• Passionate teaching that enables all learners to develop knowledge and skills
• Autonomous learners
• Culture that facilitates purposeful learning
• Aspirational learners
• Success for all
• Parental involvement
• Outdoor learning opportunities

What do we believe?

• Every learner can achieve
• In Independent and Collaborative learning
• In a growth mindset
• In the value of learner voice to empower and involve learners in driving practice
• In inspiring learners through purposeful learning experiences
• In setting high expectations
• Outside learning help learners access a range of opportunities
• In the importance of  purposefully planned personal, social and emotional development opportunities

Implementation 

We use the Edison Learning Achievement Statements to teach and assess our Reading, Writing and Mathematics curriculum, as outlined separately.

We plan Science and most of our foundation subjects (Geography, History, Design & Technology, Art) in ‘Learning Experiences,’ utilising the EdisonLearning Connected Curriculum and seek to involve the children and their interests in our plans.

If at any time a subject cannot be meaningfully linked to the learning Experience it is taught discretely- such as Physical Education, which follows the ‘Power of P.E’ scheme and Religious Education which follows the West Sussex SACRE syllabus. For in-depth detail on the delivery of the curriculum please see our individual subject policies, Curriculum policy and Teaching and Learning policy.

In Early Years, all teaching and learning is based around the government non-statutory document ‘Development Matters’ and children work towards achieving the Early Learning Goals in the Prime and Specific areas. Teachers work closely with the children to ascertain and follow their interests, and so adapt the curriculum and learning to their specific needs.

Each Learning Experience takes appropriate objectives from the National Curriculum, broken into key skills acquisition for year groups. Each Experience has a ‘Stunning Start’ to 'hook' the children in to their new learning and ends with a purposeful outcome- a ‘Fabulous Finish’. Throughout the Experience, children are encouraged to think about what they are learning, why they are learning it and how they will be able to apply these new skills in a meaningful context. This is underpinned by a rigorous set of foundational skills such as times tables, phonics and handwriting.  From recent reading we would consider our curriculum to have a ‘knowledge-engaged’ approach, where knowledge underpins and enables the application of skill and where both are taught explicitly.