Our Curriculum
Curriculum Intent
How can I make a difference to my local community? In which ways can I demonstrate respect, kindness and friendship around the world? How can I use my knowledge, skills and commitment to serve my country? What differences can I make to help protect God’s great Earth?
These are the questions we aim to enable all of our children to ask and answer when they leave us for the next stage of their education. The intent of our curriculum is to enable each child to participate fully in current and future society as a responsible, self-confident citizen of our town, our country and our world. Inspired by our values of Joy, Service, Truth, Trust, Determination, Friendship and Respect, our curriculum aims to ensure when children leave The Minster they are equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to make the right choices in every aspect of their future lives.
Our curriculum at The Minster is designed to be rich and engaging to excite the children. With a key focus on vocabulary we aim to ensure that all children can access the vocabulary and reach their potential. An integral aspect of our curriculum design is that it is also increasingly outward facing, setting learning in global contexts wherever possible and celebrating diversity to emphasize unity. We work to expand our children’s horizons and knowledge by nurturing their interests as well as encouraging understanding of what is new or unknown, through trips and first-hand experiences.
At The Minster C.E. Primary School, we believe that an effective curriculum actively develops the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical qualities of all pupils and thus we regard the curriculum as not only what is taught directly in class, but the totality of the child’s experience at our school. This includes our assemblies which bring the school altogether, focussing on our Christian values, and nurtures the spiritual and moral development of the children. Playtimes ensure children develop an understanding of respect, kindness, tolerance and friendship. We participate widely in the local community which develops children’s understanding of service, commitment and gives them a greater insight into our town. This is reflected in the history and geography at each stage of our curriculum where we learn about the special place that is Warminster, and where the children develop a greater understanding of our local community, town and county.
Our curriculum has a strong environmental focus which reflects the changing world we now live in. This is woven through the curriculum so at each stage of their learning children learn how they can make a difference to the world around them. It is embedded in the different subjects they encounter in class but also through all aspects of life at The Minster in assemblies, clubs and the Eco Committee. We have designed our curriculum to ensure children are taught cooking and nutrition at every year they are at The Minster. Along with a strong focus on Physical Education, the wide range of competitions we enter and the many extra curriculum clubs we offer this ensures children have opportunities to maintain and develop a healthy, active lifestyle. We aim to ensure children have opportunities in each subject to develop their abilities to speak confidently and articulate their opinions.
Implementation
Our curriculum has been designed using a themed approach to ensure that it engages children through high quality teaching, allows them to make links across subjects and provides a clear context for their learning. We believe that reading is the foundation of all areas of learning and thus each area of learning is based on a class text. This emphasis upon reading in all curriculum areas ensures that all children are constantly building and developing this integral part of their learning. This also provides a clear context for their writing – a key analogy we use is that ‘reading is the breathing in and writing is the breathing out’.
History, Geography, Art and Design Technology have been thoughtfully grouped together into these areas of learning or ‘topics’ to provide engaging areas of learning. Mathematics, Science, Computing, Languages, Religious Education, Music, Personal, Social and Health Education and Physical Education are taught discretely but the careful planning of the curriculum ensures links are made to ensure children can make useful connections between their learning. With all curriculum areas, the subject specific disciplines have been clearly planned in to secure a deep understanding of the skills that makes each subject unique.
The learning journey of each area of learning (topic) begins with a hook to grab children’s attention. Knowledge is then taught in small chunks to ensure that all children have access to the breadth and depth of our curriculum and the design of the curriculum means that knowledge accumulates over time. Vocabulary is taught explicitly to ensure there is an in-depth understanding of each curriculum area. Skills have been carefully sequenced to develop progression by consolidating previous years’ work and providing the foundation for the rest of their learning journey at the Minster. Visitors and trips enhance and inspire learning. At the end of each topic children review their work to develop their understanding of how they learn best, and to share their pride in their work.
Throughout the year we hold special curriculum days with the aim of stimulating, focussing and challenging children in specific subject areas and values of our school and country.
Impact
The impact of our rich and ambitious curriculum will be children leaving The Minster C.E. Primary as engaged, confident learners who have a deep understanding of themselves and the world around them. They will have an excellent vocabulary, be knowledgeable across a range of subjects and be able to demonstrate a wide range of skills specific to each subject discipline. Children will know how they learn best, and what they need to do to be a good friend, family member and citizen of our country and world.