Curriculum Leads: Beth Darby and Christopher Hyde

Link Governor: Carol Ketley

Morton Trentside Primary School

At Morton Trentside, we provide a caring and nurturing environment where we deliver an inspirational curriculum that promotes the development of the whole child so they can thrive and achieve in an ever-changing world. Morton Trentside prepares children to be well-rounded individuals ready to take their next steps in life’s journey.

Specific curriculum information for each year group, including knowledge organisers, can be found in the 'class pages' area of our website (link below).
If you have any further queries, please contact either your child's class teacher or the subject leader linked to the query.

Curriculum Intent, Implementation and Impact

At Morton Trentside, we have designed a curriculum which is built upon our mission statement, in order to provide our children with the best educational start in life. Our curriculum considers the needs of a 21^st century child and is ambitious in providing our children with the knowledge, skills and learning behaviours required to become successful life-long learners and healthy, happy individuals.

Background

The National Curriculum is a set of subjects and standards used by primary schools so children learn the same things. It covers what subjects are taught and the standards children should reach in each subject. This is a statutory document that all schools must follow. Schools have the autonomy to decide on how this content is delivered and what approach to take to ensure that the curriculum is bespoke to the needs of the children and their community.

Intent

At the heart of our school are a set of core aims and values. These underpin our curriculum and the ethos of the school. At Morton Trentside, we place great importance on an exciting curriculum, which develops the whole child and goes beyond the national curriculum and knowledge that we believe are vital for our children. Through our core aims and values, we foster an environment where the emotional, physical, academic, social, moral, spiritual and cultural development of each child is at the forefront. We firmly believe that everyone is entitled to an inspirational curriculum that is accessible to all, including SEND and disadvantaged pupils.

We know our children, we know their families and we know our local area; using this knowledge, we have worked to shape a curriculum that focuses on providing opportunities that aren’t always available for our children. Our curriculum prepares children to be well-rounded and influential citizens of the future.

Implementation

We take our ideas and beliefs and turn them into exciting and inspirational learning opportunities for our children. We focus on the general principles of learning, how we can improve well-being and ensure our pupil’s voices are heard. We constantly reflect on our pedagogy and look for opportunities to enrich our curriculum. We also use educational research to ensure our teaching methods are the most effective for our learners.

We have designed a bespoke knowledge-based curriculum that incorporates a careful balance of the teaching of skills alongside new knowledge. The curriculum is carefully structured so children build on what they already know and learn ‘new things’ by connecting them to ‘old things’. Knowledge is consolidated and built upon over time to support retention and recall of facts and vocabulary. Our teachers are also aware of how to deliver substantive knowledge (the key facts of a piece of learning) through using disciplinary knowledge (the method or action taken to learn substantive knowledge).

Enriched Curriculum

Our enriched curriculum runs alongside and compliments the National Curriculum. It aims to broaden the horizons of our children and links to our school's aims and values. The opportunities offered provide our children with unique experiences outside of the National Curriculum. 

We broaden horizons by: 

• Enrichment weeks – these weeks are whole-school themed and vary year on year. Some examples of the theme for these weeks are: Wimbledon, enterprise, community projects and diversity. Further information can be found on the enrichment weeks page here.
• 50 things to do before you leave primary school – we think it is important that children enjoy a wide range of experiences and challenges.  Our 50 things list is not exclusive but sets out the things that we think are important to us and our community. It includes experiences which our pupils may not otherwise get the chance to try, such as splashing in puddles, seeing the sunrise/set or playing conkers. Further information can be found on the 50 things page here.
• Sporting opportunities – these are many and varied as we see this as fundamental in the development of the whole child. A wide range of opportunities deliver this through engaging PE topics, extra-curricular clubs, inspirational coaching from Premier Sports, inspiring visitors and our competition offer. Examples during 2021-2022 include goalball, Hockey England lessons, Taekwondo workshops and a virtual gymnastic competition. As a School Games Gold school, we also aim to provide every child with the opportunity to represent Morton Trentside and compete as part of a team.
• Musical instrument Lessons – we value the role of music in the development of mental health and well-being, alongside the skills that they learn. We therefore provide whole class instrumental lessons every year for each year group which means that children have experienced a wide range of instruments by the time they leave Morton Trentside. This also gives them the opportunity to discover a hidden talent or interest. We also have skilled music tutors who deliver music lessons to those pupils keen to learn how to play an instrument, for a small cost, such as guitar, piano, violin and clarinet.
• First-hand experiences – research shows that children who are taught using first-hand experiences do better in school than those who are not. Therefore, visits, visitors, events and hands-on opportunities are planned into our curriculum to inspire, motivate and engage children. When engaged and inspired, children learn more and remember more.
• Daily dashboard – this is a regular opportunity for children to recall basic facts and key knowledge. Daily dashboard sessions often start the day and recap fundamental curriculum knowledge in order to develop automaticity - for example, number bonds and times tables, telling the time, knowledge of capital cities, days of the week or parts of the body.
• Global awareness – to give the children insight into a variety of cultures and make comparisons between their own lives and experiences, we seek out links with other schools. We are currently in contact with a school in South Africa (Marhulana Primary School).

How do we plan for Cultural Capital?  

The government have placed great emphasis on schools developing cultural capital, which is the essential knowledge that children need to prepare them for their future success. It is about giving children the best possible start to their early education. 

At Morton Trentside, we see cultural capital as the accumulation of knowledge, attitudes, habits and language that enables children to succeed academically and engage in wider society.  Our school plays a crucial role in developing this through the opportunities that our enriched curriculum provides.

Embedding cultural capital into our curriculum is a way of closing the gap between children from differing socio-economic backgrounds by ensuring that children from all backgrounds have the same opportunities in society to achieve their full potential.

How do we ensure SEN pupils participate in our curriculum?

Our spiral curriculum ensures material is built on and progressive. We are working to reduce the curriculum content to ensure it is deliverable within the planned timeframe and to ensure opportunities for retrieval practice of prior learning.

Our curriculum offer is the same for all pupils including SEND. High quality teaching and adaptations in the classroom ensure our curriculum meets the needs of all learners. Children are planned for and taught whole class by class teacher as the most qualified adult.

We offer a broad range of experiences within our whole school and class assemblies which include elements of Christianity, PSHE relationships strand guidance and seasonal/world events e.g. football, Remembrance.

Our Accessibility Plan provides further details; this is available on our SEND page here.

Impact

We monitor our curriculum to ensure that our curriculum is “making the difference” for our pupils. We do this through regular conversations and questionnaires with pupils, parents, staff and governors; by analysing outcomes in internal and national tests; and through professional meetings where we look at the learning produced in children’s books over time. We strive to ensure that key points in a child’s life are positive and well-managed to reduce anxiety so that children feel prepared and ready for their next challenge.

If you would like further information on the curriculum we teach, please contact the school directly.