Curriculum Intent

At Christ Church Infants (CCI) our curriculum has been designed to ensure that every child can ‘Live life to the full’ by offering engaging, enquiry based, learning experiences from their individual starting points built upon our vision and 6 Christian values.

Through the information gathered from all stakeholders across our school community we have identified the main drivers for our curriculum as: caring and respecting ourselves and the environment. Equipping every child with the skills they need to be successful lifelong learners. Providing the opportunity to ignite their passions and broaden their strengths through a rich, varied and engaging enquiry based curriculum drawing on local, national and global inspiration. These identified curriculum drivers fit under the three parts of our vision.

Caring community: Friendship & Compassion

• Emotional wellbeing and mental health
• Looking after our environment
• Skills and understanding to be a responsible member of the community
• Showing compassion through putting the needs of others before their own
• Knowing how to keep themselves and others safe in the community

Courageously learning: Courage & Perseverance

• To develop life-long learning skills such as perseverance and mental resilience
• Feeling safe and secure enough to take risks in their learning
• Embracing mistakes as an important part of learning

Inspired to live life to the full: Thankfulness & Respect

• Delivering a personalised approach to learning that enables all children to engage in the whole school curriculum
• Introduce the children to the best that has been thought and said on a local, national and international level
• Exercise imagination and creativity and be inspired by the awe and wonder of creation
• To be able to fulfil a purposeful role in making the world a better place

Curriculum Implementation

CCI is in its third year of developing a local, bespoke version of the Curious-city^TM approach. This enquiry-led approach enables us to create a bespoke, locally focused curriculum that goes beyond the National Curriculum.

We implement the enquiry-led approach in several ways over a two-year cycle:

City themes

We use seven city themes that help to steer and give a particular flavour to each enquiry. The seven themes help teachers ensure that a breadth of perspectives and experiences are offered during the year in every year group.

States of Being

States of being enable learners to focus on and/or combine powerful knowledge in different enquiries. Each knowledge-engaged state symbolises an aspect of the curriculum, helping learners to master both the ‘know of’ and ‘know how’ of a subject, not just remember it. For instance, we want our learners to be Scientists, not just learn about science.

Geographers  –  Mathematicians  –  Artists  –  Athletes  –  Authors  –  Scientists  –  Readers  –  Philosophers  –  Linguists  –  Engineers  –  Historians  –  Musicians

Enquiry questions

Each enquiry provokes learners with a key question too big to answer in one go, but not so conceptually large that they cannot understand. The purpose is to guide learners through a scaffolded learning sequence where they draw on the different states of being in order to answer the key question.

Curriculum Structure

As part of our curious, knowledge-engaged curriculum, we aim to provide a continuum of experiences rather than a set of lessons. We regularly review our curriculum offer to ensure that it continues to address the needs of our community. Through our skills progression documents we ensure that all areas of the national curriculum and Early Years Statutory Framework are covered and objectives are repeated in order to embed the learning. The children are provided with daily specific teaching to support their development as Mathematicians (Mathematics - Numeracy), Authors (English - Literacy) and Readers which are enhanced by locally rich and relevant experiences through the inclusion of significant people, places and stories. The National Curriculum subject objectives for Science, History, Geography, Art & Design, Design and Technology, Music are woven throughout enquiries as seen on the ‘Whole School Enquiries Map’. Some subjects, renamed using the states of being, are taught discreetly such as Computing, Physical Education, Religious Education (following the Bristol Diocese scheme of work) and PSHE (A blend of the JIGSAW scheme of work and additional resources where needed). Where possible links are made to the enquiries, but these subjects are often stand alone experiences. Through Religious Education (RE) and Personal, Social, Health, Education (PSHE), our vision and Christian values are explicitly taught and then woven through our wider curriculum. Through these particular subjects and the wider curriculum, the children are given the opportunity to reflect on what is important to them and to be curious and open minded when exploring life’s big questions.

Additional learning opportunities such as enquiry related external visits, inspiring visitors, opportunities to perform, forest skills, swimming, gardening, cooking and scooter training all add to the fabric of our rich, varied and engaging curriculum offer.

Curriculum Impact

We are constantly monitoring the impact of our curriculum based on our curriculum intent and we make changes to provision based on our findings. The impact of our enquiry-based curriculum can be seen and heard as well as represented in outcomes.

• Book Looks – At regular intervals Subject and senior leaders look through the learning in books and compare this to the data being recorded
  • Class enquiry floor books – The process of each enquiry is represented within a class floor book and is used to monitor skills progression
  • Individual challenge books – These books record the final outcome of a challenge that can be used to assess the individual’s progress for the different states of being
• Data Tracking - We use our internal data tracking system to measure progress across the curriculum.  Assessment data is provided by teachers at identified data points
• Pupil Progress Meetings – After a data point meetings are held with senior leaders to discuss children’s progress and plan additional learning opportunities or interventions to enable the children to fulfil their potential.
• SATS and other statutory assessments – Through the statutory assessment tasks within each year group, we can compare how the children at CCI compare to those in other schools locally and nationally. We then use this information to guide our School Development Plan.
• Learning Walks – At key points in the year, learning walks are conducted. These walks that include senior leaders, subject leaders, governors and school improvement advisors enable an overview of a subject being taught and the progression between year groups to be seen.
• Subject Leaders - A curriculum subject leader is responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of their own subject area.  The information from the monitoring and evaluation then forms the basis of the impact assessment for that curriculum area.
• Pupil and Parent Voice – Through whole school surveys, the work of the school council and our GLOW team (Group Leading Our Worship), we collect the views of parents and children about their learning and the experiences that they have particularly enjoyed.
• Governors – Through regular committee meetings, the Governors have a key role in supporting and providing challenge in relation to our curriculum offer making sure that it is ambitious for all children and that all children are making progress.