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.
CCI is in its third year of developing a local, bespoke version of the Curious-cityTM 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:
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 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
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.
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.
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.