Our Curriculum 

The school reviewed and reshaped the curriculum from September 2022 to reflect the new OFSTED framework and our school context.

Through our Christian Faith, we acknowledge our responsibility to all, to enrich lives and show love and respect within our school family. We believe in lifelong learning which aims to equip our children to live life today and for tomorrow. Our school ethos and curriculum planning is reflected in the following Bible quote:

‘‘I came to give life, life in all its fullness.’ (John 10: 10)

Our rich, cohesive curriculum identifies 6 curriculum drivers, which we believe will enable children to flourish at this school and provide secure foundations for their future.

These core aspects are:

• Cultural Enrichment
• Opportunities for technology
• (Golden Thread of) Progression
• Wellbeing Culture
• Enquiry and Investigation
• Whole child development

These 6 areas bind the curriculum together with common purpose.

Intent 

Our curriculum intends to:

• Give each child a high-quality education which engages, inspires and provides challenge.
• Provide a broad, balanced, engaging and challenging education for all pupils.
• Equip each child with the knowledge and skills to enquire and investigate.
• Enable pupils to develop knowledge, understand concepts, acquire skills and be able to choose and apply these in relevant situations.
• Ensure every child progresses as they move through the school following  a progressive curriculum which builds upon and enhances their skills.
• Ensure equal access to learning, with high expectations for every pupil, including those with SEND, and appropriate levels of adaptation, support and challenge to enable success.
• Support pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
• Support pupils’ physical development and responsibility for their own health, and enable them to be active.
• Promote a positive attitude towards learning, fostering a desire for lifelong learning.
• Promote the learning and development of our children and ensure they are ready for Key Stage 1 , Key stage 2 and Key stage 3, when appropriate.
• Promote healthy learning relationships and life skills.

Implementation

Implementation – How is our curriculum put together?

The curriculum incorporates the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum 2014 and other experiences and opportunities which best meet the learning and developmental needs of the children in our school. A blocked curriculum approach has been implemented at the school to ensure coverage and progression in all curriculum areas. This approach enables there is clear progression across the school and also enabling the achievement of depth in knowledge and skills. 

The curriculum provides children with memorable experiences, in addition to diverse and rich opportunities from which children can learn and develop a range of transferable skills.  Pupils have the opportunity to use the excellent outdoor areas to enhance their learning, particularly our Forest School site. 

The children’s own community, its heritage and traditions are used in studies of the local area and incorporate our village church of St Mary’s as the children regularly visit for Services throughout the year.

‘Knowledge Organisers’  are used for all topic areas, which enable children to focus on the knowledge they need for each unit of learning. Teachers are then able to use these for assessment at the end of topics alongiside end of unit assessments. 

Staff monitor the effectiveness of curriculum areas by monitoring the quality of teaching, learning outcomes in books and also gather pupil perceptions. A cycle of subject monitoring is implemented across the year and relevant changes are made to ensure that all children at Boxford Primary are provided with a high-quality, bespoke education.

What do we offer?

Arts and culture are celebrated at Boxford Primary School. Music and performance are important  in the school and a specialist music teacher teaches brass to all children in Years 5 and 6 . The children have the opportunity to perform in a showcase of talent in the Spring term and also attend Young Voices in London along with thousands of other children. This is something children are very much looking forward to in 2024. 

Year 6 take part in a production at the end of the year which is led by a specialist company. This opportunity allows children to use their creativity and also consolidate our school's values (perseverance).  

There is very good use of Sport Premium which enables us to make full use of the skills of a wide range of professionals; throughout their time at the school, children will work with specialist coaches as they learn many sports.  The school has achieved the Gold School Games Award in the past year. Children in Year 4 swim weekly for a term at Hadleigh Pool and those children in Years 5 and 6 who have not achieved 25m have catch up lessons until this is achieved. 

A varied timetable for extra-curricular activities is offered by the school, with clubs that support the core curriculum offer, as well as those which develop specialist skills, such as football, whilst also extending the range of children’s experiences in clubs such as Drama, French, Archery and Netball Club to name a few.

A number of external trips are often used to engage learners at the beginning of a topic (hook) or towards the end:

-Year 4 trip to Sutton Woo (Saxons topic)

-Thorpe Woodlands (Year 6 residential)

-London musicals

-Harry Potter Studios 

-Sailing

-National Gallery

-Various sporting competitions

-Duxford War Museum (Year 5)

These are not an exhaustive list. However, they provide a flavour for the engaging trips we have recently had.

Meeting the needs of all our pupils as an inclusive school 

The school takes pride in providing a highly inclusive environment, where learners demonstrate high levels of enjoyment in their education and most make very good progress in most subjects and areas of learning. Children at all levels are helped to achieve their potential. Those who are most able are challenged and supported through being offered tasks which provide opportunities for greater depth and those who struggle are encouraged and given targeted support to embed skills, to develop at their own pace or simply to learn in a style that best suits their individual needs.

Children with SEND are tracked across the year to ensure they are supported appropriately. This includes Pen Portraits which provide the voice of the child to explain what adaptions they may require. As a school, we work with all stakeholders, particularly parents , to ensure that support in place is shared with parents and we work alongside them to ensure that children make at least expected progress.

How do we teach the basic skills?

The school uses ‘PIXL, Little Wandle and the Jane Considine scheme of work’ to ensure there is a high quality offer of English teaching throughout the school. Where possible, the books are mapped onto the curriculum to link with other areas of the curriculum. Teachers enhance planning to ensure that there is the right balance of reading and writing for our children. KS1 and EYFS teachers use ‘Little Wandle Phonics scheme and Big Cat Phonics books’ as a basis for phonic teaching. Staff adapt planning to match the needs of their class to ensure that the teaching is bespoke for specific classes. 

Maths is taught using a variety of resources including White Rose. The school follows the concrete-pictorial-abstract approach to teaching. The maths page provides more information about how we engage children with the teaching of mathematics.

We measure the impact of our curriculum offer throughout the year and update this section accordingly.

Our curriculum is inclusive and is guided by the Equality Duty 2010 and the SEND Policy and Information Report for our school. These can be found on our policies page.