We believe that our school is a learning community and that learners include all of the adults and children within it.

We believe it is important that our curriculum recognises and attaches value to the heritage and experiences of our diverse school and locality.

It is equally important that it enables all learners to see themselves as citizens of the wider world and that they are supported to experience the wealth of learning opportunities and experiences within it.

We attach high importance to teaching reading through a very systematic, rigorous and progressive approach to phonics when children start school. At the same time children to rich and wide ranging, high quality children’s literature. This approach engenders a genuine love of reading and ensures that our children are able to access other learning.

Our curriculum also reflects the importance of fluency in Mathematics and how Mathematics is evident and used in so many aspects of our everyday lives.

In our curriculum design we have ensured that the purpose and context for learning is clear and understood by learners and we have thought carefully about the core books, key questions and big ideas that drive it and which help to transform abstract ideas into concrete learning opportunities.

Our team is committed to working in partnership with children’s first educators – their Parents and Carers in order to build trusting relationships, to learn from them and to support them in working with us so that we ensure our children achieve the high aspirations we all share for them.

We believe that to feel and be safe both physically and emotionally is an essential pre requisite to being able to learn well. Our curriculum and provision within the school reflects this belief. We ensure that its delivery and content enables learners to deepen their understanding of the importance of their own and others wellbeing and feel valued and able to thrive as learners.

For our learners to experience safety and security that enables good learning and equality of opportunity, we feel that the curriculum should be inclusive, responsive and reflective of learning needs. As such there is a strong focus on language development, pastoral care and making sure that the curriculum provides contexts that are inspiring, meaningful and motivating.

We have designed our curriculum to be dynamic and responsive to an ever changing world and to develop understanding amongst learners of the impact of these changes on their lives both personally and globally.

Opportunities are incorporated to teach learners how to challenge their own and others thinking and to expose them to new ideas and possibilities.

We are passionate about developing pupil voice and actively invite visitors and organisations into the school to share their experiences, stimulate discussion and debate and raise aspirations.

It is essential that the experiences our curriculum provides are inspiring, broad and balanced so we ensure a strong commitment to partnership work with other organisations, particularly in the Arts, curriculum enrichment opportunities and extra curriculum provision, whilst ensuring that fundamental skills are securely acquired.

Our curriculum is underpinned by shared British Values that are consistent with our school community’s core values and a strong commitment to developing a life-long love of learning amongst all learners – both adult and children.

We have ensured opportunities for learners to regularly revisit and consolidate ideas, skills and knowledge in order to apply and deepen this understanding. In this way learning is retained and reinforced and truly embedded, so it can be applied in different contexts and prepares them for the next stage of their learning journey.

We want the learning experience for every child to be an aspirational and positive one where challenges are approached with excitement because learners believe they can achieve. The content is planned in a way that will encourage this, as learners regularly experience the reality and process of learning including challenges, obstacles and successes.

Our overarching intention is that through their experiences at Earlsmead, our learners develop the dispositions, knowledge and skills that will prepare them for what we hope is a life long love of learning and that they leave us as happy, secure, confident and well educated individuals.