Beaumont Curriculum
We offer a broad and balanced curriculum that aims to promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of our pupils and prepare them well for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. We aspire for a curriculum that evokes an awe at the natural world as well as the expanse of human creativity and knowledge over time, but also conjures an understanding of humanity’s limitations - and empowers a readiness to take part in educated discourse as well as a willingness to tackle challenges.
Our school curriculum comprises all the learning and other experiences that we plan for our pupils. The national curriculum forms a major part of our school curriculum. It sets out the subject content that is taught to all pupils. A link to our curriculum plans which state the intended learning by subject and by academic year can be found below.
The national curriculum aims to provide pupils with an introduction to the essential knowledge that they need to be educated citizens. It introduces pupils to “the best that has been thought and said; and helps engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement.”
The national curriculum provides an outline of core knowledge around which our teachers develop exciting and stimulating lessons to promote the development of pupils’ knowledge, understanding and skills as part of the wider school curriculum. Our teachers understand the importance of learning through meaningful examples and the benefits of a rich range of background details (so called ‘hinterland’ knowledge) because this extra detail is likely to help, not hinder, pupils’ learning of the core knowledge.
We use Focus Education curriculum resources in most subjects because they are of high quality and written by experts. In our small school, where teachers wear many hats, they provide us with a clear model to support us in delivering a broad and balanced curriculum to all of our pupils with clear progression and consistency through year groups. Focus Education curriculum plans are designed to be ‘knowledge rich’ which fits well with our values and vision. They are not schemes of work but provide a ‘spine’ that teachers can adapt according to the needs of our pupils and different cohorts; never losing sight of providing challenge for all. A further benefit of Focus Education curriculum plans is that they provide us with recommendations of quality children’s literature linked to other subject areas, thus making reading an integral part of our curriculum. In some subjects (mathematics, PE, DT, RE) we have complemented Focus Education resources with other schemes to help us deliver what we believe to be the best for our pupils.
Our units of learning are designed to be cross-curricular, where possible. The aim of this cross-curricular approach is to generate connections and links between content explored in different subject areas and pupils’ experiences outside of school, making the learning more relevant, relatable and meaningful for them. It aims to transfer knowledge and skills from one situation to another, providing pupils with a sense of correlation and interconnection. This approach helps our pupils to develop more intricate schemas of the content studied: they begin to recognise that what they learn in different subject areas contributes to a greater understanding of a larger theme or concept. It is important to note that our cross-curricular model does not encourage the dissolution of subject areas altogether; rather, the approach we advocate recognises the importance of the conceptual structures that subjects provide and intends to link them together to create more impactful and meaningful learning experiences for our pupils.
Our curriculum offer extends to subjects outside the scope of the national curriculum (such as Philosophy for Children (P4C) and Zones of Regulation); subjects taught by specialist teachers (e.g. music and dance); special events (e.g. regular visits by a high-quality theatre company) and lunchtime and after school clubs that aim to enrich the learning for our pupils.
We make provision for a daily act of collective worship and teach religious education (RE) and relationship, sex and health education (RSHE) to all of our pupils as is our statutory duty. Our collective worship themes are carefully planned to cover a wide range of topics, introducing our pupils e.g. to different religious and cultural festivals, significant historical figures as well as national and global issues. They are inclusive and celebrate diversity. Fortnightly ‘sharing assemblies’ provide the pupils with an opportunity to present their learning in front of their peers and teaching staff to develop their oracy skills.
Our teachers set high expectations for every pupil. They plan challenging work for pupils whose attainment is significantly above the expected standard and plan how to best support pupils who have lower levels of prior attainment or come from disadvantaged backgrounds to also attain the ambitious targets set for them. Lessons are planned to ensure that there are no barriers to every pupil achieving. In many cases, such planning means that pupils with SEND are able to access the full national curriculum. Only a small minority of pupils might need adjustments such as access to specialist equipment and /or different teaching approaches.
The following documents give further details on our vision and pedagogy: Beaumont vision, Beaumont pedagogy, Beaumont child and Beaumont team. Together with the subject and year group curriculum plans that can be found in the Curriculum - Design, Subject Management and Planning tab. They provide the reader with a comprehensive picture of the intent, implementation and desired impact of our curriculum.