“...education as a mission to learn how to live well” - MacMurray
Introduction
At Black Firs we see everything that goes on in our School community as our curriculum and part of the ‘education’ of the whole child; we strive to be a collegial community of authentic learners. Our Schools curriculum is a 3-11 curriculum.
The focus of this curriculum section is to:
- Identify the intent of our curriculum; our philosophy and what we choose to include
- Identify how well the curriculum is implemented through our identified priorities, expectations and procedures; how we deliver our curriculum through our Studywork approach
- Identify the impact of our curriculum on student outcomes from a range of evidence in Studywork books, the child’s voice, progress Bookmarks, formal data and the views of coordinators, Governors and parents; why our children learn? …the so what? The learning outcomes.
Black Firs is a child centred school. This places the child and their learning at the centre of our curriculum too, as teaching professionals, we adapt to suit their changing needs. We passionately believe that an individual’s life chances are enhanced by a broad, balanced and relevant education. The School has spent time to robustly evaluate and identify a curriculum offer which will secure the attributes every child needs in order to be given every chance to succeed.
Our curriculum design is based on the belief that our children must be life-long learners prepared to enter the next stage of their education equipped with secure knowledge, skills and understanding.
We see our curriculum like a tree.
The roots are the skills; the life-long-learning at the root of our development. This is the what? Our intent. Our School Curriculum includes all of the National Curriculum content but a lot more besides
The trunk is how we grow, our implementation, and is made up from our values = belonging – mastery – independence – generosity – ‘grit’ – risk-taking – resilience – struggling.
The main branches are our year group teams. The finer branches create some of the themes we visit.
The leaves are some of the outcomes we hope to produce and achieve as we grow; they show are our impact. So, to continue this metaphor, our School curriculum is modelled as a series of mind-maps shown through our National Curriculum Subject Progression Mind-map further down this page. When this is fruitful, our children bloom in to life-long learners.
How Our Curriculum Works
Click on the image below to view a flowchart showing the process of how we plan, teach and assess at Black Firs.
National Curriculum Subject Progression
Above is an interactive progression mind-map which you can navigate, sort and search for age groups or subject content that we use to show National Curriculum coverage.
Our Two Year Rolling Plans
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EYFS
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Infants
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Lower Juniors
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Upper Juniors
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