Curriculum Overview

Our irresistible, ready for life and all inclusive curriculum

Intent

Our curriculum is designed in order for every pupil to leave Bisley being the best they can be – the best academically, morally and socially.

By the end of Year 6 our children will:

• Be proud of themselves and their unique talents
• Have mastered the basics in reading, writing and maths and be ready for the next stage of their learning
• Have developed their character skills so that they have resilience, a growth mindset, the ability to problem solve and the confidence to try new things
• Be pro-active young citizens with a sense of moral purpose who are able to contribute to the wider community

Implementation

At Bisley we focus on delivering an education to our children that focuses on the whole child. We educate the head, the hand and the heart; not just the head. Our aim is for our curriculum to be irresistible, ready for life and all inclusive.

We believe that learning is a change in the long term memory and the ability to transfer the new knowledge to different contexts. In order to ensure that our instruction has the most impact we use 'Principles of Instruction' by Barak Rosenshine as our preferred model of teaching.

We have a relentless and unfaltering focus on the basic skills in reading, writing and maths. This combined with a drive on developing wider vocabulary ensures that our children can access learning across our broader curriculum and be successful.

At Bisley we appreciate the importance of subjects such as the arts and sport. We understand the huge benefit that these subjects can have for a child’s self –esteem and well-being. Consequently, all children receive at least 2 hours of high quality PE and sport each week as well as being encouraged to take part in other sporting opportunities. As well as following the music curriculum in class we have an ever increasing number of peripatetic music teachers that give lessons on a weekly basis.

In this ever changing world we know that our children will be applying for jobs that have not even been invented yet. Therefore, we are passionate about giving them the skills to think, problem solve and develop their resilience. We do this in the classroom and this is enhanced with our Learning Beyond the Classroom sessions, Forest School and our residential programme.

Journey and next steps

Since 2016 we have had a drive on the core skills in reading, writing and maths. We recognise the huge importance that reading and widening vocabulary has on wider learning. As a consequence, this year we have taken all technology out of Early Years (nursery and reception) focussing on language, talking and developing vocabulary.

We have spent time developing our writing curriculum so that we are working on a three- week model with a focus on quality and handwriting. Since 2017 we have been working closely with the Surrey Maths Hub and through training with the NCTEM we now have a Maths Mastery specialist within our staff.

Learning Beyond the Classroom is an important part of our curriculum offer and helps our children develop character and life skills. Children in Year 1 – 6 have the opportunity to take part in a short course every term. Over the past 18 months we have been refining this process to ensure it has maximum impact. This part of our curriculum is very popular and we are constantly looking at ways of adding additional short courses.

Through our School Improvement Plan and Subject Development Plans we are currently reviewing the delivery, organisation and impact of our foundation subjects. We are moving towards a child led approach in science, history and geography and are reviewing the success and impact of this during the year.

We have many families who have siblings across the school. In order to help develop dialogue at home surrounding their learning, we have chosen to have a whole school theme each half term. The theme is current and may reflect events in the calendar. As with all new initiatives we are reviewing this throughout the year.

Organisation

• Phonics – Read, Write, Inc
• Reading
• Writing
• Maths
• RE – Guildford Diocesan guidelines for RE
• PSHCE
• Physical Education – Real PE
• Science
• Computing
• History
• Geography
• French
• Music
• Art
• Design Technology
• Learning Beyond the Classroom

Curriculum Leadership

This year we have moved to having three curriculum faculties and all subjects sit within one of the faculties. Faculties have ensured that all staff can take part in curriculum development no matter the stage of their career.

Each faculty is led by a faculty facilitator/leader who is responsible for ensuring that the faculty action plan is up to date and that subject development plans are up to date. As faculty leaders they ensure that priorities are being addressed in a manageable and productive way.

Each of the core subjects (maths, English and RE) are led by a team (headed up by the faculty leader) which helps with workload distribution, knowledge of age range and curriculum, teacher development and future proofing.

As this is a new model for curriculum leadership we are reviewing the impact this year to see what changes need to be made.

Impact

We measure the impact of our curriculum using a range of methods:

• Pupil outcomes from formal data collection points:
  • GLD in Reception
  • Phonics test
  • Key Stage 1 SATS
  • Keys Stage 2 SATS – especially the progress scores
• Internal data points using Target Tracker
• Improvement and progress shown in TQ (Top Quality) writing books
• Monitoring from subject leads, faculty leads and SLT
• Dialogue of learning
• Attendance and punctuality data
• Pupil voice
• Parent voice

Curriculum Information

For curriculum information regarding particular subjects please hover over the 'Curriculum' under the Key Information tab.

If you require any further information that is not available on our website please contact our Headteacher  head@bisley.surrey.sch.uk and she will put you in touch with the correct faculty or teacher.

Mrs Pilkington - Creative & EYFS Lead

Mrs Bamford - Citizenship & Sports Lead

Mrs Gunning - STEM & Humanities Lead