Intent

Our carefully designed curriculum at Mabe ensures that children’s knowledge, skills and understanding is cumulative and builds over time. Our curriculum is built with reference to the National Curriculum so that subjects are planned to be purposeful and relevant for the children and, also, takes account of our locality and the wider world.

We want every child in our school to experience success in a wide range of areas. Our curriculum therefore provides our children with the appropriate balance of academic and personal development. It gives the correct importance to the core and foundation subjects, while placing high value on physical and mental wellbeing. We carefully balance the requirement for our children to reach national expectations in the core subjects, while providing a range of exciting and enriching experiences that allow our children to thrive.

 

We have developed five curriculum drivers that shape our curriculum, encompass the aims and values of our school, and respond to the particular needs of our community:

 

Community: Belong

This is where we build our children’s Cultural Capital beyond Mabe and Cornwall through exposing them to a rich and diverse world that is full of colour, music, creativity and celebration. Providing our children with the opportunity to see a world beyond their own that will inspire and influence their future choices.

Our curriculum is enriched with visitors, day trips and residential experiences. We are proud of our extra-curricular offer which provides our children with a wide range of opportunities to develop as athletes, musicians, artists, librarians, etc.

 

Cooperation: Be Helpful

Working well with others is a vital life skill. We ensure through this curriculum driver that our children grow as citizens that are able to work effectively as a team. Our Teaching and Learning pedagogy provides children with the opportunity to share ideas and learn from each other; thus ensuring they develop humility while celebrating and recognising the strength and skills of others.

Through their time at Mabe primary school, children are provided with a wealth of leadership opportunities within classrooms, the school and beyond the classroom, therefore, developing their ability to lead a team and have impact.

Commitment: Believe

Here we seek to enable our children to know that through commitment, hard work and belief, anything is possible!

We have built a curriculum that means our children will explore the world around them, knowing that the experiences they gain will enhance their lives and open doors to new adventures which they will have the confidence to step through.

Courage: Be Brave

Building on from our Commitment driver, we want our children to develop a growth mindset.  Through exposure to challenging experiences we actively encourage our children to question and explore opportunities that will enable them to become confident and resilient in all areas of their lives.

Compassion: Be Caring

We want our children to leave us at the end of year 6 as confident citizens ready to thrive through the next stage of their educational journey. In order to truly be a citizen of the world, our children need to have compassion for others.

We provide our children with the learning and experiences to engender positive change through our rich Personal Development programme. This ensures our children know that everyone has worth and ensures they embrace and celebrate the uniqueness of individuality.

Implementation

The curriculum begins in our Early Years Foundation Stage with practical, hands on experience based on the Characteristics of Effective Learning. This provides the foundation for future child centred learning which permeates throughout the school.

Embedded throughout every lesson is our Teaching Model of ‘I do, We do, You do’ and this is clearly visible in our school learning environment, and ensure that our children effectively learn the curriculum through well modelled teaching, rehearsal and then independent application and practice.

Furthermore, our curriculum is designed to ensure that there is effective learning with spaced repetition, this will enable our children to distinguish between topics and subjects, aid their ‘Sticky Knowledge’ (long term retention) and allow frequent and regular retrieval of content previously learned, both subject specific and cross-curricular.

Each unit of learning has an identified Composite Outcome which the children successfully attain by working through a series of carefully sequenced Components. Assessment Checkpoints have been interwoven through topics to ensure that children are building their knowledge cumulatively and that any gaps in knowledge identified are swiftly addressed and closed.

Subject Leads are advocates for their subjects and, as such, resources are appropriate and effectively support in the delivery of curriculum content. Subject Leads keep up-to-date with relevant research and provide CPD to staff through training in staff meetings or INSET. Being a school in Kernow Learning Trust and working in partnership with colleagues has enabled further enrichment of our curriculum provision and subject specific support for staff through high quality CPD and subject network groups.

Impact

The impact of our curriculum is best evidenced through talking with our pupils, who are able to enthusiastically articulate their learning, and by looking at their learning in a range of subjects. Pupils understand the reasons for their learning and are able to explain how it fits into the ‘big picture’ of our curriculum design. Our children are happy at school, and this is evidenced through pupil questionnaires and our good attendance figures.

Progress in the children’s knowledge and skills in each subject is assessed by class teachers within lessons through our planned in Assessment Checkpoints. Our teachers provide feedback to pupils throughout lessons and through marking of completed learning. We also feedback on attainment and progress regularly to parents through formal reports, parent meetings and at any other time as required.

Through our clear sequencing of the curriculum and planned assessment checkpoints, staff are able to act swiftly when interventions are needed to ensure that children’s progress is excellent over time. Towards the culmination of a unit of learning, children complete a POP (Proof of Progress) Quiz which assesses sticky knowledge from previous learning and topics, as well as their knowledge and understanding of their current learning. Any misconceptions or gaps in knowledge identified in a child’s POP Quiz is addressed in the following lesson.

Governors, Senior Leaders and Subject Leads monitor the implementation of the curriculum in a range of ways which may include: observing teaching, scrutinising books, pupil conferencing etc. This information is used to identify best practice and further training needs.

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Topics and curriculum

Take a look at our inspirational topics and an overview of our carefully planned whole school curriculum:

To view more information about the subjects in our curriculum, please click here.

Please click here to view the Equalities Statement, Accessibility Plan, Racial Equality Policy and the Equality and Diversity Policy.  Please also refer to the Everyone's Included pages of the website where you can find an information report detailing how our school identifies, assesses, and makes provision for children with Special Educational Needs and disabilities.

If you would like to find out more information about the curriculum at Mabe Primary School please contact the school office.