Curriculum Introduction
This curriculum is designed to portray the intent and purpose; implementation and pedagogy; breadth and specifics of knowledge taught and progression of key concepts at Emmbrook Junior School. Our Curriculum, based on the National Curriculum (2014) is planned to reflect our school vision:
Emmbrook Junior School is a welcoming family which fosters a warm and nurturing environment where children grow and learn to take responsibility, develop their resilience and become respectful to all, enabling their personal development and academic curiosity to thrive.
The purpose of this curriculum is to provide a clear and coherent rationale that is accessible to and understood by all involved in the education of our pupils.
For each curriculum subject, we have included the following elements, where applicable:
- Subject intent and purpose (what do we aim to achieve within this subject)
- Subject implementation and pedagogy (how we teach this subject)
- Key concepts (what key ideas we want to develop as children progress throughout the school)
Curriculum Leader:
Alice Jones
Curriculum Commitment
We take pride in developing outstanding teaching and learning by holding the highest expectations for all our pupils and knowing the pupils well so that every child can access and experience success in both the core and foundation curriculum.
Our aim is to create an inclusive environment where barriers to learning are overcome via strategies, targeted interventions or additional support giving full access to the curriculum for all. Our pupils’ success will be recognised through increased independence and confidence both within the classroom as well as being equipped for their next phase of schooling and beyond.
We offer a broad and balanced curriculum that aims to equip our children with all the skills that they need to thrive both in school and in the wider community. We foster independent learning and our carefully planned curriculum that provides a wide range of opportunities, resulting in children who are highly-motived, creative and enthusiastic about their learning.
Our role is to introduce our pupils to the best that has been though and said and helping to engender an appreciated of human creativity and achievement.
Our culture is based upon offering equitable challenge to all so that they strive for academic, creative, emotional, sporting and personal accomplishment within a broad, vibrant and enriched curriculum. Our vision is for all pupils is to leave our school as life-long learners with the knowledge, concepts, skills and attitudes that make them ready for being responsible citizens of the 21st century.
We hope that our values of being Resilient, Respectful and Responsible will enable pupils to develop a personal ethic and moral attitude that will positively affect behaviour. Our aim is to equip them with the knowledge, concepts, skills and attitudes that make them ready for being responsible citizens of the 21st century.
We firmly believe that character attributes are vital to future success and by promoting mental wellbeing, growth mindset and character education, our pupils take ownership of and responsibility for their learning and are confident; curious, communicate well, capable of doing new things and are not frightened to make mistakes.
Pedagogy
At Emmbrook Juniors, we have adopted the EEF ‘Five-A-Day’ approach for all classroom teaching. These are 5 specific principles that have been researched and evidenced to have a positive impact on the teaching outcomes of all pupils, including those with SEND.
We aim to share with the children how their learning links to prior knowledge and give them a map to see where there learning will go within a topic. Units of learning are well structured to give the children as many opportunities for different experiences as possible both within the classroom and beyond.
Assessment is a key part of teaching and learning. At Emmbrook Juniors, teachers will be using a variety of methods regularly throughout lessons to know how the children are doing and to adapt their learning accordingly. There are also more formal assessment points throughout a unit and the year for teachers to gather more information.
A Curriculum for All
Our curriculum is designed to be accessible for all children and give them the knowledge and cultural capital that they need to succeed in life. Learning opportunities are built to reflect the intersectionality of our pupils and school community. We aim to give all our pupils opportunities to thrive regardless of their barriers to learning, starting point or background. By identifying vulnerable pupils and other additional needs early, we hope to ensure that all pupils make adequate progress to ensure that attainment gaps are closed between differing demographics of children.
Implementation:
- Teachers consider the needs, backgrounds and starting points of all pupils when planning and delivering lessons.
- Pupils’ ideas about race, gender, religion and disability are explored and discussed and discrimination will be challenged.
- All pupils will have regular access to support and guidance from the class teacher through whole class teaching, guided groups or live marking.
- Adults will provide both generic and personalised scaffolds, resources and manipulatives (which are easily accessible) for children to select and use to enable them to achieve.
- Individual support from a TA will be used appropriately to ensure children develop independence.
- Pupils of the Total Communication Base (TCB) are appropriately integrated in mainstream classes, participating in group and paired work and learning experiences as well as receiving a bespoke curriculum tailored to meet their individual needs.
- British Sign Language will be embedded in the culture of our school so that all pupils can sign key subject vocabulary.
- For further information on curriculum accessibility, please refer to our Accessibility Plan and our Equality Objectives, both of which can be found on our website.
National Curriculum
To find out more about the programs of study that our curriculum is based upon, please click on the link below to access the National Curriculum for all subjects. Please note that through our curriculum we broadly follow the KS2 National Curriculum at Emmbrook Junior School.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum
Need More Information?
If you require more information regarding our EJS Curriculum, please contact Mrs A Jones.