Curriculum
Trekenner School Curriculum
We are committed to our motto Living, Learning and Laughing Together by seeking to improve the quality of the educational provision for all our children supporting them to develop the knowledge, skills and dispositions to become good local and global citizens.
Intent:
At Trekenner school we aim to develop children with a love of learning and good learning behaviours and dispositions to enable them to be successful life-long learners. We aim to enable them to develop the confidence to make and learn from mistakes, value collaboration, and strive to be the best they can be. When children leave our school, we want them to be resilient, life-long learners who are armed with the knowledge and skills to be effective local and global citizens within an ever-changing society.
Our motto Living, Learning and Laughing Together epitomises this:
Living- It is our aim to provide opportunities for children to gain the best chance of living happy and successful lives. This includes having opportunities to develop holistically, develop positive mental health and to have a clear understanding of the role that they play in both their local community and the global community.
Learning: Learning to learn is in our opinion one of the most important outcomes of an effective primary education. Developing an understanding of the ‘learning powers’ and developing a growth mindset are therefore central to our intent. Additionally, We are intent on supporting children to gain rich and purposeful knowledge across a range of subjects which are pertinent to their role as citizens of Cornwall, the UK and of the wider world.
Laughing: We believe in developing a love of learning. As such we aim to provide children with a wide range of exciting experience to spark their curiosity and enthusiasm for learning about the world around them.
Together: As a small school, community is vital to our intent. We want children to be active members of the community who work together to improve the lives of all. It is our aim to work together to develop a strong school, local, regional, national and international community.
Implementation
As a smaller than average school with mixed aged classes, we have mapped out our curriculum strategy to ensure that all pupils are able to build on prior knowledge and skills despite remaining in the same class. A theme approach allows children to explore a variety of highly engaging topics through their time at Trekenner supporting them to develop a love of learning. To enhance this, all topics begin with an exciting launch day to spark children’s curiosity and engagement within the topic. During this day, children will be exposed to the “big question” of the topic, this will help to link their learning to the wider global context supporting their development as local and global citizens.
Alongside this, we use progression documents to ensure that the knowledge and skills children are being exposed to builds year group to year group as well as class to class. This ensures that children continue to build on knowledge and skills even though they remain in the same class.
A large part of our intent is preparing children to be effective local and global citizens. We achieve this through four main strands.
Growth mindset.
Growth mindset is fundamental to ensuring that children thrive in an ever changing society. Whilst everyone faces challenges in life and falls into “the pit,” understanding that this is a vital part of the learning process supports individuals to endure these challenges and ultimately succeed. The adage “I can’t do it yet” is a powerful sentiment and it is one that we instil in our children.
Children are taught about growth mindset and the learning pit right from Foundation. All classrooms have a growth mindset display which is regularly referred to in lessons- particularly when children are in the early stages of the learning process and may not be fully confident with the subject matter. Furthermore, the learning pit is used as part of our self-assessment process to help children to reflect upon where they are in the learning process and what they need to do to move on in their learning.
Learning to learn
Whilst learning of knowledge is important in supporting children to develop into well-rounded local and global citizens, we acknowledge that we live in an ever-changing world. Indeed, if we consider the amount of change in the knowledge base of humanity in just the last 50 years, it is sensible to assume that there will be a large quantity of knowledge that children will need in the future that does not currently exist. Therefore, we believe it is vital for children to learn how to learn. We achieve this using Building Learning Power (BLP). BLP splits learning behaviours into learning muscles:
Building learning power is integrated into all aspects of our teaching. Each lesson has a BLP focus, teachers regularly refer to BLP language and actively model the behaviours. Children are praised when exhibiting the behaviours and have the opportunity to earn a range of rewards for using these positive learning behaviours. The BLPs are placed around the learning pit display to signify that learning behaviours and dispositions are pivotal in overcoming challenges and succeeding. Additionally, BLP is built into our positive marking. This ensures that children are immersed in the concept contributing to the development of their learning dispositions and behaviours.
Community engagement
As a school serving a small community, community engagement is vital in helping us to teach children their role as local citizens. We have a range of community events throughout the year including performing at the local church, tea and cakes with senior citizens and regular opportunities for children to visit local farms and businesses. In addition to this, each class does a community engagement project during the summer term. This project is child initiated but it focused on improving the local community.
Global learning
As a school in a relatively remote area, we believe in ensuring that children develop an understanding of their role within the wider global community. We incorporate global learning into all our units of learning ensuring that big questions link children’s learning to the wider global context. Additionally, we follow the Oxfam Curriculum for global citizenship. This enables us to ensure that throughout their time at Trekenner, children develop key knowledge and skills vital in helping them to become effective global citizens.
In addition to having global learning integrated into our wider curriculum, we have an annual global learning project. This helps children to apply their knowledge and skills by examining current global issues.
Impact
We measure the impact of our curriculum through a range of methods. These include formal quantitative methods such as analysis of assessment data and questionnaires and a range of qualitative data including observations of pupils learning, pupils’ responses to daily quizzes, analysis of pupils’ books, pupil conferencing. We regularly review our curriculum in response to this data as part of our continuous cycle to improve provision and provide the best learning opportunities for children.
This tells us that:
- Our pupils develop a strong awareness of global issues and are passionate about tackling issues such as global warming and plastic pollution.
- Our pupils make good progress during their time at school and leave school with a good level of knowledge and skills.
- Our pupils have good learning dispositions and when they move onto secondary school they are equipped for the next stage of their learning journey.
- Our pupils enjoy school and feel included in school decisions.
- Our pupils develop good levels of literacy and numeracy and are able to apply the skills effectively.
- Our pupils develop good personal and social skills and are kind, caring and welcoming to others.
- Our pupils care about the community around them and are able to suggest ways of improving and developing it.
