The Curriculum

 Our NET Curriculum can be accessed here.

Curriculum Intent

At Longwood, we passionately believe that all children deserve access to an education that will provide them with life-fulfilling opportunities and the freedom to make choices about their future. The curriculum at Longwood Primary Academy sets out the body of knowledge and skills that our pupils will gain at each stage of their time at school, whilst supporting and promoting our core school values. The curriculum supports our ethos and structures that encompass a proactive development of the whole child.

Through focusing on three intrinsically linked key drivers: academic success, physical development and positive wellbeing, children are given the opportunity to thrive in fundamental areas, preparing them to be not just ‘next stage ready’, but ‘life ready as global citizens’.

Through a carefully sequenced core curriculum, alongside an inspiring wider curriculum, children at Longwood will leave with:

• The ability to read fluently, and a love for reading, allowing them to make sense and understand the world
• A rich vocabulary enabling them to communicate successfully, challenge and debate
• A wealth of character defining and memorable childhood experiences (largely mapped out within our ’70 things’ programme) to develop cultural capital
• An understanding of the world around them that they are fully equipped to compete in
• An acceptance and appreciation of others differences 
• Tools and strategies to ensure positive wellbeing and happiness
• The ability to think metacognitively and self-regulate, allowing them to feel in control of their learning

Curriculum Implementation

Using the National Curriculum to underpin our curriculum, subjects are carefully planned and sequenced, mapping out the key knowledge and subject specific skills children need to master at each stage. For most subjects, the school has developed its own sequential and progressive curriculum to ensure the school’s local context is reflected. For others, the school has adopted, and then adapted, external schemes of work.

Each unit has essential learning questions outlined that children explore, as well as key subject skills children need to develop from early years to year 6. The knowledge and skills are both progressive and support the development of key concepts and schemas. Key vocabulary is highlighted and taught explicitly to the children throughout all lessons, in line with the school’s teaching and learning policy. Exposure to high quality texts is consistent across the curriculum, ensuring reading and vocabulary opportunities are maximised.

Curriculum Impact

The purpose and aim of our curriculum is for high achievement and success for all pupils, despite their backgrounds or starting points. Children’s success can be demonstrated in these three key areas (our curriculum drivers).

Wider Curriculum

We strongly believe it is essential that primary schools are proactive in their approaches towards wellbeing and this is at the heart of Longwood’s wider curriculum. A structured, purposeful whole school approach and ethos helps to support pupils in developing lifelong positive wellbeing and can strengthen any additional support pupils may have for mental health and wellbeing.

Longwood has developed a ‘Mind, Body and Soul (MBS)’ toolkit. The MBS Toolkit is a bank of whole school/phase approaches that can enhance a school’s ethos and direction for the wellbeing of pupils. It facilitates the development of positive wellbeing, whilst supporting an acknowledgement that physical development helps to enhance a healthy mindset. In turn, this enables the creation of a positive and proactive zone for wellbeing thus enabling those who are more vulnerable every chance to grow more resilient and positive in mindset. Some of our Mind Body and Soul experiences include:

How do we teach our curriculum?

Our teaching and learning policy highlights our consistent pedagogical approach across all subjects:

Key teaching intentions:

• Teachers have secure subject knowledge
• Prior knowledge is explored, recapped and built upon
• Retrieval opportunities are provided across all subjects
• Knowledge and skills are progressive
• Learning questions and steps to being successful are made explicit
• Oracy is built into all lessons
• Vocabulary is explicitly taught in all lessons, focusing on tier 2 and tier 3 words
• A range of formative assessment strategies are used
• Scaffolded planned activities ensure expectations remain high and all learners can be successful
• Metacognitive skills are developed and promoted across all areas of learning