Our Curriculum
Curriculum Thinking and Design – Gillingham Primary School
Our curriculum is bespoke to our school and pupils are inspired by the people, places and stories of our local community so that it reflects and is relevant to our children. Our curriculum has been continuously developed over several years, building on what has worked well and incorporating new approaches based on evidence of excellent outcomes in other settings.
From Reception to Year Six, children develop their substantive (know of) and disciplinary (know how) knowledge through a single-subject enquiry-led approach. Each unit has a big question with smaller micro-questions planned to support children’s learning across the unit so that they are equipped to answer these big questions by the end of that unit.
Each enquiry-led unit is underpinned by carefully sequenced progressions of knowledge in each subject. Broader concepts run through each subject and are encountered multiple times across the units, allowing children to add to and develop their schemas for these concepts. We use a number of proven, evidence-based schemes of work to provide high-quality learning experiences.
Children are taught English, including Phonics, and Maths daily. PE is taught twice per week. All other curriculum subjects are taught in blocks so that children can be fully immersed in the unique discipline of each subject. Our curriculum places an emphasis on disciplinary knowledge for example, ‘being geographers rather than doing Geography’. Blocked teaching ensures children can truly build deeper knowledge and understanding and the regular revisiting of prior learning supports children to commit their learning to their long-term memory. It stops learning being diluted amongst a ‘topic’ and children are better able to talk about and recall what they learned as opposed to what they did. So, whilst children are learning about History for example, they become historians in every sense; asking questions, being critical of sources and drawing conclusions.
The aim of our curriculum is for children to know more, remember more and be able to do more. Children revisit their prior learning through regular, planned spaced retrieval opportunities to support their long-term recall of prior learning. Teachers carefully use assessment opportunities to identify gaps in understanding or misconceptions and then use this information to plan future learning opportunities.
Curriculum Overview
British values (click on the link to understand more about British values in primary schools) are also something that we hold as important in our community primary school and we work hard to ensure our children understand and celebrate their cultural heritage diversity whilst understanding their commitment to being British in the 21st Century. British values are:
- democracy
- the rule of law
- individual liberty
- mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith
If you are a parent or carer and would like to know more about your child's curriculum talk to their class teacher in the first instance.
Remote Education
It may be sometimes necessary for a school to move to 'remote education' for some or all pupils. An example of this was the Covid-19 pandemic, during which we developed and refined an excellent remote offer for our children and families.
Should remote education be required, you can read more about our offer and provision using the button below:
