Curriculum Intent:
Our curriculum is driven by the need to create a love for learning. At Baschurch CE (A) Primary School, we offer a rich and vibrant curriculum which is ambitious for all learners. Through our curriculum, we develop the essential knowledge, skills and understanding which are the building blocks for later life.
Our curriculum encompasses not only the formal requirements of the National Curriculum, but goes beyond the experiences of the classroom to ensure that our children are exposed to the richest and most varied opportunities that we can provide.
Our aim is to enrich every child’s school experience by creating an environment where they are encouraged to succeed and be the best they can be. This ethos, along with the exploration of new skills and experiences, helps to ensure that we all follow The Baschurch Way – a set of values which underpin everything we do. The curriculum is further enhanced by our commitment to Christian Values (including British Values) and, through this, we allow pupils to develop a lifelong love of learning.
“The curriculum will be taught within the context of Christian values, in accordance with the school’s Mission Statement”. We aim to provide an atmosphere, inside and out, which offers the possibility of stimulation and enrichment to all who work within it. Our curriculum meets the requirements of the National Curriculum as well as developing awareness of personal and social understanding, moral and cultural understanding, health, the environment and the industrial world. We often work on whole school themes providing exciting and relevant experiences to bring learning to life. Teachers will use whole-class, group or individual teaching as they consider appropriate. Links may be made between subjects when appropriate to create themes and topics such as ‘Houses’ or ‘Our School’. Find out more about each curriculum subject by visiting the individual subject pages. Our Curriculum Policy provides more detail on our offer and philosophy.
Subject Pages
Starting School page
SEN page
Curriculum Documents
Details of the National Curriculum that we follow can be found by following the link below:
National Curriculum
Long Term Subject Plans
Essential Characteristics
At our schools we want the children to become ‘Experts’ and develop a mastery approach. We want children to understand the life-long skills that give all the curriculum areas relevance to real life and future career opportunities.
We want children at our schools to develop:
- An extensive base of knowledge and vocabulary.
- A mastery of the skills within each subject and apply them across the curriculum
- Fluency in enquiry and the ability to apply questioning skills and use effective analytical and presentational techniques.
- The ability to reach clear conclusions and develop a reasoned argument to explain findings.
- Significant levels of originality, imagination or creativity as shown in interpretations and representations of the subject matter.
- A passion for and commitment to the subjects taught, and a real sense of curiosity to find out about the world and the subjects covered.
- The ability to express well-balanced opinions, rooted in very good knowledge and understanding about the issues and evidence available.
Our Aims
To offer a curriculum which takes into account
- Our individual needs
- Our locality in rural Shropshire
- The differing needs of our children and the school community.
With this in mind we have recruited additional experts to develop this approach. Our own teachers observe these expects, therefore developing and enriching their own skills.
- Shropshire Music service – whole class instrument tuition; classroom music; school ensembles.
- Jonny Hughes Sports Coaching – whole class PE lessons, lunchtime and afterschool clubs.
- Forest School – we have a qualified Forest School leader who deliver sessions weekly to classes 1 and 2 .
Our Unique Offer
Residentials – we recognise that our children are growing up in rural Shropshire, so carefully tailor school visits and residentials to take account of this. We visit cities in contrasting localities and arrange activities that children may not have opportunities to do with their own families. This is carefully planned into children’s curriculum work in class.
CONTINENTS – The children are split into 7 house groups, mixed R to yr6. They take part in 6 sessions per year studying various aspects of learning relating to their continent. Every year, they move to a new continent. These sessions cover much of our geography, history, RE, art, DT and SMSC objectives.
Collaboration – We pride ourselves in the collaborative work we do with other local schools. These include music, sport, MFL, science for the children. We also plan in termly staff meetings, moderation and training sessions for our staff with staff from local primary schools and have forged links between the curriculum subject co-ordinators in each school so that they can support each other and collaborate on ideas or resources.
The Baschurch Way – everything we teach and learn is underpinned by ‘The Baschurch Way’, which is the basis of our way of working – it is our values and ethos in practice. This is explicitly taught in some sessions such as PSHE, in collective worship and in Continents sessions. It is expected and applied in all other aspects of children’s work and conduct around school.
Our Locality – our long term plans ensure that children learn about the rich history in and around Baschurch, the historic town of Shrewsbury and other places of significant interest in Shropshire, such as Ironbridge World Heritage Site and Oswestry Iron-Age Hill fort. The objectives for each year group take into account the progress history or geography skills needed to meet the requirements of the curriculum.
Transition – We are in the fortunate position to have our feeder secondary school next door and take full advantage of this to support and extend our curriculum. We attend science, maths and MFL days. We invite the year 7 staff to our support and observe in year 6 and attend moderation meetings.
Music – As well as regular lessons and input from the Shropshire Music Service, where all children have the opportunity to learn a tuned instrument, music is an extremely important part of school life at Baschurch. The headteacher set up a school band and the music co-ordinator runs a popular choir. We take part in the annual ‘Young Voices’ concert, singing with 6000 other children, and take part in other local initiatives, such as Shropshire Sings. We provide regular opportunities for children to perform together, such as joint concerts at the Corbet Academy, Adcote Girls School and local primary schools. Children perform in church and at village functions.
Child Initiated / pupil voice – We think taking the children’s views, learning styles and interests into account is very important to encourage rapid progress, engagement and enjoyment or the curriculum. Regular opportunities are given for a ‘child initiated’ approach in all year groups, where children have the opportunity to plan for themselves which aspect of their theme they study and how to present it. We engage parents in extending this at home through our ‘homework menu’. Children can contribute their views on their learning and curriculum primarily via the School Council and the Kids News Blog on the school website.
The Hidden Curriculum
Children need to achieve but they also need confidence and resilience in today’s competitive world. They need to learn skills that they can apply to various situations and scenarios, rather than learning a set number of facts. This will prepare them for the future, where we recognise that the job they make get probably doesn’t even exist yet!
Also as part of our curriculum, we promote British values such as democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs (see our British Values Statement for more details).
Our Long term Subject plans are available to read on this website on our SUBJECTS pages