At Applegarth, we believe it is every child’s right to learn essential knowledge, skills and understanding of a broad range of curriculum subjects. It is vital that they engage with their learning in an inquisitive way that will help them to remain committed to learning throughout their school careers and lives. We also want our children to develop personal qualities that they need to be good citizens and to respond to the changing contexts of their future lives whilst developing a sense of their own nationality and culture and at the same time, develop a great respect for the nationalities and cultures of others.
At Applegarth, reading is the cornerstone of the curriculum. For children to succeed in school, they must be reading at the national curriculum stage of learning by the end of each year group. They also need effective teachers, so SFA includes intensive professional development, on going coaching support, and data tools to give teachers feedback on how children are learning and where they need additional teaching or extra help. SFA involves the whole community in implementing effective teaching that is based on the best research on what works. Success for All makes learning fun and engaging for children and helps teachers become knowledgeable, skilled instructional leaders.
At Applegarth, we believe that for children to succeed in school, they must be reading at the national curriculum stage of learning by the end of each year group. To enable this, the school uses ‘Success for All’ (SFA) which is an evidence based school improvement strategy and of which, Applegarth is proudly a Flagship school.
At Applegarth we place a very strong emphasis on recognising each individual’s particular strengths and areas for development. As a result of this, we pride ourselves on providing the children with a rich and meaningful Maths Curriculum.
Our children receive a maths curriculum which is designed to develop confidence, greater independence and ultimately life-long skills. Our teaching promotes: mathematical fluency; greater opportunity for reasoning and developed understanding of solving problems in a variety of different contexts. As well as supporting children with larger barriers in maths, we also place great emphasis on pushing all of our learners to achieve beyond their own expectations. Maths provision for our most able learners is carefully matched to their needs, with regular additional enrichment opportunity.
Here at Applegarth we believe that all children have the right to a broad and balanced curriculum that enables them to develop both as a collaborative team member as well as an independent thinker. Discovery promotes a project based approach to the wider curriculum where children are immersed within one subject area each half term through a creative, hands-on and engaging style. Subjects are taught in a way that allows children to delve deep into the knowledge and understanding suitable for their age range. Additionally, it allows our proactive learners to critically think and reflect on their learning whilst developing the skills necessary to grow into enthusiastic, aspiring and proud citizens of our community. The focus of our learning is on reflection, discussion and reasoning.
The computing aspect of our curriculum is embedded within our broader ‘Discovery’ curriculum.
Our children benefit from a broad and balanced Physical Education (PE) programme carefully designed to inspire learners to:
Physical Literacy is reinforced through daily active playtimes and our extensive extra-curricular and competitive school sport programme.
Children at Applegarth explore Religious beliefs & customs through two different approaches. They learn core content, knowledge and beliefs through stand-alone units at key points throughout the year. They also explore, discuss and share their thinking on different themes/ideas linked to RE within their Philosophy for Children lessons each week. The aim being that whilst children learn different aspects of Religious Education throughout their time at Applegarth, they are able to keep their thinking alive throughout regular Philosophy for Children lessons – which also make links to other aspects of their learning too.
At Applegarth we know that our children and community need to understand and be highly vigilant about different aspects of safeguarding to ensure that they are safe and make the right choices. In addition, as part of our key drivers within the curriculum we also know that our children must ‘STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD’ to ensure that they have ongoing success in the future education and beyond. Therefore, our Skills for Life curriculum is built to promote the skills, values and attitudes our children must demonstrate to be lifelong learners.
Children in KS2 have the opportunity to begin to learn a new language, French. Knowing the majority of our feeder secondary schools teach French as one of their key languages, we want our children to have the opportunity to begin to learn the basics that will provide them with the confidence and desire to learn more by the time they start their secondary education. In KS1, children don’t learn French as we are wanting them to fully master their own English language, which they will then be able to apply more fully when they reach KS2.
Music at Applelgarth is a very special part of our curriculum. Over the last 2 years our children take part in singing and weekly drumming lessons. Children work towards taking part in our annual Applegarth Achievement Awards – this academic year held at Fairfield Halls!
PSHE Progression and Content
