Curriculum Rationale – The Big picture

• We strive to provide children with the knowledge and skills they need to make sense of the world in order to make a positive contribution to life in modern Britain and beyond
• We take the community we serve into consideration. Though the proportion of children in our community said to be disadvantaged is just below the national average, it is growing. Against a challenging economic background, it is crucial we enable pupils to gather cultural capital during their time with us.
• We intend for pupils to learn knowledge and skills which are ambitious and often complex. Inclusion sits at the heart of what we do at Fir Tree – this means we are ambitious for what can be achieved by pupils identified as having special education needs and or disabilities.
• The knowledge and skills we expect pupils to gather is sequenced in such a way that requires them to activate prior learning to make connections. Children have regular opportunities to follow approaches associated with retrieval practice.
• There is no expectation that teachers ‘rush’ children through the curriculum. Teachers are professionals and are trusted to revisit prior learning when required.
• The curriculum is the progress model. If children demonstrate they know more and remember more, they are said to have made progress.
• In some subjects, such as Design Technology, commercially developed schemes of work are followed. These schemes are aligned with the principles set out above, and are helpful from a workload perspective.

There is flexibility built into the curriculum. Important current affairs events should be focussed on when they arise. They allow pupils to develop a wider understanding of global matters.