Shaw Cross Infant and Nursery School

We provide a highly inclusive environment where learners can enjoy their education, build their self-esteem and achieve without limits. Regardless of their starting point, pupils at all levels have opportunities to achieve their potential. For some children this may mean that learning is broken down through adult support to scaffold language and thought processes, or through additional use of resources to ensure that there are no barriers to learning. Through a support and challenge approach our children embed knowledge and skills to become deeper learners. We strive to instil high aspirations for pupils and their families, and encourage children to make a positive contribution to their community and the wider society both now and in the future.  In a forever changing world we aim to equip our children to be well prepared to contribute to life as a British citizen.

Our curriculum builds on the ethos that every child has a right to access the statutory Foundation Stage Curriculum and National Curriculum. We provide children with rich, diverse and memorable learning experiences where they are able to learn, embed their knowledge into their long-term memory, and transfer skills to other areas of learning. We also facilitate the deepening of this learning both within an activity, and as they move through school. We work hard to ensure that all learning is set within a meaningful context and in doing so ensure that our children have a purpose and motivation to know more, do more and remember more.

General Principles

At Shaw Cross we are committed to working with our children, families and external agencies to create a school community that we can be proud of.  Through our curriculum offer we focus on the following principles;

• Providing a curriculum which is driven by the school’s core values ‘Respect, Resilient, Reflect’.
• Providing a curriculum which is rich in high quality vocabulary.
• Deliver a curriculum that reflects the school community and value the uniqueness of each child, to inspire them to be the best that they can be and prepare them for the world in which they live as British citizens.
• For children to have the opportunity to learn in an exciting, challenging and creative way. 
• For children to experience a knowledge rich broad and balanced curriculum that is rich in cultural capital, community awareness, creative expression, physical activity and emotional wellbeing.
• Work creatively within the curriculum to ensure that all learning has a purpose and that children will be motivated and engage with their learning. 
• For subject content to be taught in a flexible, cross curricular way and enable literacy and numeracy to be applied within other subject areas, and vice versa. 
• To promote a reading for both enjoyment and as a key to lifelong learning.
• To allow flexibility and time within the curriculum for children to follow relevant lines of enquiry and deepen their learning through an enquiry led curriculum approach.
• To scaffold learning for all pupils to ensure there are no barriers to making progress through breaking down tasks and language, or through the use of resources.
• To provide a curriculum where cultural diversity is celebrated and where children feel valued and listened to in an environment where positive attitudes and approaches to learning are prized t the same extent as academic attainment.
• To learn within a coherent and progressive framework which focuses on children being able to do more, know more and remember more as they progress from Nursery to Year 2, and be KS2 ready.

How is our curriculum planned and delivered?
Our curriculum design ensures that pupils can learn through a range of learning styles, and provides opportunities for learning individually, in small groups or as a class. Staff access relevant training, and are monitored closely to ensure that we maximise the impact that adults can have on the learning of our children. The majority of this learning is through quality first teaching in class, but may also involve booster/intervention work to accelerate the learning of small groups and/or individuals.

We have carefully considered our curriculum design and use the structure provided by schemes to facilitate learning across the curriculum to ensure continuing and progression throughout school. Our children remain at the forefront of all our teaching and learning and we ensure learning is carefully tailored and pitched to ensure that it is appropriate to the individual, whilst also keeping a focus on age-related expectations.

• Maths is delivered using the structure of the White Rose scheme.
• Phonics and Reading are delivered through the structure provided by Essentials Letters and Sounds.
• Writing is structured through a Talk4Writing approach.

The majority of our foundation subjects are delivered through the Cornerstones Curriculum which is delivered through ‘projects’. Whilst these provide a context for learning, individual subjects are taught discretely through EYFS areas of learning or through KS1 curriculum subjects so that children understand what it means to be a ‘scientist, historian etc . 

The delivery is built upon a 4-stage pedagogy of;

Engage – hooking the children and provoke curiosity with a memorable experience or through a text and provides a context for the learning to come.

Develop - teaching the knowledge, skills and vocabulary needed to deepen children’s understanding of a particular concept.

Innovate – enable children to apply their knowledge and skills, develop independence and facilitate opportunities for investigating and problem solving.

Express – opportunities for children to reflect on and share what they have learned.

Whilst we ensure that children are able to access the statutory requirements of the EYFS and KS1 National Curriculum, we are constantly reviewing how we deliver the content. As new technology, research and resources become available we are evolving and implementing new initiatives to improve and enhance learning, whilst maintaining the clear objectives set out in the curriculum.   

Extended Opportunities and Enrichment

Within school we have an extended school provision in which children can access a breakfast club. In addition to this we provide a number of clubs during lunchtime and after-school where children can develop their physical health, well-being and creativity through sport and music.

High quality visits and visitors into Shaw Cross provide cultural capital opportunities to enhance and deepen our learning. This not only provided memorable experience, but facilitates learning in a more meaningful way and beyond that of what can be provided within the day to day school environment. We also strive to utilise our outdoor environment to enable our children to gain first-hand experience of the world around them and their immediate community. The inclusion of theme days/weeks, such as Active Week, Fox’s Biscuit Enterprise challenge, RSPB Bird Watch further raises the profile of specific subjects, and enhances knowledge and skills through an enriched experience.

We provide regular opportunities for parents/families to join their children in their learning and strengthen our home-school links for the benefit of our children. In doing so we make strong steps towards fulfilling our mission statement of ‘Working together to value and nurture children’.

Pupils have opportunities within and beyond the curriculum to share their ideas, thoughts and opinions and have a significant role in making decisions. They are actively encouraged to share their pupil voice through forming school/class rules, school council, and roles of responsibilities within class. As part of their learning, they are regularly asked to share their knowledge, skills and opinions within curriculum subjects, and express their thoughts and opinions through age appropriate discussions on current affairs, such as Newsround and Picture News, as well as through PSHE circle time responses.