ADP Curriculum
At Ashley Down Primary School we want all children to achieve their full potential in the academic, artistic, social, spiritual and emotional aspects of their lives.
Therefore, we have created and implemented a cohesive curriculum which reflects our school vision.
High aspirations in a nurturing environment.
Ashley Down Primary School is a welcoming school at the heart of the community that has high aspirations for every pupil in a nurturing, supportive environment. We want our children to feel safe, happy and have healthy relationships with those around them so that they can:
- Achieve their academic potential through a solid understanding of their year group curriculum
- Be emotionally healthy and be able to navigate the complexity of relationships with familiar and new people.
- Develop the resourcefulness needed to tackle the practicalities of life
Our curriculum (what we teach)
The curriculum is everything that happens in our school from the moment the children walk through the school gate not just what they learn in class for example, learning takes place in the playground and in assemblies. Our curriculum is underpinned by our school values of Joy, Compassion, Commitment and Respect.
We teach the Early Years Framework and National Curriculum with an intentional focus on;
- Safeguarding which recognises that children being emotionally healthy is an essential pre-requisite to academic learning progress
- Reflecting the diversity of our school community in models and examples we choose to use in our teaching
- Creating meaningful links across year groups and subjects to help children retain a network of connected knowledge and provide interesting discussion points
- Children being Ready, Respectful and safe
Our pedagogy (How we teach)
Relationships
We invest time in relationship building at the start of every new year and then continually through the year. We know what strong relationships support successful learning. We show cognitive care to our pupils. This means we value the thoughts and ideas of our children as learners.
Learning environment
We create successful environments for learning focusing on both the physical environment and the emotional environment. We carefully consider the layout of the classroom, where children sit, where resources are stored and what we put on display to ensure this is conducive to learning. The displays are either supportive models to scaffold learning (a Use it display) or celebrations of learning (a Share it display).
Vocabulary
Helping to develop children’s vocabulary is a strand through our teaching. In EYFS and Key stage 1 we understand that children’s spoken language underpins all areas of learning and development. Children’s back-and-forth interactions from an early age form the foundations for language and cognitive development. The number and quality of the conversations they have with adults and peers throughout the day in a language-rich environment is crucial. In Key stage 2 our teaching of Classics as our foreign language and the importance of etymology and morphology in our spelling scheme mean that developing vocabulary is central to what we do, and this feeds through into all subjects. Throughout the school children are read to regularly and actively engage in stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems providing them with opportunities to use and embed new words in a range of contexts. Through conversation, storytelling and role play, children share their ideas with support and modelling from their teacher, and sensitive questioning that invites them to elaborate, children become comfortable using a rich range of vocabulary and language structures.
Lesson delivery
We use research to inform our practice and ensure that lessons have features of effective instruction to ensure learning is accessible and sticks in children’s long-term memories. The curriculum is sequenced and taught so that:
- Learning builds on children’s’ prior knowledge and experience.
- Learning is broken down into small steps so that children are not overloaded with new information.
- Learning is sequenced over a year or series of years to enable the practice and retrieval of key knowledge and skills.
- Learning is supported with consistent visuals and resources across the school, so children are not having to re-learn how to use them.
- Children reflect on their own learning; identify progress they have made and the next steps they need to improve.
Our values are fundamental to everything we do at Ashley Down, from the way we interact with others, to how we learn and how we play. Our school values are: Joy, Compassion, Commitment and Respect.
Curriculum Design
At Ashley Down Primary School we follow the National Curriculum and inform this from a range of sources. These include schemes of work, pedagogical resources, subject knowledge information and ongoing professional development for those delivering the curriculum. This is represented visually below and in more detail on the curriculum subject pages of the website.
