Quinton Church Primary Curriculum Intent
As a Church school, the teachings of the Bible guide and influence our practice, curriculum and values. Being part of the Birmingham Diocesan Multi-Academy trust, we, like the other schools within our Multi-Academy Trust, work towards ensuring that pupils we serve experience, ‘life in all its fullness.’ (John 10:10).
Curriculum at Quinton
Our curriculum is driven by our Christian vision and values and the culture and diversity of our local, national and global community.
Our school vision is:
Fullness of life for all, through working together with the love of Christ.
At Quinton Church Primary School, we believe that everyone should have life in all its fullness. Therefore, our aim is for everyone to be part of our Christian community where everyone is happy, safe and supported, feels loved and demonstrates kindness; understands justice and shows fairness to all; and receives high quality education and is empowered to live life to the full (John 10:10).
In our diverse community life - in the classroom, playground, staff room, and the wider community- our core life is one set on the belief that we are created by and in the image of a generous, loving and creative God who has justice for all at the origin of His being. We are humans created equally by this loving God whose desire for us is to experience life in all its depth and complexity, as well as to reach our full potential.
It is because of who God is that drives our whole school to seek the development of a community that is distinctive in its Christian core. In every part of the school experience, we want everyone to be happy, safe and supported, feeling loved and valued, experiencing fairness and equality, just as God has demonstrated this to us through the living example of his son, Jesus Christ.
As a school we are inspired by the instruction in Micah 6:8 “The LORD has told us what is good. What He requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God.”
Therefore, we will aim to demonstrate and encourage a life that understands justice and shows fairness in every circumstance; shows love to all, demonstrating kindness in every way; and living in recognising God in each other and in our community.
Every aspect of school life, including our curriculum is driven and embed within these values:
Be kind, be fair, be thankful.
These values encompass the following:
Kindness - compassion, service, peace, love
Fairness - justice, forgiveness, wisdom
Thankfulness - hope, friendship, trust
The key strands from our vision that enables pupils to have ‘Life in all its Fullness’
- Life in all its fullness through being part of a Christian community where everyone feels happy, safe and supported, feels loved and demonstrates kindness.
- Life in all its fullness through understanding justice and showing fairness to all.
- Life in all its fullness through receiving a high-quality education.
Curriculum Design
We have designed a curriculum which prepares the children at Quinton spiritually, morally, socially and culturally. Our sequential ambitious, knowledge and skills curriculum begins in EYFS, so that all children can successfully access a broad and balanced curriculum throughout their education at Quinton Church Primary School. This is underpinned by structured phonics, reading, writing and maths lessons in EYFS all the way through to Year 6, with all steps in transition to each Key Stage planned and carried out.
Our curriculum for Reception through to Year 6 is a subject lead curriculum covering all areas of the National Curriculum. As well as Literacy and Maths, we teach the subjects: History, Geography, Science, Art, DT, Computing, PSHE, RE, MFL (French) and Music. The teaching of History and Geography are skills and knowledge and skills lead. At the end of the area of study there is a retrieval element which allows the children to demonstrate their understanding of their knowledge and skills they have made throughout the subject. Our EYFS curriculum is topic based to ensure all Early Years Goals are achieved and success for all is achieved.
Each subject area has been deliberately placed alongside each other to maximise the depth of understanding, knowledge and skills, ensuring the connections are made between previous and current learning.
In Key Stage 1, a focus is placed on reading, writing and mathematics. We strive for all children to be able to read by the age of six so that they can successfully access a broad and balanced curriculum. Through the Mathematics Mastery programme, we ensure core mathematical knowledge is mastered and practised. Music, PE, creative arts, humanities and science are carefully planned with specialist support to ensure children are making links across and throughout the curriculum.
Throughout KS2, we strive to carefully develop children’s subject knowledge and build clear sequences in their minds, allowing them to begin to think more logically, critically, and creatively. Working with subject champions, teachers are equipped to design carefully crafted sequences of learning as mapped out in their medium-term plans.
Core values and drivers
Our Christian values of kindness, fairness and thankfulness, which are our basis for teaching children about the life and work of Jesus, are taught through RE and collective worship as well and being woven throughout our wider curriculum to guide our children’s moral compass and create well round individuals who can then inspire others to live life in all it’s fullness.
Our ambitious curriculum is adapted to empower all learners to understand, maintain and build-upon what they are taught. Individual needs are met through differentiated curriculum provision, evidenced based interventions and environmental adaptions and adjustments. We have shaped our curriculum to encourage and celebrate differences. We want our children to value, respect and support others with their specific and individual needs.
Our curriculum focuses on and draws upon influential and inspirational people who represent global citizens with a range of genders, disabilities, diversity and LGBTQ+ communities studied. These inspirational people have overcome adversities by applying our school values and developing a strong and secure knowledge base. We believe they demonstrate some of the best of what has been thought and said throughout time – they provide a concrete real-life example for our children to be inspired by and aspire to be like, and through the study of these individuals children at Quinton will understand justice and show fairness to all.
Our subject centred curriculum is also driven by the aspirations and desire to live life to the full, drawing on the influences of various careers from all areas and walks of life. We invite individuals from a variety of careers, from our local community and beyond, to come into school to discuss their work and their own journey and personal experiences to help our children gain an interest in areas of work they may not have thought about or inspire to be. As well as this, we also offer experiences and enrichment opportunities including other guest speakers, school excursions and projects to build upon the areas of study and gain an insight into developing their knowledge and experience development.
We believe that a knowledge-rich, skills and values driven curriculum is core to our pupils’ future success. Once our children have acquired the knowledge from our carefully sequenced curriculum, they will then be ready to lead a successful and happy life – living life in all its fullness.
