Colburn Community Primary School

Believe and Achieve

Our Curriculum

Our Vision

We are dedicated to ensuring all our pupils succeed – challenging and developing their ability to think independently, building their resilience, well-being and enabling them to transfer their skills and learning to all aspects of their life.

Our Curriculum

At Colburn Community Primary School, we offer an ambitious, engaging curriculum that gives our children the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours that will enable them to succeed. It is not only designed to meet the requirements of the Early Years framework and the National Curriculum but to develop resilience, promote a love of learning, provide opportunities that will inspire, be aspirational and allow our pupils become critical thinkers with inquisitive minds. Ultimately, we aim that our pupils are resilient, prepared, happy, kind, well rounded and responsible citizens.

We regard the teaching and embedding of reading, writing and mathematics as critical and this underpins the rest of our curriculum in all key stages.

Curriculum Intent

• Is broad and balanced and is aspirational for all children,
• Prioritises reading and mathematical fluency so every child can access the full curriculum.
• Ensures that knowledge and skills are taught thoroughly and progressively.
• Is inclusive and meets the specific needs of all of our children by stimulating a love of learning.
• Provides participation and positive engagement with a range of artistic, musical, sporting and cultural opportunities.
• Provides the knowledge, experiences and ‘cultural capital’ necessary to become educated citizens and to succeed in life.
• Is relevant and draws on our locality.
• Incorporates the teaching of British Values: democracy; the rule of law; individual liberty; mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith.
• Promotes curiosity to explore and extend independent learning.

Curriculum Implementation

Our bespoke curriculum has been designed to create a balance between the National Curriculum statutory requirements and a range of experiences which allow our pupils the opportunities to broaden their life experiences. Through clear strategic planning, our curriculum provides not only memorable experiences but is rich in opportunities from which the children can learn and develop transferable skills. Age related expectations combine the acquisition of knowledge and development of skills to create a purposeful and exciting learning journey for every child.

North Yorkshire is a beautiful part of the world which we utilise and celebrate within our curriculum planning. We enrich children's learning with visits and first-hand experiences beyond the classroom and regularly invite visitors into school, to enhance our curriculum. We regard the teaching and embedding of reading, writing and mathematics as critical as this underpins the rest of our curriculum in all key stages. 

The wider curriculum is coherently sequenced. This ensures that every child is given the appropriate opportunities to learn the necessary skills and knowledge through inspirational experiences in every subject.

There are clear objectives relating to the specific knowledge and skills to be taught in each subject which ensure progression across year groups and key stages. Where appropriate, meaningful links are made between subjects in order to deepen children’s understanding. Key knowledge and concepts are revisited regularly to enable children to make connections and enhance their learning. Teachers may choose to ‘block’ the teaching of subjects when they believe that children will gain a deeper understanding, for example, a DT unit, taught every day over fewer weeks, rather than teaching the unit for one lesson a week over a whole term. 

To further support the formal curriculum, we provide a range of extra-curricular artistic, creative and sporting activities which children are actively encouraged to participate in. These are provided both by school staff and external providers. The children, staff and parents are very proud of Colburn’s sportsmanship and high quality musical and drama performances, which reflect both what we do in school and the activities that children participate in outside of school.

Curriculum Impact

We offer our children an engaging and challenging curriculum that connects and celebrates our school, our homes and families, and our place within modern Britain and the wider world.  We aim to enrich our children’s well-being, attitudes to learning, resilience and ability to fulfil their potential: personally, physically and academically. Embedding a nurturing and inclusive approach, we strive to develop inquisitive minds, sense awe and wonder and a determination to believe that anything can be achieved.

It is our aim that when our children leave us they do so as well rounded, confident individuals, prepared for the next steps in their education and for later life. We have robust systems in place to evaluate the effectiveness of our curriculum in terms of pupil engagement, outcomes and progress and to identify areas for improvement, make necessary changes and celebrate successes. We see progress as children knowing more, remembering more and being able to apply their learning independently. Our assessment system, enables us to closely track pupils’ attainment and progress across the year and across key stages.