Below you will find a comprehensive guide to the schools curriculum.

Click the star subject areas below to see the curriculum in action.

For a detailed overview of the knowledge taught in each curriculum area, see progression of knowledge documents.   If you would like any other information then please contact the school office on 02392 475904. 

Introduction and Rationale

Our bespoke curriculum was designed over the last four years to be contextualised for the children at Front Lawn.  It is the result of research into different models of curriculum design and analysis of the needs of the children at the school.

Firstly, we believe passionately that our curriculum should be broad and balanced therefore our curriculum provides a range of experiences for our children.  The core outcome for our curriculum is for all children to leave us with a strong sense of morality and to have a strong awareness of the range of possibilities that are available to them in the outside world.    The school's key values are explained to the children through our moral compass (see below) and our culture and our climate for learning provide the following drivers that underpin all areas of our curriculum:

Possibilities - which helps children to build aspirations and know available possibilities for their future lives

Initiative - which helps children grow as independent learners, not dependent on adults to learn

Happiness - which helps our children to focus on the positive and fully make the most of their lives

Community - which helps our children to make a real difference to the area in which they live

Children enjoy a full spectrum of academic, physical, spiritual, moral, social, cultural activities that enrich their lives.  Their is equal balance between social and academic learning and we provide a variety of ways in which we help children to protect and learn about their own mental health.  

Our curriculum provides appropriate balance by ensuring:

• All children should feel clever and experience the feeling of accomplishment in a wide range of areas.
• an excellent mix of academic and personal development.
• equal importance to core and foundation subjects.
• Physical well-being and mental well-being are both valued and prioritised by our careful consideration of curriculum design.
• SMSC development, along with a well planned and structured programme of personal development underpins all our work and is as closely monitored as academic subjects
• We carefully balance the requirement for pupils to reach ARE in core subjects with our wider curriculum aims of providing a balanced range of enriching experiences. 

As a result our pupils thrive.  

Curriculum Intent

Although our core outcome is to instil a strong moral compass in all our children we also:

• Provide outstanding outcomes for the future of young people in the 21st Century and beyond.
• Engage children in a relevant, meaningful and challenging curriculum that stimulates, allows and supports their learning developing fluency and expertise.
• Ensure that every child exceeds their full academic potential within school and reaches an emotional maturity that allows them to be fully involved in the local community.
• Develop children's desires to be ambitious, use their initiative, have a strong sense of community and have positive mental health that enables them to be happy.
• Ensure excellent delivery of carefully sequenced, powerful knowledge that children can transfer between subjects and phases of their education.

In order to ensure that learning in every subject is sequenced appropriately and in line with the national curriculum , we have created Progression Documents for all subjects (see below).  These ensure that learning is staged and builds on prior knowledge. This provides the children with the opportunity to revisit vital skills and knowledge regularly and embed this learning; therefore becoming experts.

Our curriculum is designed to enable the following outcomes to be met by ALL children.

Investment in the whole child

We recognise that to succeed and excel in further education and adult life, a purely content based curriculum is not fit for purpose. Our children need the skills and characteristics to lead their own learning, inspire themselves to progress and have confidence and to collaborate with their peers and wider society. We also understand the importance positive mental health has on children and strive to place this at the heart of all we do.

Consequently, during all lessons taught – alongside the learning objective – will be the Independent Learner Skills that are being developed and embedded in the children during that lesson. These are vital ‘life-skills’ that we refer to as Positive Powers.  These are skills that we believe all children need to succeed in school today as well as in their everyday life and future careers.  

During every lesson, the teacher and children will decide which of the skills/power they will be using or developing and this will be discussed with the children where appropriate therefore creating a symbiosis between the learning and life-skills.  

Curriculum Implementation:

At Front Lawn we have worked hard with all staff to ensure we have a consistent pedagogical approach.  Our approach to teaching can be found by clicking on the Approach to Teaching star.  This consistency ensures that all children are taught to a high standard, in all year groups, in all subjects.  

Curriculum Impact:

We ensure that we track children's progress in all subjects.  We believe this is important because every child is brilliant at something and deserves the chance to receive feedback, make progress and experience opportunities to deepen their learning in all subjects.

If you would like more information on our curriculum please contact Kate Couldwell (Headteacher), Sarah Read (Deputy Headteacher) or Amanda Grant (Deputy Headteacher)