Our Curriculum at Southbourne Junior School

Our curriculum has been a school development priority since September 2019, following the staff reading and research of ‘The Curriculum: Gallimaufry to coherence’ by Mary Myatt and ‘A Curriculum of Hope’ by Debra Kidd. This research led us to review our curriculum with a focus on providing a clear and connected story between subjects. An overarching aim was to ensure that the learning which has taken place previously connects with the learning that will take place in the future, ensuring it is purposeful and relevant to our pupils.

When I teach I want children to connect past, present and future. To link the then time to the now time with a view to impacting on future time. Debra Kidd

One of the main reasons for asking why we are teaching something is so we can make those links very clear to children. Providing the reasons stops us from breaking the content into atomised sections which are taught in isolation…it transforms lessons from routine completion of tasks to deep understanding. Mary Myatt

Using The National Curriculum as our core document, alongside the school context and wider community, we created our curriculum themes and question based model. This approach prioritises the following:

• A connected curriculum that ensures cohesion, progression and links to prior and future learning.
• Enquiry questions that provide a focus and depth for pupils to grow an enquiring mind.
• Reading as integral and at the heart of learning.
• Our local history, geography and science embracing our community context.
• Enrichment, providing different opportunities to widen pupils’ creative and cultural experiences.

Throughout this development process, we have had to adapt and be responsive to the changing learning climate caused by Covid-19. Subject leaders and class teachers reflected on the learning that had taken place, identified the gaps due to partial closures and the limitations of remote learning. Alongside this, the main priority of our recovery curriculum focused on the wellbeing of our pupils, including re-establishing behaviours and attitudes to learning whilst supporting their good mental health.

Our curriculum is planned and prepared with a deliberate approach to being adaptive and responsive to our learners and the wider context. The subject learning journeys that you see on our website are evolving documents that leaders review, and if necessary, reflect more extensive change if subject leaders feel the outcomes require this.

The tabs on the right-hand side, show the subject overviews for our curriculum.