CURRICULUM OVERVIEW – JUNIORS
Using our drivers as direction, we designed our curriculum to provide our children with the necessary knowledge to be ready for the next step in their learning journey. While our knowledge and skills progression documents show what is taught at each stage, these are only part of the provision we offer at Cunningham Hill Junior School. Through discussion with our stakeholders, we continually look at ways in which we can offer new opportunities for our children to learn.
We firmly believe in providing children with a strong appreciation and love of sport and being active. We run a vast range of extra-curricular activities, catering for many different interests, and provide many opportunities for our children to represent the school and their houses in regular competitions and sporting events.
Culturally, we provide all children with opportunities to perform and experience the arts through music, drama and art. There are opportunities for all children to experience or partake in school, local and national performances in music and drama and we regularly share our artwork in open classroom sessions with our parents.
From listening to our pupils, they clearly enjoy working in real-life contexts and wanted to experience more tangible scenarios. With this in mind, we have introduced the Skills Builder programme, which teaches children the skills that are highly valued in the working world through enterprise projects alongside businesses. This is interwoven
We also offer twice termly outdoor learning experiences though our CHILL OUT sessions (Cunningham Hill Independent Learning for Life), where the children are taught in outdoor settings and use initiative and teamwork skills to carry out tasks which are not possible in a classroom.
Curriculum Intent
At Cunningham Hill Junior School, we ‘Dream, Learn, Achieve, together’, to develop children who are ‘future-ready’ both socially and academically. We interpret ‘future ready’ as having the knowledge, skills and confidence to progress (academically, professionally or personally) to fulfil personal potential and achieve success. We aim to provide them with the opportunities by delivering a curriculum rich in knowledge, which is guided by our four drivers:
- Aspiration – Central to our curriculum is the belief that our children should be aspirational academically, professionally and personally. We strive to foster aspirational behaviour by immersing children in an environment rich with ample opportunities to meet a wide range of professionals, take on roles and responsibilities, have entrepreneurial experiences as well as sampling a plethora of extra-curricular activities. By equipping children with these skills and confidence we want them to pursue their dreams and reach their full potential.
- Community & Beyond – We aim to develop a greater knowledge, understanding and awareness of the immediate locality and the wider world in which they live, engendering global respect and responsibilities. We wish to inspire a sense of intellectual curiosity and awe, encouraging children to fulfil their potential by exploring all possibilities open to them.
- Celebrating Difference – Every child is recognised as a unique individual. We celebrate and welcome differences within our diverse school community and beyond. Our curriculum is carefully planned to ensure that children understand themselves and others by providing them with opportunities to engage in the culture they live in, and understand the lives of others and diversity of the world around them.
- Personal Wellbeing – We believe an active healthy body and mind is essential for children’s learning. Through constant encouragement and opportunity, we aim to develop an ethos for a healthy life that will stay with them in the future.
Children leave Cunningham Hill fully prepared for the next step in their lives and beyond. They will have gained a desire to learn and succeed through decision making, self-evaluation as they strive to be lifelong learners.
Yearly Overviews
Curriculum Knowledge and Skills Maps
These show the knowledge that our children are expected to have gained by the end of Year 6. The Cunningham Hill Junior staff team have worked hard to ensure that the National Curriculum is fully and comprehensively implemented within our school.
Each subject area has clear progression of knowledge and skills children will build up during their time in school. This ensures that children are offered teaching in line with their age and developmental stage, helping them to develop their learning in a coherent manner and supporting them to become increasingly independent in applying their knowledge.
We take into consideration the interests of the children and teachers and make as many links across the curriculum as possible, e.g. teaching maths knowledge for handling data through a science lesson or writing diaries as a character from history.
We always welcome your feedback so if there is anything we can do to make the information contained here easier to access and/or understand please let us know. Please speak to the Class Teacher if you need any further information regarding the content of the curriculum.