Curriculum Aims and Intent

At Cannon Lane Primary School we help each child to achieve their very best. We aim to create a positive and secure environment in which children can be happy, safe, and successful. We place great emphasis on mutual respect and consideration for others. We encourage children to be reflective, resilient, responsible and resourceful learners.

We provide a curriculum that is broad and balanced and one that is relevant and interesting for the children. We believe that children should be inspired by what they are learning and understand how and why this is relevant to them and to their lives in the future.

At Cannon Lane School, our curriculum is designed to:

• challenge all children
• encourage children to ask questions and to develop higher order thinking skills
• be fully inclusive and to celebrate diversity
• motivate children and enable them to become independent learners
• encourage children to take risks and to see mistakes as learning opportunities
• enable children to work together and to learn from each other
• nurture healthy, caring and respectful relationships
• help children to understand how to keep themselves safe
• emphasise important values such as friendship, resilience and compassion
• teach children about the British Values of democracy, rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect.

CURRICULUM INTENT

Staff have worked together to identify a shared Curriculum Intent.  This is different from our overall school aims and is central to all teaching and learning.  Teachers and support staff make these intentions explicit in planning and look for opportunities to develop this across all areas of the curriculum.  Our curriculum is designed to enable all children to SHINE LIKE STARS!

S - Share             

We look for opportunities to collaborate, to learn from one another and to be confident in sharing our ideas.  We also want to feel confident in sharing our feelings, worries or our concerns.

T - Try                  

We always try hard and do our best.  It’s ok to make mistakes and we know that a growth mindset can help us to achieve outstanding results.  We work hard to develop resilience.

A - Aspire           

We are ambitious and know that we are capable of achieving great things if we have big dreams.  We want all of our lessons to be exciting, inspirational and to have a high level of challenge.

R - Respect       

We understand the importance of showing respect for others, for ourselves and for the environment. 

S - Shine           

We will look for opportunities to shine.  We are proud of our school and proud of ourselves. We take pride in the work that we produce and always want to do our very best.

Running through our curriculum is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. We are a Rights Respecting School and our pupil ambassadors play an important role in developing this ethos. ‘Every child has the right to an education’ (Article 28) and the curriculum we provide aims to ‘develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full (Article 29). As far as possible, we adopt a cross-curricular approach to learning. We employ specialist teachers for music, art and physical education and staff work together to establish meaningful links across the curriculum.

Throughout the school year visitors are welcomed into school to bring the curriculum to life. Children are encouraged to dress up and experience life as a Roman soldier, an Ancient Egyptian or as a World War II evacuee. Each term children take part in educational visits to further develop their knowledge and understanding of the topics covered in school. Subject Leaders organise ‘themed weeks’ which enable children to make connections and immerse themselves fully in their learning. Class assemblies provide an excellent opportunity for children to share their knowledge and enthusiasm with their parents, their peers and their siblings. Please see our Curriculum Map (for each year group) which identifies the topics that children learn each term by subject area.