Curriculum

At Flora Gardens, we have combined the content of the DfE curriculum into an individualised values-led, creatively integrated approach for each year group. Our 6 values of Trust, Fulfilment, Respect, Personal Wellbeing, Choosing your Attitude and Adventure lead each creative topic whilst ensuring that all statutory content is covered for depth and engagement. Underlying all topics are the fundamental British values of Democracy, the Rule of Law, Respecting Others and Individual Liberty.

Each values-based curriculum starts with a ‘hook’ to engage the children and excite them in their new topic. Some examples of these hooks are:

A fairy visit in Year 1.
A letter from the Queen inviting Year 2 to the Tower of London.
Adopting an Orang-utan in Year 2.
A ’mummy’ visiting the Year 4 classroom in the middle of the night and leaving clues.
A visitor to Year 5 from the Thames Waterworks project asking the children to research how best to save water.
A visit from the author/illustrator William Grill where he taught the children the painting techniques he used in his book-‘Shackleton’s Journey’ which was Year 6’s class text.

The following half term is then focused on that topic integrating Foundation Subjects, where possible, through a meaningful, creative approach. Discrete Foundation Subjects are also taught alongside the thematic approach, ensuring the key knowledge and skills of each subject are not diluted or ‘pigeon-holed’ into these half termly topics.

Each learning opportunity has the 6 values at the heart of it, with a focus value each half term across the school. This ensures that the children have opportunities to extend these values and build on their skills and personal development within them. Additionally, each class has high quality English texts every half term that underpin Reading and Writing

During the half term, each class has the opportunity to extend their learning outside of the classroom and expand their cultural capital, with an educational visit or workshop. Such visits have included:

Year 1’s trip to Fulham Palace Toy Exhibition as part of the Toys and Games topic.
Year 2’s visit to St Paul’s Cathedral as part of the ‘Fire! Fire!’ topic.
Year 3’s trip to the British Museum to look at Stone Age and Iron Age artefacts.
Year 4’s trip to Barnes Wetland Centre to look at local animals habitats.
Year 5’s to Sky Studios to create their own news reports.
Year 6’s visit to London Zoo to further develop their living things, Scientific learning.

Culminating events are also an integral part of our curriculum as an opportunity for children to share their learning with parents and to communicate with a purpose e.g. having an audience. Some such events that close each values-led topic have included:

Year 2’s Art Exhibition that encouraged parents to get creative too
Year 3’s ‘McFlora Café’ that sold healthy options
Year 5’s Victorian-themed performance to parents from a workhouse.
Year 6’s Enterprise Fayre where they were responsible for the budgeting and innovation of products and profit.

We aim for each child to leave Flora Gardens Primary School with the experiences, skills, knowledge and personal achievements that make a holistic learner. Academic results matter, but equally so do the attributes and qualities that make each child an individual; and our personalised curriculum develops all of these in unison.

Intent:

Our 6 school values are at the core of our curriculum and are embedded in everything that we do here at Flora Gardens Primary School. The curriculum at Flora Gardens Primary School aims to prepare children in understanding the world around them and prepare them for the next stage of their education. We want our pupils to be both engaged in their learning and engaging future citizens. The design of our wider curriculum is based on the pupils’ interests and links learning to real life experiences through broader, extra-curricular opportunities and through expert, high quality teaching through the Subject Specialism approach. By the time pupils have left Flora Gardens Primary School, they will have developed a range of both skills and knowledge through half termly Topic quizzing; opportunities to deliberately practise and skilful planning for progression and depth.

Implementation:

Each half term teachers plan and deliver the curriculum through a consistent approach. As part of this process, staff plan for and implement the following –

A curriculum overview map that incorporates the National Curriculum objectives for that year group into the Topic
Comprehensive Subject Specialist planning that include key knowledge and skills through progression statements for the Foundation Subjects taught that half term, including the prior learning to build upon;
A series of lessons that build on the prior ones and careful consideration for revisiting knowledge, progression and depth;
High Quality Texts chosen in conjunction with the CLPE recommended reading lists and the school’s Writing approach, ‘I Am A Clever Writer,’ leading to an integrated language rich approach to English lessons immersing pupils in Tier 2 vocabulary;
A ‘Hook’ to launch the Topic to ensure it is purposeful and substantive for the pupils;
A low-stakes Topic quiz that encourages children to assimilate learning into their long-term memory, where gains are celebrated with misconceptions planned for and addressed;
A Workshop or Educational Visit each half term that develops significant learning within that Topic;
A ‘Culminating Event’ to conclude each Topic where all learning is recapped and summarised, and where parents are invited to share their views and inform future curriculum design along with the children;
Opportunities for Home Learning tasks across the year which encourage and invite collaborative learning involving parents/carers and the pupils;
A curriculum overview for parents/carers so pupils can be supported in their learning at home.

Impact:

We measure the impact of our Topic-values-based curriculum each half term through the following:

Ongoing, informal pupil, parent and teacher evaluations of each half-termly Topic that are used to inform future curriculum design, evaluating the effectiveness of the curriculum and inclusive of the impact of values incorporated into the Topics;
Tracking of the gains in the Topic quizzes and a final end of term subject-specific assessment opportunity that informs subject assessments using Educater;
A celebration of work, knowledge and skills achieved on Topic displays across the school;
A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes through formal tracking of subject progressions;
Termly Foundation-Subject Assessments using the core knowledge and skills assessments developed by each subject lead on Educater;
A Portfolio of ‘wider curriculum’ opportunities within the Curriculum online books, ensuring Cultural Capital, PSHE and British Values are at the core of these;
Termly Core-Subject Assessments used to inform future Interventions and address misconceptions;
Termly celebrating and awarding of value badges for children who consistently demonstrate the values of the school.

Innovation:

We have developed and honed our curriculum over the years, ensuring learning opportunities are individualised for our school and pupils. This ensures that our children receive a highly bespoke, in-depth curriculum that meets their needs. Some examples of this innovation include:

Offering highly skilled and experienced subject specialist teaching of various foundation subjects - including PE, Spanish, Music, Drama, Science, Geography & History, Computing and Forest School;
The full integration of our interactive PE system, Lu, in our PE curriculum; cross-curricular Foundation lessons and Extended Hours Provision;
Working closely alongside another local Primary school to share expertise within staff to further develop the learning opportunities for children and to share resources;
Working alongside local feeder Secondary schools to help develop the UKS2 curriculum for transition to KS3 and working alongside a local Private School to expand opportunities for our pupils;
Improving the critical thinking of children through different cross-curricular learning opportunities such as debating;
Offering off-curriculum House Days across the year engaging all children with a focus on personal wellbeing.

At Flora Gardens Primary School, we are proud of our curriculum outcomes - both Government statutory test results and internal achievements. Our pupils leave us at the end of Key Stage 2 both engaged in their learning and engaging future citizens.