Children at Burtonwood Community Primary follow the Early Years Foundation Stage and National Curriculum as a framework for our curriculum offer. However, we have carefully designed, organised and planned our curriculum and provision across the subjects to ensure that our children receive and enjoy an education that is rich, broad and balanced and which gives them every opportunity to use their knowledge and skills and discover their talents.
An exciting and creative curriculum is essential to making learning enjoyable and relevant for the children. The curriculum at Burtonwood not only reflects the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum but also the local, national and global context in which the school stands. Detailed medium-term planning ensures strong sequential progression and high-quality teaching from Early Years throughout the Key Stages in all subjects.
At the school’s last inspection, Ofsted stated that, “Leaders have ensured that pupils study an interesting curriculum… (and) have carefully chosen the content that they want pupils to learn,” and that, “Throughout their time in school, pupils develop a deep appreciation of different cultures. For instance, they have enjoyed learning about Africa, Australia and Japan. Pupils have explored different beliefs through exciting and creative art and design projects. They speak with confidence about their understanding of different faiths. Pupils understand that, regardless of faith or belief, they must treat everyone with dignity and respect.”
We have a strongly consistent approach to the development of early literacy, using Bug Club DfE-approved reading books and resources. This is further developed with Pathways to Read and Write, exposing the children to high quality texts and enriching their language, as well as developing their knowledge of punctuation and grammar using a mastery approach, as they progress through school.
We follow a maths mastery approach using the White Rose Small Steps as a consistent and comprehensive framework. This is enriched for our younger children with Mastering Number sessions to ensure that number knowledge to 20 is firmly embedded.
To improve the quality of the curriculum, the school brings in specialist teachers. An artist is in school every Friday to deliver sessions for all classes from Year 1 to Year 6 over each term. Weekly French lessons are taught from Years 3 - 6 on Mondays by a specialist teacher. There is a programme of music in Key Stage Two (www.accentmusiceducationhub.co.uk) with whole class keyboards in Year 3, Gospel singing in Year 4, Guitar in Year 5 and Flute in Year 6. In PE, dance sessions are delivered by a specialist teacher. Specialist teaching in French, P.E., music and art has raised standards and enhanced children’s enjoyment with their learning.
At Burtonwood, outdoor education has been enhanced by the development of Willow Wood, an outdoor classroom which was funded by a lottery grant. This is a wonderful resource for all classes to support learning across the curriculum, but especially in Science.
As well as many day trips throughout the year to places such as Catalyst, Museum of Science and Industry, The Lowry, Safety Central, and Farmer Ted’s, Burtonwood Primary runs a strong residential programme with visits starting in Key Stage 2. The residential trips are to Fox Howl in Delamere (Year 3), Robinwood (Years 4 and 5) and York (Year 6).
If you would like to find out more about our curriculum, please visit the subjects pages, view long term plans or speak to your child's class teacher.