Curriculum Overview

Whole School Intent

Green Ridge Primary Academy believe in the concept of lifelong learning and the idea that both adults and children continue to learn new things every day throughout the course of their lives. We maintain that learning should be a rewarding and enjoyable experience for everyone. Through our teaching we aim to equip children with the skills, knowledge and understanding necessary to be able to make informed choices about the important things in their lives. We believe that appropriate teaching and learning experiences help children to lead happy and rewarding lives. We aim to develop a more creative, engaging curriculum that meets needs of pupils. This will be developed at school level with support of REAch2’s expertise and experience.

The curriculum at Green Ridge will provide the following opportunities:

To enable all children to learn and develop their skills effectively
To promote a positive attitude towards learning, so that children enjoy coming to school, and acquire a solid basis for lifelong learning;
To teach children the basic skills of literacy, numeracy and information and communication technology (ICT);
To enable children to be creative and to develop their own thinking;
To teach children about their developing world, including how their environment and society have changed over time
To enable children to be positive citizens in society;
To fulfil all the requirements of the National Curriculum
To teach children to have an awareness of their own spiritual development, and to understand right from wrong;
To help children understand the importance of truth and fairness, so that they grow up committed to equal opportunities for all;
To enable children to have respect for themselves and high self-esteem, and to be able to live and work cooperatively with others.

Our curriculum encapsulates three areas hollistically to ensure that children are developing all areas of their personal development.

In Early Years (Nursery and Reception) we follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum. For those children in Key Stage 1 (Year One and Year Two) and Key Stage 2 (Years Three to Six) Green Ridge follows has developed its own curriculum, based on the requirements of the National Curriculum, implemented in September 2014. More detailed information about the curriculum in each year-group can be found under each class page on the website where curriculum information is published each half-term in order to let parents and carers know what is being covered and how they can support learning at home. Further information can also be found below, by individual subject, which tells you about our intent and implementation for each subject area.

At Green Ridge, we have a theme-based creative curriculum where we make purposeful links across different curriculum areas in order to make learning meaningful for the children. Parents and carers are also kept informed of changes to our curriculum via information sessions and curriculum evenings throughout the academic year.

Our Curriculum Key Drivers:

Knowing the context of our school has allowed us to identify three key drivers that feed through all of our curriculum to ensure we are meeting the needs of the children.

These are:

Pride:	Key Driver:	Why is this important?
P	Promotion of Academic Success	We will strive for excellence in academic success for all children. We will ensure that academic success is across a broad range of subjects. Children’s gaps will be identified through assessment and support given to ensure excellent progress is made.
R	Rich Language, Literacy and Communication	Pupils need to be able to read fluently from an early age in order to access the wider curriculum. Vocabulary will be underpinned by reading, which in turn will impact on writing outcomes. Communicating both their academic understanding and their own personal needs is vital to their own development.
I	Inclusion	Inclusion is a core principle at school so that all children are treated with respect and equity. There is an inclusive offer in our curriculum so that all children have the opportunity to access the full offer.
D	Diversity	We serve a diverse community where all children feel they are represented and celebrated for being themselves. Subject diversity is important to give our pupils a breadth of knowledge and experience.
E	Enrichment and Opportunity	Pupils can relate these experiences to their wider learning, make connections and then use these as a basis for knowledge. Children need to have their basic needs met, to feel safe and secure before they can learn. Children need wider skills in order to transfer these to different curriculum areas.