Brightwell cum Sotwell CofE Primary School

Curriculum Statement

The word ‘curriculum’ is derived from the Latin word ‘currere’ which means ‘to run’ and has links to the idea of completing a course in order to reach a certain goal or destination. Our curriculum is therefore the carefully planned out course or path we want all of our children to take on their journey towards achieving their goals with us here at Brightwell.

Curriculum Intent

Our ambitious curriculum has been designed to take account of the legal requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum and the Primary National Curriculum and exposes our children to enriching experiences, immersing them in progressive knowledge and skills. It is broad and balanced and driven by a deep commitment to stimulate children’s natural curiosity and encourage each and every child in our care to develop a passion and a lifelong love for learning. We want our children to not only be inspired by what they are taught, but also to be able to inspire others with what they can do.

Using our core Christian and school values, we seek to encourage all our children to be confident, critical thinkers who are reflective about their own learning and open to the idea of challenge and new possibilities. We aim to guide all our children towards becoming compassionate, responsible individuals who respect and celebrate the cultural diversity of their local community and the wider world around them.

We aim to instill positive attitudes to learning which we expect to see demonstrated in all lessons - our children are encouraged to take risks and persevere when they find a task challenging as well as being supportive of each other, thus fulfilling our school vision, "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing." (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

We celebrate and give time to all subjects and appreciate them as disciplines in their own right. We use the language "we are historians", "we are scientists" and so on because we know that it's important for pupils to understand the different knowledge and skills needed in each of the subjects. A full, knowledge-based curriculum, with a rich diet of learning experiences, is central to life at Brightwell School and supports our aim of doing the very best we can for each child.

How our curriculum is implemented

We have a topic-based curriculum, with each class studying six topics a year. You can see our whole school topic map here. These topics are carefully planned so that the journey a pupil follows throughout their time at Brightwell School is well-considered, balanced and coherent. For further information about each subject, please see the subject-specific pages.

Our children are encouraged to be and do their 'personal best' and this recognition of each pupil as an individual runs throughout our teaching and learning. By supporting and by challenging, we encourage and enable pupils to achieve their aims and develop as individuals.

Our exciting curriculum is brought to life through quality enrichment opportunities - something we feel is a strength of the school. These experiences not only provide stretch and challenge, but also give the children a chance to demonstrate our school values and broaden their horizons by trying things they may not have done before. Through special themed events, as well as carefully planned topic related activities, we aim to offer children a variety of different educational experiences including trips, visitors to the school, outdoor learning, opportunities for speaking and listening, enterprise opportunities and the chance to celebrate work with families and other year groups within the school.

A few of our favourite enrichment activities have been: