Curriculum Statement

Curriculum Intent:

Pupils at Brightwell School receive a broad and balanced curriculum that is ambitious and which challenges and stimulates their learning. 'Broad and balanced' means that we celebrate and give time to all subjects and appreciate them as disciplines in their own right. You will see on our subject pages and in our class curriculum overviews, that we use the language "we are historians", "we are scientists" and so on and that is 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.

  

This broad and balanced curriculum starts from a pupil's very first day at school with us, in our Reception class. Here we follow the aims and principles of the Early Years Foundation Stage as detailed in the ‘Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage’ document. Active learning is key to how we work; we know that learning by doing things and having rich and varied experiences engages children’s interests and helps them to learn more quickly. Learning to communicate through speaking, listening, reading and writing is of central importance. Drawing on the interests of the children, our creative teaching team develops termly cross-curricular topics that enable pupils to build on their knowledge, explore and discover, work collaboratively and achieve well.

  

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 pupils 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.

  

Enrichment

The quality and scope of our enrichment offer at Brightwell School is frequently praised and we feel it is a strength of the school. Our enrichment opportunities provide stretch and challenge, they give pupils opportunities to demonstrate our school values, and they provide new experiences to broaden pupils' horizons. We aim to offer children a variety of different educational experiences including educational visits, visitors to the school, themed days, outdoor learning, opportunities for speaking and listening, enterprise opportunities and the chance to celebrate work with parents/carers and other year groups within the school. A few of our favourite recent enrichment activities have been:

  • BMX bike experience
  • Team GB athlete visits
  • Visits to Sotwell Hill House residential care home
  • Sports events and competitions
  • Author visits to school and writing workshops
  • Whole school Christmas theatre trips
  • Mental health and wellbeing workshops
  • Trip to The Story Museum, Oxford
  • Year 5/6 annual residential
  • STEM Week

 

Learning Behaviour

As well as the objectives from the National Curriculum and skills-based progression, we also aim to instill positive attitudes to learning which we expect to see demonstrated in all lessons. We believe it is important for children to become confident, independent learners. Our children are encouraged to take risks and persevere when they find a task challenging; "Resilience" is one of our core values.