Intent, Implementation and Impact

Curriculum Overall Statement

Intent

At Gerrans School we want our children to become independent life-long learners. We aim to provide all children with an education which is creative, reflective and balanced. We seek to equip all children with the skills, knowledge and experiences to be successful in their future education, career and life choices. 

We celebrate the uniqueness of our Cornish, rural and coastal community, whilst providing opportunities for understanding about diversities within our locality and beyond.  

How we facilitate this:

  • We follow the National Curriculum which provides a backbone to children's learning. 

  • Our curriculum is well-sequenced and progressive, and it builds on prior knowledge which is identified prior to new content being taught. 

  • In KS1, our curriculum is skills based which are identified and taught explicitly. 

  • Our children are given opportunities to experience all that Cornwall has to offer via trips, visits and residentials. 

  • Opportunities to build cultural capital are sought both within and outside of the school grounds. 

  • Children are aware of their future educational, career and lifestyle choices. 

  • We embed a sense of belonging and enhance children's knowledge of Cornwall by offering opportunities for exploration. 

  • Our staff have thorough and evolving subject and pedagogical knowledge.

  • We use what is happening in the world to inspire our learning, discussions and daily life in the school so that the children are well-equipped to be citizens of the world. 

  • We seek to strike a balance between knowledge, skills and experience so that our children are well-rounded, adaptable and resilient.

  • We enable children to develop a strong sense of self and help them to find their place in the world.

  • We endeavour to instill in our children a deep sense of well-being and enable them to have the emotional literacy to express themselves and thier feelings.
  • We seek opportunities for children to identify, discuss and learn from the diversity of human nature both within Cornwall and beyond. 

Implementation of the Gerrans Curriculum:

  • Long term plans progressively introduce new concepts, knowledge and ideas and these clearly identify opportunities to allow children to revisit learning so that knowledge, skills and understanding are embedded. 

  • Medium term plans further breakdown learning into sequences of learning with clearly defined learning objectives, subject-specific pedagogical content knowledge outlined, scaffolds defined and opportunities for assessment identified. 

  • Subject knowledge is essential to effective teaching therefore teachers work to develop a deep and fluent knowledge of the content they are teaching.  

  • Teachers have an excellent knowledge of common misconceptions and plan accordingly to address these. 

  • Lessons are clearly sequenced, succinct, and focused on learning outcomes. 

  • Questioning is a backbone of all lessons. Teachers use questioning and dialogue to elicit children’s understanding, get responses from all children and to identify where children are in their learning. Questions are planned in advance, are broad in their scope and probe deeper into children’s learning and understanding. 

  • Both modelling and scaffolding are used in lessons to support children to develop their understanding of new content and to activate prior learning. 

  • Children are given feedback both in the moment and retrospectively, this feedback is insightful and will enable the children to both secure and move forward in their learning. 

  • Lessons typically follow the ‘I do - we do - you do’ approach which effectively scaffolds children’s learning so that they may be successful. 

  • Opportunities to activate prior knowledge are sought as are opportunities to embed new knowledge. 

  • Assessment clearly identifies what children don’t yet know, what they have learnt and what they need to learn next, including what they need to revisit. 

Impact
Gerrans school frequently monitors the impact of the school's curriculum. This includes the monitoring of individual subjects by leaders, pupil voice activities, careful analysis of data and the celebration of positives and the reflective identification of areas for development. We seek the advice of external specialists and work to improve our practice by considering what is new in education and adapting new ideas to our setting. We do not confuse learning with coverage; we thoughtfully plan opportunities for both summative and formative assessment and use these to inform next steps in teaching. By carefully undertaking these activities, we are able to see the impact of our teaching on the children in the school.