We are developing a bespoke curriculum which reflects the local community and context. To offer every child an exciting, innovative education.  We will teach the children about the local area, and the need to care for their community and the wider world. We will build in an enrichment programme and wide-ranging trips and visits, so that the children are well aware of the world beyond their immediate environment.  We will teach them about diversity, sustainability, innovation, and life skills so that we lay the foundations for our children to be socially responsible and economically independent later in life.

The curriculum  delivers the National Curriculum in an exciting and purposeful way — cross-curricular links are exploited to make learning interesting and meaningful. When necessary subjects are taught discretely to ensure the best learning possible. High expectations of what children can achieve throughout their educational journey to ensure that Orwell MAT children leave us with strong foundations for a lifetime of learning. The curriculum is supported by a wide range of trips, visits and visitors, and experiential learning experiences.

Grace Cook Primary School's curriculum is  tailored to the children in the school, reflecting the local community, and aligned to our Trust values. We  work closely with parents and the wider community to ensure a rich, broad, and balanced curriculum and identify ways to best deliver it to our Grace Cook Primary children.

Oracy is a key part of the curriculum across our Trust Schools and is a  thread running through the Grace Cook curriculum. We recognise that Oracy is an integral part of children’s learning and that through talk, we are able to; develop children’s thinking and understanding, improve their discussion skills, and broaden their range of vocabulary. Oracy is not just about children learning to talk, it is about learning through talk. Our main objective is to provide children with a solid foundation of communication skills to equip them for their school life and the wider world. We aim to deepen children’s knowledge and understanding of all subject areas through talk by setting regular opportunities for group discussions and class debates; this will enable them to share their ideas and formulate their own opinions.

Key Stage 1

Classes will have a structured timetable for the first part of each day, with a focus on phonics (taught through Read, Write Inc), the development of reading, writing, and Oracy skills, and maths, with the remainder of the day being dedicated to other curriculum subjects for example science, geography, history, art or PE.  At the heart of the curriculum offer is our fundamental belief that children must leave Key Stage 1 with at least age-appropriate core skills in Reading, Writing, Maths and Science, underpinned by the ability to communicate effectively and the development of exceptional learning behaviours.

Key Stage 2

The curriculum intent and drivers continue throughout KS2, and there is an increased focus on subject specific knowledge and skills. The curriculum will be delivered through a topic based approach, and as far as possible the texts studied as part of the development of English skills will also have a direct link to the topic, so that English skills are practised in a meaningful context.

 Staff in all of our Orwell MAT family of schools are passionate about helping our children develop goals and aspirations. Trying new things often requires courage and forces us to grow and develop. Entire careers and life paths are carved out by us dipping our toes into small ponds of new experience and discovering a love for something we had no idea would capture our imaginations and passion. At Orwell MAT we encourage and support our children to try new things, and our curriculum offer extends beyond timetabled lessons and includes a huge variety of visits, experiences, clubs, and activities. Providing opportunities for children to shine is a particular passion and strength of Orwell MAT schools. Children across our schools have the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument, and we provide everyone with an instrument of their own, so they can practise at home. To ensure pupils have the opportunity to learn life-long skills wherever their interests may lie we pride ourselves on giving an opportunity for EVERY child in an Orwell MAT school to participate in an extracurricular club and across the schools there are a huge variety of after school and lunchtime clubs, ranging from debating to ukuleles, and everything in between.  Provision at Grave Cook Primary will be developed in the same way as it is across all of our schools.

At Grace Cook, we truly believe in ensuring our children grow as individuals across all areas of the Curriculum.

As a school we commit to our children becoming resilient, ambitious and optimistic learners as they develop their knowledge and skills to become enthusiastic learners of the future.

Our embedded Curriculum is broad and rich curriculum is underpinned by the principles of spaced retrieval practice to support the deep and embedded learning of knowledge, skills and vocabulary.  Following the strong foundations within our Nursery and EYFS, we recognise the importance of inspiring learning to ignite the curiosity to learn, but also contextualises this to enable all pupils to develop as experts. We believe that by providing first hand experiences children revisit prior knowledge but more importantly,  build upon this and their understanding across a wide range of subject. 

Our Curriculum is built upon the foundations which include:

Knowledge - Acquiring, retaining and applying key information about subjects within and across our curriculum and linking this with our own understanding and experiences.

Vocabulary- The extension of vocabulary to enhance learning across the curriculum through explicit teaching of tier 1,2,3 words that can be used in context to deepen our understanding and ability to articulate our learning with confidence.

Understanding of the wider world - It is our intention that children build up their understanding of the world around them, from the past as well as the present. As part of our Curriculum the intention is to put our learning into a context but also to recognise a global awareness.

Positive Relationships are integral to every avenue of learning at Grace Cook. The culture of the school recognises that this is beyond the role of the class teacher but all adults within the building. It is the expectation that adults model positivity at all times to ensure that children remain active, passionate learner whom thrive amongst their peers.

Community/ opportunity beyond the National Curriculum - Alongside our Curriculum we are proud of our opportunities that are integrated into our long term Curriculum. We provide all learners with a balance of knowledge and cultural capital that they need to succeed in life. It is our intention that these opportunities will enhance their learning throughout their time in school.

Aspirations - Developing a culture of self-belief and motivation to achieve and be the best we can be.  Challenging each other to hold higher expectations of ourselves with a determination to reach their potential in all areas of their learning.

CURRICULUM INTENT

At Grace Cook every child is recognised as a unique individual. We celebrate and welcome differences within our school community and ensure that children are challenged by the growth of knowledge and understanding that they deepen each year.

We expect every pupil will learn regardless of background and the school’s vision stems from its commitment to ‘Growing as Individuals’.

It is our aim the children leave Grace Cook with a sense of belonging that gives them the confidence to crate their own pathway for the future. Children at Grace Cook learn to become resilient, ambitious and optimistic learners as they develop their knowledge and skills across the Curriculum.

At Grace Cook we recognise the importance of our ‘hidden curriculum’.  This consists of our whole school commitment to knowing every child as an individual and celebrating the relationships that we establish throughout their in school. Within our school, we ensure that children

• Are greeted daily on entry to school
• Identify how they feel each day
• Build relationships with adults throughout the school
• Feel that staff take time to get to them as individuals
• Acknowledge one another and adults each day
• Take pride in all that they do
• Feel part of a community where they can flourish
• Recognise the importance of positive behaviours