We believe that children learn best when their learning experiences are evocative, therefore we deliver a challenging, in-depth creative curriculum. We endeavour to provide opportunities to apply their mathematical, computing and English skills, which enables our pupils to become confident, effective communicators. Our pupils are encouraged to develop curiosity and a hunger to find out more; our schools curriculum, underpinned by British Values, ensures that our pupils are fully involved, excited and stimulated by the learning opportunities provided. Thus, we strive towards our pupils leaving us as independent, confident, compassionate and curious individuals.

This works by delivering a knowledge rich curriculum  in each year group for each term throughout the year. The curriculum is planned so that as many learning experiences as possible are linked to this theme; this allows our pupils to see that their skills are all connected.  During the children's learning journey, we try to integrate as many real-life experiences as possible that are related to the area they are studying.

• Enable pupils to understand how and why people behave as they do now;

• Enable them to understand themselves;

• Give them the confidence and ability to try to improve themselves and their world;

• Help them to develop a sense of responsibility for the world in which later generations will live;

• Enable them to ask and answer significant questions;

• Enable them to think for themselves and to reach fair and rational conclusions about complex human situations;

• Inspire in them a lasting interest in, and enjoyment of, learning about the past.

We do this through:

• Teaching oracy skills, captivating children’s interest, stimulating children’s thinking and encouraging them to engage with others through spoken language, leading to deeper understanding.

• Providing the children with a systematic and explicit approach to learning vocabulary that is oral-based, providing them with opportunities for deliberate practise through language-rich experiences whilst learning tier 2 academic vocabulary.

• Placing a high emphasis on learning vocabulary across the subject areas and weave in opportunities for application. 

• Linking teaching closely to our ‘Talk for Writing’ units of work. This includes creating story maps, oral rehearsal of texts, drama, language games, sentence construction and grammar activities. Pupils also have the opportunity to attend after school clubs which have an emphasis on language in a range of contexts, including cookery, gardening and sports.

History is all about people. The study of people of different types from different times and different places is the most important aspect of our work. History fires pupils’ curiosity about the past in Britain and the wider world. Pupils consider how the past influences the present, what past societies were like, how these societies organised their politics, and what beliefs and cultures influenced people’s actions. As they do this, pupils develop a chronological framework for their knowledge of significant events and people. They see the diversity of human experience, and understand more about themselves as individuals and members of society. What they learn can influence their decisions about personal choices, attitudes and values.

Our History Curriculum will enable pupils to: 

• Develop a sense of time (chronology), recognising how time is measured and that some things change and some things stay the same;

• Investigate how and why events happen and how they may be linked;

• Consider what it was like to live in different periods and what motivated the people who lived then – and that we cannot think in the way they thought;

• Recognise that there are some things we can never know about the past and that history has to be constructed from the bits of the past that have survived;

• Understand that people interpret the past differently and use different ways to present their ideas;

• Make thoughtful use of a variety of sources to find out about the past;

• Communicate their ideas in a variety of ways and with clarity and independence.

Our Geography curriculum will enable pupils to:

Life skills

• Develop  the ability to make sense of information

• Observe and interpret the environment

• Develop and secure Map reading 

• Understand and interpret secondary data

• Communicate findings in drawings, charts and diagrams

• Record and analyse  data using ICT

• Discuss  issues and problems with others

• Develop critical and creative thinking

World knowledge

• Develop  an awareness and understanding of distant places and environments

• Recognise how people from all over the world are linked through travel and trade

• Build a framework of place knowledge

• Investigate major rivers, mountains and cities

• Develop an appreciation of other peoples and cultures

• Recognise the need for a just and equitable society

People and places

• Develop  an understanding of spatial relationships at a range of scales

• Undertake fieldwork, enquiries and active exploration of the locality

• Explore landscapes, settlements and human activity

• Become a global citizen with multicultural understanding

Our Music curriculum will enable pupils to:

• Make music and dance, and experiment with ways of changing them

• Sing a variety of songs throughout the year that cover a range of different cultures

• Read musical notation

• Learn about great composers

• Perform musical ensembles and sole performances

• Play a variety of instruments

• Take musical instruments home

• Have a deep knowledge of musical terms such as chord, melody, quaver, strumming

• Have opportunities to watch and listen to orchestral/choral performances.

• Conduct music 

• Participate in assemblies which all have a singing focus.

Our Computing  curriculum will enable pupils to:

• Use and express and develop their ideas through, information and communication technology

• Create simple algorithms and programmes

• Debug programming errors

• Create, store, manipulate and retrieve digital content using a mixture of word processing, paint packages, digital photography and video packages.

• Be aware of their responsibilities online  and know what to do if they have any concerns.

• Know how information is stored on computers and how it travels, connecting people across the world through the use of the World Wide Web.

• Explain their thinking behind their programmes 

• Explore how search engines work

• Consider how their online actions can impact on others

• Know when and how to report an online concern.

• Create computer games

• Use technology safely and respectfully,

• Use logical reasoning to predict the behaviour of simple programs

• Identify where to go for help and support when they have concerns about content or contact on the internet or other online technologies.

We teach PSHE as part of our curriculum, which stands for 'Personal, Social, Emotional and Economic Education.' It is underpinned by British Values and promotes pupils' spiritual, moral and cultural development. 

The new 'Relationships, Sex and Health Education' (2020) curriculum is now statutory. As a school, we have completed a consultation with our school community, and all the statutory coverage is now in place. An overview of the teaching content can be viewed here.

Our PSHE  curriculum will enable pupils to:

• Explore a range of themes, including well-being, friendship, understanding our feelings

• Discuss the changes in the world as we know it. We have a high focus on social, emotional and mental health as part of our Mental Health Strategy, as well as E-Safety to balance the demands of virtual learning.

• Engage in Fitness Lessons to promote physical well-being, as well as outdoor learning through our Forest School provision.

• Pupils set up class charters as part of their transition into a new class, using the UNICEF Rights of a Child as well as Safety Charters to ensure children know how to work safely in school.

We aim to provide children with a DT education that is relevant in our rapidly changing world and a curriculum that embodies our school intent: we intend to provide a wide range of inclusive opportunities, that ensure our children have a secure body of knowledge and effective critical thinking skills, which enable them to lead life with the highest of aspirations and contribute to life in modern Britain and the global community.   Through our design and technology curriculum we aspire for our pupils to be unusually brave and think critically.  We aim to provide opportunities for pupils to discover what is possible through designing and making innovative products. We strive to push the limits and ask children to use their research to design and make innovative, creative products and want our pupils to be problems solvers. Through our DT curriculum we ensure that pupils will have opportunities to work with a wide range of mediums: textiles, food, woodwork and mechanisms. We have a knowledge rich  scheme of work in line with the National Curriculum.

Our Design and Technology  curriculum will enable pupils to:

• Conduct research and look at similar models.

• Research and find out about designers, chefs, engineers

• Acquire skills of cutting, making, constructing, gluing and making

• Create detailed designs with annotations for products they will make

• Review designs and create final designs

• Use Computer Aided Design

• Evaluate their products

• Develop their knowledge of products and designers

• Consider the impact of products on the environment

• Explore audience, purpose and function

• Understand the importance of aesthetics when designing products

Through our science curriculum we offer a range of opportunities to explore and understand the world around us, gaining a secure knowledge of scientific concepts. Our curriculum is designed to engage all pupils and prepare them for future learning, encourage curiosity and questioning attitudes. In science we take pride in our pupils developing independence, confidence and resilience. We focus on building up extended specialist vocabulary, enabling pupils to articulate scientific concepts. We ensure pupils build an awareness of potential risks when investigating. We have designed a curriculum that asks pupils to be brave in their thinking, predicting, investigating and thus we nurture future scientists.

We do this through:

• Teaching scientific ways of thinking.

• Actively involving students in their own learning.

• Helping students to develop a conceptual framework as well as to develop problem solving skills.

• Promoting student discussion and group activities.

• Helping students experience science in varied, interesting and enjoyable ways

Science in our academy 

Science teaching in our academy is delivered through a 5 part mastery flow model:. Representation Fluency Stretch DeepenEnrich

The benefit of this is: 

• it allows an inclusive approach, where all children work at their own level 

• that teachers will work from carefully structured Schemes of Learning which inform them of prior and future learning

• that children will be able to embed their knowledge and develop critical thinking skills, as they work through each flow from representation to rich tasks.

During the teaching there are built-in opportunities for continual knowledge and vocabulary assessment, ensuring misconceptions are addressed immediately.

Experiential learning is also built into each unit, enabling staff to assess scientific skills.

At Percy Shurmer, we aim to create meaningful outdoor learning experiences for our children by working in partnership with Forest School Birmingham. Throughout this academic year, all children will have the opportunity to take part in high quality outdoor learning sessions which link to their topics. These sessions complement our curriculum and allow children to explore and enhance their learning.

Outdoor learning experiences take place on site at Percy Shurmer as well as our partner school Montgomery Primary Academy. We will also have use of the Forest School site at Ackers Adventure.