Two Moors Primary School

At Two Moors Primary School, our aim is to provide a learning curriculum that ensures every pupil, regardless of need or background, acquires the knowledge and skills to successfully transition to the next stage of their education setting as well as to become a well-informed, globally aware young person who understands that learning is a lifelong process. We want to ensure our pupils grow and develop a love for learning, whilst developing their character and personal qualities through our whole school values. We ensure that our curriculum:

• Provides access for all

• Promotes a positive, lifelong love of learning

• Encourages a global awareness

• Challenges pupils to solve problems, show creativity and resourcefulness, and participate actively in our 21st century community

• Supports the development of vocabulary and communication

• Emphasises the development of the whole pupil – physically, intellectually, emotionally and ethically

We are incredibly proud of our curriculum and of how we teach it. Read on to discover more about the implementation of, and how we monitor and measure the impact of, our curriculum.

Teaching & Learning practices at Two Moors Primary School are constantly evolving to ensure that our curriculum is delivered in the best possible way for our children. We are incredibly proud of our wonderful staff and amazing children and families and how they are all on a journey of continual learning, facilitated by the curriculum at our school.

Through reading, research and staff CDP into working and long term memory and prior knowledge recall, we have embedded the practices of low-stakes quizzing (to aid recall), regular ‘flashbacks’ and ‘look-forwards’ (so the children can make links between their prior, current and future learning) and reflection times throughout the school day (so children can, again, recap key knowledge and skills they have learnt and commit this to their longer term memory).

Teaching methods will be varied across the school; we fully celebrate our teachers’ individuality and personalities just like we do with our children’s. However, our teaching and learning policy sets out some key points which we know and celebrate as best practices. So, for example, you may see knowledge being imparted through lecturing and whole class inputs, but also constructed through experiences e.g. outdoor learning and practical inquiry e.g. flipped learning on our laptops or iPads. Both teacher-centred and student-centred approaches are employed depending on what best suits the learning activity and the children’s needs.

All of the children, regardless of their level of need, will access learning that is challenging and appropriate to their needs. For some children, this may mean their work is more scaffolded and supported than others’ with sentence starters in English, for example, or word banks in geography, while for other children, the use of ICT is used to support their reading and understanding of subject-specific texts. We also know that some children will need more adult-led intervention in order to catch up with missed, or misconceived, learning. We are able to do this in small adult-led groups both in and out of main lesson time. Our teaching ensures that our most able pupils are challenged and stretched within their learning.

In light of recent research and practices on meaningful and effective marking and teacher workload, changes to feedback in writing have been developed and are fully embedded. Feedback will be verbal and ‘in the moment’ (wherever possible), and will focus on small next steps for the children’s learning. There may be short comments in books if it is meaningful and useful for the children and the teacher.

Our curriculum is planned collaboratively within our phase teams and with collaboration across other local primary and secondary schools and professionals. Each Key Stage has mapped their appropriate curriculum to the Primary National Curriculum. 

Assessment of our curriculum is planned at regular intervals to ensure a depth of understanding in all foundation subjects in addition to reading, writing and maths. Assessment will be in the form of teacher assessment, real time pupil conferencing and feedback, summative tests as well as more frequent, low-stakes quizzing and inquiry work throughout each unit which allow the children to put into practice the knowledge and skills that they have been taught.

Assessment is planned at regular points to ensure a depth of understanding in all foundation subjects in addition to reading, writing and maths. The sequence and design of the curriculum will allow for longer term learning and recall. Through thorough curriculum coverage review and pupils’ skill development, we will ensure the breadth and depth of knowledge is embedded for all pupils to develop knowledge and skills needed to be successful in life. Positive engagement in learning activities and seeing a vibrant global community within the school will show the depth of impact of our curriculum intent and effective implementation.