Our Crown Curriculum

Our Crown Curriculum has been designed by Queen’s Park Primary School to provide a bespoke, unique and exciting learning experiences which, through appropriate challenge and ‘knowledge-rich’ approach, aims for our pupils to develop into resilient learners with high aspirations as we provide them with a range of opportunities to inspire them in readiness for the future. Within this broad and balanced approach, we place an important emphasis on promoting wellbeing and health, with reading as the ‘beating heart’ of everything that we do.

Our ‘knowledge-engaged’ approach to subject disciplines, provides opportunities to build upon both knowledge and skills and ensuring that disciplinary and substantive knowledge complement each other harmoniously. Subjects are discretely taught and are blocked and focused upon over periods of time to ensure adequate time is dedicated to high quality teaching and learning in these subjects. The EYFS Statutory Framework and National Curriculum were used as a basis and enhanced by carefully selected pedagogical research. We have focussed upon progressively developing pupils’ knowledge, skills and key vocabulary in each subject area, with a robust system for retrieval practice embedded within all subjects to ensure learning ‘sticks’ and stays in the long-term memory. Our Crown Curriculum is ‘three-dimensional’ with horizontal and vertical links across year groups and subjects.

All subjects are centrally driven by our five Crown Principles, which are instilled in everything that we do. Our Principles are underpinned by our Christian Values which promote our Christian distinctiveness.

Our Christian values (Love, Forgiveness, Trust, Respect Honesty, Hope) are woven throughout all subject disciplines. Each year group then has a focus value, that they explore in depth throughout the year.

 “For with God, everything is possible”

Through our continued service to our community and rooted in our Christian Values, the opportunities we provide inspire our children and adults at our school to learn, to grow and to flourish. We are committed to developing our children into confident individuals who make a positive difference through developing a respect for themselves, and the world around them. For with God, everything is possible. (Matthew 19:26)

 

The purpose of our Crown Curriculum is to ensure that our children are successful in life and learning, no matter what their starting points and barriers to learning may be. Just as the Crown symbolises reward from a Christian perspective, the Crown Curriculum is designed to show our children that our ambitious curriculum will offer them rewards for the future in terms of their opportunities and aspirations. As a school, our curriculum sets high expectations for each and every child, meaning that we are relentless in our commitment to overcoming barriers faced by our pupils and to developing children who are self-motivated in their pursuit of learning. Where required, our curriculum is scaffolded to ensure that all learners have access to the broad and balanced curriculum they are entitled to.

Challenge

Through the ‘challenge’ curriculum driver, we promote the following learning behaviours: We encourage our children at Queen’s Park to be risk-takers, to reason and solve problems, to comprehend and apply, to analyse and evaluate. We want all our pupils to relish challenges, embrace their mistakes as part of the learning process, value the importance of effort, have the perseverance to complete challenging tasks, respond carefully to feedback and take inspiration from others. This will help them to achieve, not only with us, but also in their future lives as adults.

Resilience

Through the ‘resilience’ curriculum driver, we promote optimism and determination as a learning behaviour. At Queen’s Park, we know that the pupils who develop the skills of resilience and perseverance will make good progress and be successful. Consequently, instilling all our pupils with a resilient attitude to learning has become a key priority for Queen’s Park

 Opportunities

Through ‘opportunities’, we raise aspirations to broaden our children’s horizons – opening their eyes to the myriad careers they might pursue. We provide tangible role models to raise our pupils’ aspirations to inspire them to work even harder to be the best that they can be. We want our pupils to have a clear understanding of the link between achieving well and having goals for the future.

Wellbeing

At Queen’s Park, we understand that happiness is linked to personal growth, health and development. We ensure our children are happy, healthy individuals. With ‘wellbeing’ as a curriculum driver, we give children the confidence to thrive in a diverse, global society and be respectful citizens with British and Christian Values at the core.

kNowledge

Through the ‘kNowledge’ curriculum driver, we encourage our children to be resourceful learners. It is uniquely challenging and coherent to our children. The knowledge imparted is crafted by our subject leaders to ensure that all pupils achieve secure subjective and disciplinary knowledge in all subjects. All our teachers teach with the aim to ensure pupils have sufficient knowledge to progress through primary school and beyond.

Vocabulary is V.I.T.A.L

Valued

We value vocabulary in every subject and in everything we do.

Identified

Vocabulary across subjects is identified by Subject Leaders and is explicitly planned for. Vocabulary is identified in each text within lessons

Taught

Vocabulary is explicitly taught in every lesson: exploiting grammar opportunities, word classes, context, definitions, synonyms and antonyms.

Applied

Once vocabulary is taught, it is applied. Children apply their vocabulary in their speaking and listening, writing and assessment outcomes.

Learned

Vocabulary is revisited and relearned. Vocabulary sticks in the children’s long term memory.

 

                                                                                    

A snapshot of how our CROWN principles drive our English curriculum:

Challenge

• Writing a range of genres considering audience and purpose
• Every child is a reader – despite their barriers or background

Resilience

• High expectations in all areas of English
• Next step marking and feedback approach

Opportunities

• Author, poet and illustrator visits
• Themed days and trips
• Ample opportunities to become articulate speakers, readers and writers
• ‘Reading opens doors’ – our English book spine offers a range of opportunities through the power of reading

Wellbeing

• English curriculum content – quality texts pertaining wellbeing
• Parent partnership – encourages 1:1 reading at home through training videos
• Creating a Love of reading including daily story time from EYFS – Y6
• SMSC, British and Christian Values woven throughout each quality text

kNowledge

• English texts are linked to the wider curriculum
• Developing children’s schema across subjects
• Clear end points in English from NC and EYFS framework

 

A snapshot of how our CROWN principles drive our Maths curriculum:

Challenge

• Fluency, Problem Solving and Reasoning embedded in our curriculum
• Mastery Curriculum
• Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract approach embedded

Resilience

• Every lesson has a ‘focus on feedback’ section. Children are expected to access this in daily lessons and fix any misconceptions or challenge themselves further.
• Small steps planned helps to build confidence and resilience
• High expectations in all areas of Maths

Opportunities

• We provide all children with mathematical experiences not just in maths lessons but in other lessons and events happening in school.
• Link their learning in Maths to the possible careers they could have in the future.

Wellbeing

• All our children are confident and happy mathematicians
• Work is adapted to meet the needs of all learners allowing children to feel confident, building self-esteem.

kNowledge

• Knowledge is built on the key component parts of the Maths Curriculum
• Knowledge is progressive, sequential and part of a schemata

A snapshot of how our CROWN principles drive our Science curriculum:

Challenge

• Having a secure understanding of subject disciplines: Biology, Chemistry & Physics
• Planning, recording and analysing data

Resilience

• The Working Scientifically Cycle
• Stages of scientific investigations

Opportunities

• Study of key scientists / emphasis on women in STEM
• Visitors with careers in Science to raise aspirations
• Science Week & Science Fairs

Wellbeing

• Healthy diet and healthy living
• The importance of exercise
• Lifecycles and reproduction
• Promote personal development through awe and wonder and an appreciation of the natural world

kNowledge

• Disciplinary literacy – reading like a scientist
• Key knowledge revisited from Science Road Maps
• Schema within and across STEM subjects

A snapshot of how our CROWN principles drive our RE curriculum:

Challenge

• Religious education provokes challenging questions about the ultimate meaning and purpose of life, beliefs about God, the self and the nature of reality, issues of right and wrong, and what it means to be human

Resilience

• Our children learn about significant people from different faiths that have demonstrated resilience.

Opportunities

• Study of key people from the bible and other faiths
• Visitors from our Churches and other faith communities
• Visits to our Churches and other faith communities

Wellbeing

• RE a contributes to pupils’ personal development and well-being and to community cohesion by promoting mutual respect and tolerance in a diverse society.

kNowledge

• Disciplinary literacy – reading like a theologian
• Our RE Curriculum develops pupils’ knowledge and understanding of Christianity, of other principal religions, other religious traditions and worldviews.

 

 

A snapshot of how our CROWN principles drive our History curriculum:

Challenge

• To have a secure understanding of history as a subject discipline.
• To ‘think like a historian’ by interrogating sources and artefacts
• Understand historical concepts: continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance

Resilience

• A selection of carefully chosen historical figures to promote resilience within the history curriculum including local significant people
• Make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions

Opportunities

• Enrichment days: experiences, trips and visitors.
• Local history study – aspiring to be like the great people of St Helens

Wellbeing

• Empathising with people from the past
• Having a profound appreciation for what people in the past have done and how they have impacted modern day society

kNowledge

• To have a secure knowledge of the history strands including chronology, historical enquiry and knowledge and interpretation
• Disciplinary literacy – reading like a Historian!

                    A snapshot of how our CROWN principles drive our Geography curriculum:

Challenge

• Having a secure understanding of Geography disciplines and the 4 strands of geography: locational knowledge, place knowledge, environmental, human and physical and map skills and fieldwork.

Resilience

• Collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data
• Interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs etc.

Opportunities

• “Geography is learned through the soles of our feet” Field work is embedded in every year group
• Speaking to friends around the globe

Wellbeing

• Appreciating the big concepts of environmental impact, sustainable development, cultural awareness and cultural diversity
• Appreciation of the world around them and feeling a sense of place
• Feeling a sense of connectedness to their friends around the world
• Global citizenship

kNowledge

• Disciplinary literacy – reading like a Geographer!
• Map skills are taught to automaticity
• Having both disciplinary and substantive knowledge to be geographers
• ‘Knowledge Maps’ in every classroom to showcase that geography is everywhere

 

                     

A snapshot of how our CROWN principles drive our Art curriculum:

Challenge

• Our Art curriculum challenges and inspires pupils to create their own work of art.
• We challenge our children to think critically, observe and develop a secure understanding of art and design through our structure Inspire, Explore, Create (skill), Evaluate.

Resilience

• We encourage the children to refine their skills through work in sketch books.

Opportunities

• Our children learn about the work of a great artists, craft makers, architects and designers.
• There are regular opportunities to celebrate and display their art work through exhibitions, displays and competitions

Wellbeing

• Our children know how art and design both reflect and shape our history, and contribute to the culture, creativity and wealth of our nation.
• Art lessons create a sense of calm and mindfulness when creating art work.

kNowledge

• Equip our children with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create their own works of art, craft and develop their knowledge further on how different artists, designer use these skills to create works of art.

 

A snapshot of how our CROWN principles drive our Design & Technology curriculum:

Challenge

• To have a secure understanding of Design & Technology as a subject discipline.
• To follow the design, make, evaluate process towards a final outcome/product

Resilience

• Using creativity and imagination, design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values.

Opportunities

• Enrichment days: experiences and visitors.
• Real life design tasks and scenarios
• Planning linked to careers in design

Wellbeing

• Cooking and nutrition – understanding how to be cook healthily and how to be safe when cooking
• Sense of accomplishment – seeing the process through: design, make, evaluate

kNowledge

• Build and apply a repertoire of knowledge, understanding and skills in order to design and make high-quality prototypes and products for a wide range of users
• Schema of knowledge – links with other curriculum subjects STEM

A snapshot of how our CROWN principles drive our Computing curriculum:

Challenge

• The core of our Computing curriculum is computer science. Children are challenged in learning information and computation; how digital systems work through programming.

Resilience

• Analyse problems in computational terms, writing computer programs to solve problems
• Approach to teaching and learning with open ended tasks – i.e. debugging, decomposing and tinkering in programming

Opportunities

• Equip children for the future workplace and as active participants in a digital world. Teach them the fundamental skills for jobs which are yet to be invented!
• Digital Leaders
• Visitors during enhancement weeks so children are aware of the many opportunities for future careers in computing.

Wellbeing

• E-Safety
• Technological citizens – giving them the skills to live in an ever-changing technological world

kNowledge

• Strong STEM links to enhance schema
• Core knowledge for 3 strands of Computing

A snapshot of how our CROWN principles drive our MFL curriculum:

Challenge

• Our language curriculum challenges our children to speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity.
• It challenges them communicate through discussion and asking questions, and continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation.
• Our language curriculum challenges our children to write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learned.

Resilience

• Children are equipped with skills to review, revise and practise the new skills and learn how to communicate in a different language.

Opportunities

• Learning languages at Queen’s Park provides our children with opportunities to communicate in a different way.
• We believe that learning a different language opens up the world to our children and equips them with ability to study or work in other countries
• We provide opportunities for our children to learn French, Mandarin and German.

Wellbeing

• Our high-quality languages education fosters our pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world.
• Through our work on Global Citizenship, our children are exposed to learning about other languages and cultures

kNowledge

• Our language build component knowledge of how other language are forms such as grammatical structures and patterns
• Knowledge of other countries and cultures are taught in our language curriculum

 

A snapshot of how our CROWN principles drive our PE curriculum:

Challenge

• Our high-quality PE lessons challenges our children to excel and succeed in competitive sports and other physically demanding activities.

Resilience

• Our curriculum enables our children to redefine success and begin to understand that defeat is a setback we experience but can learn from.
• We work with our chidren to help them explain or demonstrate helpful ways to manage emotional responses to difficulties, challenges or setbacks.

Opportunities

• We have a full and varied sporting calendar that provides opportunities for our children to compete in sport and other activities
• Our children are given opportunities to lead in PE, eg Sports Leaders

Wellbeing

• Developing o healthy body and healthy mind is at the heart of our PE Curriculum
• Our PE curriculum supports the building character and help to embed values such as fairness and respect.

kNowledge

• Our PE curriculum enables our children to deepen their knowledge from other subjects such as science, maths, geography and computing.
• Our children are taught the rules that govern the sports on our curriculum and are taught how to officiate their own games

A snapshot of how our CROWN principles drive our Music curriculum:

Challenge

• Children are challenged to develop a critical engagement with music to listen and appraise music from different genres, eras and a range of composers
• Children are challenged to apply vocabulary to analyse music

Resilience

• To improvise and compose music independently
• Resilience in performance

Opportunities

• Performances throughout their time at school
• Wider curriculum opportunities e.g. orchestra and Pop Shop
• Professional musicians deliver music sessions
• Enhancement weeks to inspire future careers in music

Wellbeing

• Develop confidence
• Sense of togetherness – performing as a group
• Curriculum opportunities i.e. friendship song

kNowledge

• understand and explore the interrelated dimensions of music from different genres, eras and a range of composers and apply this knowledge to their own composition.

A snapshot of how our CROWN principles drive our PSHE curriculum:

Challenge

• Children are taught the statutory guidance of drug education, financial education, sex and relationship education and the importance of physical activity and diet for a healthy lifestyle.
• Children are challenged to explore issues that are affecting them personally.

Resilience

• Difficult discussion and topics develop resilience
• Understanding emotions and strength of character to have the confidence to make decisions in life.

Opportunities

• A breadth of experiences: crucial crew, Junior Road Safety, Wellbeing Ambassadors, roles and responsibilities in school, debt aware, money matters, drugs and alcohol team, talking teeth etc.

Wellbeing

• Developing our children holistically is a key priority for out school PSHE sessions contribute significantly to this.

kNowledge

• PSHE is embedded in every subject therefore knowledge always built uponequip pupils with a sound understanding of risk and with the knowledge and skills necessary to make safe and informed 

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