Curriculum

The Curriculum Design Statement

What is our curriculum intent?

Our ‘Growing Together’ curriculum is designed to enable all children to master strong skills in reading, writing, and maths, apply them in everyday life, and build solid foundations for success in the wider world. It is accessible to all learners and follows a creative and thematic approach, mapped to the 2014 Primary National Curriculum to ensure comprehensive coverage of national expectations.

To maintain a strong focus on achieving our school vision, the curriculum is underpinned by our ‘Golden Threads’, which guide learning across five key areas:

• Contributing to the World – Developing essential workplace skills such as maths, English, and computing to support excellence in learning.
• Understanding the World – Exploring the world, its people, and its past through subjects like history, physical geography, and religious education.
• Sharing the World – Fostering compassionate and respectful citizenship through human geography, social and environmental education, and the teaching of British values and protected characteristics.
• Appreciating the World – Nurturing creativity and a sense of wonder through art, music, poetry, and spiritual development inspired by religious learning.
• Keeping Healthy – Promoting physical and mental wellbeing through education on healthy lifestyles and positive attitudes to self-care.

Our curriculum is deeply rooted in Christian values—generosity, compassion, courage, perseverance, respect, and friendship—and reinforced by our school rules: Be kind, try your best, and help your community. These principles guide our children to become responsible citizens, who challenge inequality and injustice and show concern for the world around them.

We aim to nurture ambitious individuals who thrive and achieve their aspirations. Our curriculum develops the whole child, placing our school motto—‘Valuing Everyone, Growing Together’—at its heart.

We use Cornerstones to shape our broad and balanced curriculum. This creative and thematic approach is delivered through learning projects, offering a rich menu of exciting and motivating activities that foster a love of learning and inspire children to succeed.

How will we implement our curriculum?

Our curriculum is carefully designed to balance national expectations with a rich and imaginative range of learning projects, enabling children to be both happy and successful in their learning journey. Through clear strategic planning, the curriculum remains adaptable to children’s needs, ensuring that every learner is supported and challenged appropriately.

Age-related expectations combine the acquisition of knowledge with the development of skills, creating a purposeful and exciting learning experience for every child. High expectations are embedded throughout, encouraging the use of transferable skills, a breadth of vocabulary, and strong cross-curricular links.

Our classroom environments are designed to stimulate and engage, promoting quality thinking and reasoning. Our marking policy supports reflective learning, giving children the opportunity to understand their progress and respond with clarity to their next steps.

We believe children learn best when they are encouraged to use their imagination and apply their learning in engaging contexts. Our curriculum provides a wide range of learning challenges throughout the academic year, requiring children to solve problems, think creatively, and express their understanding effectively across subjects.

A rigorous essential skills framework outlines the end-of-year expectations in all subjects. These skills are tied to specific activities and are age-related, allowing staff to track progress and identify individual learning needs with precision.

Supporting our golden threads, a unique feature of our curriculum is our Forest School, which powerfully reflects our school vision—both metaphorically and literally—as we grow sparks into flames.

Our Forest School curriculum is designed and delivered in partnership with Wild Woodcraft, an independent forest school provider. Through immersive outdoor experiences, children develop high levels of resilience, teamwork, problem-solving, and courage. Activities such as gutting and cooking fish, skinning and tanning deer hide, and mastering fire-lighting and outdoor cooking skills provide rich, hands-on learning opportunities.

Spiritual development is woven throughout, as children are taught to respect and wonder at the natural world. Our mature woodland, complete with a large pond, bat boxes, and bird boxes, offers a tranquil escape from the hustle and bustle of school life—feeling a million miles away once inside.

Weekly sessions in our large woodland base nurture vital learning skills including teamwork, listening, and creative thinking. Children engage in bushcraft, shelter building, and environmental exploration, fostering a deep sense of awe and responsibility for our precious environment.

To develop positive attitudes to health and wellbeing and encourage our children to lead healthier lifestyles, we use our Sports Premium Funding strategically and effectively. This funding enables us to enhance the quality and variety of sports offered across the school, ensuring that all pupils have access to engaging, inclusive, and high-quality physical education.

Through a broad range of sporting opportunities, we aim to inspire children to be active, confident, and resilient, while promoting the importance of physical activity as part of a balanced and healthy life.

As a church school, we follow the New Lincolnshire Agreed Syllabus (2025), which provides a rich and inclusive Religious Education curriculum. This syllabus supports pupils in developing religious literacy, enabling them to engage in balanced and informed conversations about religion and belief.

Through the study of a wide range of religions, belief systems, and worldviews, pupils are encouraged to explore and evaluate connections between these ideas and the wider world. This approach nurtures compassionate, respectful, and thoughtful citizens, who understand and appreciate diversity in belief and practice.

How will we monitor the impact of our curriculum?

We strive to ensure that all children’s attainment in both core and foundation subjects is in line with—or exceeds—their potential, based on their individual starting points. Our aim is that by the end of each academic year, the vast majority of pupils will have achieved age-related expectations, with some demonstrating greater depth of understanding.

Progress is carefully tracked throughout the year to ensure pupils are on course to meet the expectations of our curriculum. Teaching staff regularly reflect on the standards achieved against planned outcomes and adapt the curriculum accordingly to meet learners’ needs.

In addition to academic progress, we monitor behaviour and personal development across the school. We are committed to nurturing well-rounded individuals who care for others, contribute positively to the school community, and take responsibility for their actions—demonstrating our Christian values in everyday life.

Assessment data is shared with the whole school team and the governing body, providing a robust platform for monitoring, challenge, and evaluation of our impact.

Golden Threads: Embedding Vision and Values Across the Curriculum

To maintain a strong focus on achieving our school vision, our curriculum is underpinned by five Golden Threads. These threads provide a consistent framework for learning, helping children make meaningful connections across subjects and with the wider world. They are revisited throughout each child’s journey at All Saints, allowing them to build on prior knowledge and deepen their understanding over time.

• Contributing to the World – Developing essential workplace skills such as maths, English, and computing to support excellence in learning.
• Understanding the World – Exploring the world, its people, and its past through subjects like history, physical geography, and religious education.
• Sharing the World – Fostering compassionate and respectful citizenship through human geography, social and environmental education, and the teaching of British values and protected characteristics.
• Appreciating the World – Nurturing creativity and a sense of wonder through art, music, poetry, and spiritual development inspired by religious learning.
• Keeping Healthy – Promoting physical and mental wellbeing through education on healthy lifestyles and positive attitudes to self-care.

These Golden Threads are designed to link learning to real-world contexts, helping children make sense of the world around them. They support a curriculum that is purposeful, inclusive, and values-driven, ensuring that children develop both academically and personally.

Running alongside our Golden Threads are our Christian values—generosity, compassion, courage, perseverance, respect, and friendship—and our school rules: Be kind, try your best, and help your community. Together, they reinforce our school motto: ‘Valuing Everyone, Growing Together’, ensuring that children are nurtured holistically and prepared to thrive as responsible, thoughtful individuals.

English and Maths