Curriculum Overview

Curriculum Intent

At Fowey Primary School, our curriculum is designed to open doors for our learners to lives of choice and opportunity, in line with the Trust’s commitment to securing 100% exceptional educational experiences. We want every child who leaves us to have a strong sense of place, a secure body of knowledge and a lasting curiosity about the wider world. Our ambition is that pupils develop the confidence, resilience and pride needed to embrace future challenges and opportunities.

Our curriculum is rooted in the National Curriculum and is carefully structured to be ambitious for all learners. Core knowledge and vocabulary are deliberately mapped so that learning builds sequentially from secure foundations. Prior learning is systematically revisited through carefully planned curriculum design and embedded retrieval practice so that pupils are supported to know more and remember more over time, enabling them to apply their learning with increasing fluency and independence.

We have carefully mapped our wider personal development curriculum to ensure that, alongside securing the full breadth of the National Curriculum, we respond thoughtfully to our local context and address gaps in pupils’ life experiences that may arise from locality. Through this deliberate design, pupils develop the knowledge, cultural capital and confidence needed to see themselves as active citizens in the wider world.

We aim to provide all pupils with the knowledge, skills, vocabulary and understanding they need to achieve their full potential academically, socially and emotionally. The curriculum reflects our local context while ensuring pupils develop a broad understanding of the diverse world beyond Fowey. Through this, pupils are supported to become aspirational, well-informed and prepared for life in modern British society.

Our curriculum is inclusive by design. It removes barriers to learning and ensures that all pupils, including those with SEND and those who are disadvantaged, can access and succeed within the full breadth of the curriculum. We are committed to identifying and overcoming any additional barriers that learners may experience so that every pupil can fully participate and achieve. High expectations are central to our approach, and appropriate challenge enables every pupil to push their own boundaries and achieve well.

Across all subjects, our programmes of study are coherently planned to ensure progression in knowledge, vocabulary and disciplinary skills year on year. Through high-quality teaching, pupils develop:

secure and connected knowledge across the curriculum
a rich and ambitious vocabulary
curiosity and a sustained passion for learning
the learning behaviours and resilience needed for success
strong personal values that prepare them for life beyond primary school

Our curriculum is further strengthened through purposeful enrichment, including visits, visitors and experiences that broaden pupils’ cultural capital and deepen their understanding of the world.

Implementation

The curriculum at Fowey Primary School is the vehicle through which pupils grow as learners and as members of society. Subject leaders design and sequence learning in line with the National Curriculum, ensuring clear progression of knowledge and skills. This work is supported and quality assured by senior leaders.

Teachers use subject progression documents to plan well-sequenced learning for their classes. Teaching staff draw on the trust teaching and learning toolkit, the CELT Chronicles, to make informed pedagogical choices that secure effective curriculum delivery. In addition, teachers use the Adjustive Teaching Toolkit to adapt teaching responsively through quality-first teaching strategies so that pupils with additional needs can successfully access the same ambitious curriculum as their peers. Where learners require a more adapted curriculum, this is designed with inclusivity at its core in collaboration with the CELT SEND team, the local authority and other educational professionals who advise and support the school.

Teacher development is prioritised through the use of Steplab and a culture of regular instructional coaching. This ensures that staff continually refine their practice and consistently deliver high-quality, quality-first teaching across the school.

Ongoing professional development ensures staff have strong subject knowledge and understand the pedagogical approaches required to deliver the curriculum effectively. This is achieved through staff meetings, Trust-wide CPD and a well-developed enhanced CPD offer which colleagues can access via our CELT centre of excellence.

Curriculum overviews are shared with parents to support transparency and partnership during our annual parents sessions, welcoming them to their new class. This includes sharing of the wider curriculum offer and mapped experiences as well as curriculum overviews. Further details about the content of each unit of learning in all subjects is also available for parents via our website. This is sign-posted to parents during these sessions and subsequent communications. Our RSHE curriculum is shared with parents annually.

Teaching focusses on helping pupils secure key knowledge, practise and apply skills, and retain learning over time. Assessment is used formatively (in addition to summative assessment) to identify misconceptions and adapt teaching so that all pupils can succeed. Planned retrieval practice and deliberate curriculum sequencing further strengthen pupils’ ability to know and remember more.

Impact

Leaders at Fowey Primary School evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum through a wide range of evidence, including pupil outcomes, work scrutiny, lesson visits, pupil voice and discussion with staff. Monitoring ensures that pupils are successfully building knowledge over time and that the curriculum is being implemented as intended. This close analysis of curriculum intent and implementation enables reflective refinement to be made to further enhance the curriculum offer over time.

Pupils demonstrate secure knowledge, confidence as learners and positive attitudes to learning during pupil voice with school staff, trust colleagues and our Community Champions. They speak with enthusiasm about their learning and show resilience when faced with challenge. Our secondary colleagues have commented on the positive impact of our curriculum offer.

By the time they leave Fowey Primary School, pupils are knowledgeable, curious and well-prepared for the next stage of education and for life in modern Britain. They are thoughtful, caring and active citizens who contribute positively to their community and beyond.

For further details of our curriculum, contact the school on 01726 832542 or email the office on: foweysecretary@fow.celtrust.org.