Our Curriculum Ethos @ CHIS

Here at Chalkwell Infant School we REACH for the stars. We want to best prepare our learners of today for tomorrow's world. In doing so we believe in engaging our children into learning as a priority. This means that we put the children's wellbeing to the fore so that our children are ready to learn. We want to interest and excite the children into wanting to learn and so we offer a stimulating and challenging curriculum which inspires them and motivates them. We believe in a curriculum model where pupils’ key skills and knowledge are developed across different subjects, themes and opportunities, and that through rich experiences we are able to inspire rich minds. We offer a topic based approach to the curriculum in order to give learning a real context and purpose. Our topics bring the skills, knowledge and understanding of the National Curriculum alive and use a range of teaching and learning approaches so the knowledge is embedded.

Our aim is to offer our pupils a broad and balanced curriculum which focuses on developing the basic skills necessary for learning, the opportunity to develop knowledge and skills across the wider foundation subjects, and a focus on our wellbeing and development. We believe that through these three strands we have a holistic approach to developing the whole child, preparing our pupils for a love of lifelong learning.

Our programme of topics provides us with exciting ‘hooks’ to motivate and entice our learners. Our aim is to give the children a variety of opportunities in order to bring their learning to life, broaden their experiences and to make their experience in school enjoyable and memorable.

Where it makes sense, our learning is linked across the foundation subjects and with English and maths too, but other subjects might get taught in isolation, e.g. RE and PE. Our coverage is carefully plotted across the programme of topics so that the National Curriculum is covered, but is not the extent of the children’s learning.

When possible, our learning extends outside of the school day. We offer a broad range of clubs before and after school and at lunchtimes in order to give the children taste of different experiences in languages, sports and the creative arts. We participate in a range of tournaments and competitions within our borough and signpost children with particular talents to wider clubs and providers.

Reaching for the Stars and our Curriculum - Here’s how our Values relate to our curriculum offer:

Respect

We learn to take responsibility for ourselves, and for each other

We build strong relationships and learn in a secure and safe learning environment

We seek to understand and accept similarities and differences

We value partnerships with families and the community and take every available opportunity to celebrate and share our learning together

We promote equality of opportunity, respect for ourselves, each other and our local and global community

Enjoy

We are positive, we smile and have fun

We inspire in order to motivate

We encourage, challenge and take risks

We sing, we laugh and we play

Achieve

We have high expectations of ourselves, and each other

We believe that we can, so we do

We foster persistence, determination, resilience and humour

We celebrate our efforts

We are lifelong learners

We develop our skills independently and collaboratively

We sometimes fail so we can learn from our mistakes

Care

We care about ourselves, and each other

We develop hope, empathy and compassion

We care about what happens, both in school and beyond

We build strong relationships

We foster a nurturing, secure and safe learning environment

Healthy

We are a ‘Healthy School’

We learn about being healthy both physically and mentally

We focus on the wellbeing of children and adults in the school community

We promote healthy lifestyles