Curriculum

At Sandown, children are challenged to reach their potential through an interconnected and ambitious curriculum. This cohesive curriculum ensures synergy and is designed to meet the needs of all pupils. Our curriculum fosters an ethos of risk-taking and creativity. Innovative ideas are encouraged to enable learners to make mistakes and learn from them. We recognise our responsibility to provide learners with powerful knowledge to interrupt inequality rather than reproduce it (Mary Myatt). Alongside this powerful knowledge, our curriculum builds the 8 Essential Skills for life:

1. Listening

2. Speaking

3. Problem Solving

4. Teamwork

5. Leadership

6. Aiming High

7. Staying Positive

8. Creativity

Mary Myatt (2018) writes that ‘the brain does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life’. For this reason, reading is prioritised, as it enhances pupils’ Cultural Capital through exposure to high-quality texts across the curriculum, alongside additional provision such as rich and meaningful real-life experiences, e.g. trips and visitors.

Curriculum Design

The curriculum is designed to:

Fulfil the school vision
Be filled with rich, purposeful experiences
Raise awareness of significant current events and have an eye on the future, as well as the needs of future citizens
Go beyond the classroom to embrace our outdoor learning spaces
Involve real people with first-hand experiences
Strengthen partnerships

At Sandown, we continually develop our curriculum. This empowers subject leaders to enthuse the school community in their curriculum areas.

As a maintained school, we use the following documents:

The Early Years Foundation Stage EYFS Profile Handbook, as well as Development Matters in Reception and Birth to 5 matters in the Nursery
The National Curriculum in England for Key Stages One and Two
The East Sussex agreed syllabus for Religious Education (RE)

Learn more about each subject below. For additional information about a subject, please contact the school office and ask to speak to the subject leader.