Curriculum Intent
At Sandown, children are challenged to reach their potential through an inter-connected 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 in order to enable learners to make mistakes and thereby learn from them. We recognise the responsibility to provide learners with powerful knowledge in order to interrupt inequality rather than reproduce it (Mary Myatt). Alongside this powerful knowledge, our curriculum builds the 8 Essential Skills for life:
- Listening
- Speaking
- Problem Solving
- Teamwork
- Leadership
- Aiming High
- Staying Positive
- 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 because the Cultural Capital of our pupils can be enhanced through reading quality texts across the curriculum as well as providing 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, the curriculum remains a work in progress and is subject to constant development. This empowers subject leaders to enthuse the 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.