Intent

At Pennine Way the intent for our curriculum is for it to reflect our local area and community, whilst enabling pupils to understand how Carlisle and Cumbria fit into the national and international picture. All subjects at Pennine Way are given equal importance and are all underpinned by skills as well as knowledge to improve our pupils‘ long term memory. These skills are built upon throughout a pupil’s pathway through our school in order for them to make meaningful connections between their life experiences and the experiences that they are learning about. At the end of their journey at Pennine Way, pupils will be able to utilise the skills and knowledge gained in a variety of contexts.
 

Implementation

Every lesson at Pennine Way is linked to how it relates to the pupils, their lives and their local area, bringing the content into a context that can be understood and built upon by making connections. Educational visits and visitors enhance learning opportunities within the classroom by ensuring that our pupils have a wide range of opportunities and insight into the wider world as they journey through our school. Pupil passports are used to ensure that all children have additional life experiences and skills, not necessarily covered through National Curriculum objectives but that are just as important in supporting growth in aspirations. Curriculum maps which outline objectives and skills for each year group provide a long term overview of progression as well as opportunities for these to be revisited in different year groups to ensure maximum opportunity for changes to be made in long term memory. Each subject is taught discreetly and has its own book or method of recording. Children’s books travel through the school with them to support development in long term memory and offer opportunities to draw on previous knowledge and skills. Knowledge organisers are used in every subject at the start of each study. These could include key vocabulary, facts, diagrams and definitions that will support their pathway through the study. Knowledge notes will also be used for some pieces of work for specific vocabulary, maps, diagrams related to that particular objective. To support development of long term memory, each lesson includes links are revisits to previous learning- this could be a previous lesson, half term or year.

Impact

Impact of our curriculum will be shown through meaningful learning conversations with children and their books about what they have learnt in a particular study. Regular opportunities for retrieval practice will be given to gain insight into what children have been able to recall independently, weeks or months after they last discussed it in class. If the pupils can talk fluently about their study, and their confidence in this is improving, the teacher should be confident in the impact of their teaching and the curriculum. Skills will be assessed throughout the school year. All of this information will be drawn upon in order for a judgement to be made at the end of the year on children’s understanding of the skills and knowledge outlined for that subject and year group. This will support the pupil’s transitions as they move through the pathway to personal success and the next step of the journey in their education.