Wider Curriculum Overview
At Moat Farm Junior School, we offer a broad and balanced curriculum. The curriculum is designed to be knowledge rich and learning is revisited regularly to ensure that the children remember more. Subject specific skills are built on throughout each year and progression in these skills are mapped across each year group, in every area of the curriculum. This enables the children to develop these skills throughout their time at Moat Farm.
As a school we believe that all pupils have an entitlement to achieve their maximum potential regardless of their circumstances. We provide an inclusive curriculum and all children participate in every subject regardless of special education needs or medical needs. We carefully plan learning journeys for all pupils in every subject, so support can be given, or independence granted at the appropriate times.
Enrichment is a fundamental part of our wider curriculum provision at Moat Farm Junior School. Our children will be given a variety of experiences both in and out of the classroom, to create memorable learning opportunities and to further support and develop their understanding. We understand that all children have an entitlement to explore the rich culture and history, nationally and also in our locality.
It is crucial that we provide a diverse curriculum, one that our children can see themselves represented in. During geography lessons, we explore how the cultural heritage of our school links to the wider world. In History, we investigate how civilisations from across the world have contributed to modern society and how multi-cultural Britain has developed throughout history. Art and music lessons allow our pupils to delve into the diversity of art across the world and in Britain, allowing our children to feel empowered to create their own art and music.
We aim to provide our children with the cultural capital, without exception, to become a successful citizen. Children need to be able to identify what is means to excel and become knowledgeable in a discipline i.e., ‘an expert.’ Our ambition is for children to understand what it means to think, read, write, and speak like an historian, a geographer, an artist, a scientist etc. This creates that vital link between their current education, further education and employment opportunities.
Our history curriculum is designed to ignite children’s curiosity about the past. We are determined to provide a broad, knowledge rich history education, which is accessible to all our children. Historical enquiry questions are used to allow our children to think like historians in discrete history lessons, where historical knowledge is taught alongside specific history skills. We recognise that children can find some of the abstract concepts taught in history difficult. To help our children understand, we link our building blocks of knowledge throughout the curriculum, which allow the children to explore trade, agriculture, religion and government in each history topic and build upon their knowledge.
At Moat Farm Junior School, we understand the power of well-taught Geography and how it can influence and inspire young learners and help shape who they become. Our aim is to inspire the children with a fascination about the world and its people. Teaching should allow the children to understand and respect the differences between a wide range of people and environments. The children will cover both human and physical Geography and the relationship between the two.
Our Friends in Uganda
Towards the end of 2022, through the ‘Geographical Association’, we took our first steps to making a link with a school called ‘Good Times’ Primary School in Kampala, Uganda. We started with the children in each school exchanging letters to introduce their respective schools. We have since exchanged videos and photos allowing children in both schools to discover what life is like for children in a country so different and so far away! We are looking forward to taking this further and developing a fantastic relationship between the two schools.
At Moat Farm Junior School, our Art and Design Curriculum is created to enable children’s individuality to be expressed through creativity. Art is taught using a child lead approach which allows them the opportunities to develop and extend skills. Art is taught by embedding the elements of Art- colour, line, shape, form, and technology. Each lesson, we plan to deliver progression by focusing on a particular set of skills or element of Art. This allows children to develop and progress their skills throughout each year.
We aim for our children to become digitally literate, responsible and safe users of technology. Our ambition is for children to understand and use information technology, accessing a wide variety of hardware and software to accomplish specific goals. Our computer science lessons prepare our children for further study and for careers involving technology, by developing creativity and resilience, along with problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
We teach our children to listen, to teach, to read and to write in French. Our ambition is to engage children and promote in them a love of languages; to inspire in children a desire to continue to learn languages in the future; to allow children the opportunity to communicate in the new language and enable them to use this language in later life.
We aim to provide a Design and Technology curriculum which is inspiring, rigorous, and practical. We want our children to use creativity and imagination, to design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values.
Our curriculum offers children a broad range of musical experiences. We teach the National Curriculum expectations for Music and integrate performing, listening, composing, and learning about significant pieces of Music throughout history.
Our curriculum aims to equip children with the knowledge and skills to answer challenging questions, explore diverse religions, and to confidently share their own. Through promoting respect and open-mindedness towards others of different faiths and beliefs, pupils are able to develop an understanding and appreciation for the diverse beliefs and cultural practices in our world.
Our curriculum aims to provide the children with the knowledge, skills and attributes to live and work in modern Britain. Our curriculum is tailored to meet the demands of our school community and we respond to the needs of our pupils when needed. This can take the form of celebrating or commemorating national and local events, highlighting particular issues that face our children and responding to incidents in school. We have a strong emphasis on emotional literacy, building resilience and nurturing physical and mental health.
At Moat Farm Junior School, PE is at the heart of our curriculum. PE has the power to promote the personal development for every child physically, emotionally, socially and cognitively. When piecing the PE curriculum together, being physically active, living a healthy lifestyle and creating a curriculum that is inclusive and inspiring for all was the goal.
