At Bedford Hall Methodist Primary School, we recognise our school context and have designed our exceptional curriculum with the intent that pupils build the secure foundations required to become successful and aspirational adults who seek opportunities, take responsibilities as moral citizens and gain life experiences that extend their horizons. We want children to leave school as ‘well rounded’ individuals.

The school vision ‘Learn, Love, Live: Without Limits’ is interwoven within our curriculum intent and design. The breadth of our curriculum is designed with three goals in mind:

• To give pupils rich and appropriate experiences to develop into confident and responsible citizens;
• To provide a rich ‘cultural capital’ to provide them with the skills and knowledge to prepare them for life within and beyond Leigh;
• To provide a coherent, structured and progressive curriculum that leads to sustained mastery for all and a greater depth of understanding for those who are capable.

We have developed three curriculum drivers that shape our curriculum, bring about the aims and values of our school, and to respond to the particular needs of our community:

Curriculum Aims

We aim to provide a coherent, structured, academic curriculum, which is knowledge rich and skills driven, that will lead to sustained mastery for all with unlimited aspiration. Our curriculum design is based on research evidence pertinent to our school context and takes account of the latest thinking. We offer an exciting curriculum which has meaning to our pupils and context.

Our curriculum sets out:

• A clear curriculum map of the breadth of topics to be covered for each year group. This ensures each teacher has clarity about what to cover. As well as providing the key knowledge within the subjects, it also develops pupils’ cultural capital.
• The key concepts that will be taught through each subject area. These are the key skills that are developed within subjects, which are then revisited within the teaching of a range of topics and a range of contexts. This enables children to make links within learning.
• Progression within the skills identified within each ‘milestone’. We follow a milestone curriculum where key concepts are learned through a Basic (Milestone 1), Advancing (Milestone 2) and Deep (Milestone 3) understanding.
• Criteria for depth of understanding. Each milestone spans over a two-year period so that key concepts are repeated regularly. This ensures key knowledge enters children’s long-term memory (research based evidence supports this).

Sustained Mastery

To provide sustained mastery, children are provided with deeper learning opportunities that promote enquiry, questioning and problem solving skills, building upon previously acquired concepts and skills. In order to develop understanding, pupils connect new knowledge with existing knowledge. Pupils also develop fluency and unconsciously apply their knowledge as skills.  Learning is assessed over time to ensure it is embedded within long-term memory.