Curriculum

Creative Curriculum

At Bedlington Station Primary School we have created an experiential curriculum. Our curriculum links together different subjects and areas of learning. We use creative contexts to give children a ‘real-life’ understanding of how the things they are learning can be used in the wider world. We always endeavour to make learning purposeful. Below is an overview our creative curriculum. The national curriculum is followed across Key stages 1 and 2. Nursery and Reception follow the Early Years Foundation Stage framework. The National Curriculum we follow can be found here. While the curriculum sheets found below give an overview of each year group, the curriculum sheets sent home each half term include details and information specific to that half term.

BSPS Curriculum Intent Statement

At Bedlington Station Primary School, we believe that every child is unique and should be supported in reaching their full potential through high quality teaching and a unique curriculum that is tailored to the needs, interests and enjoyment of our pupils.Our curriculum encourages creativity, independence and resilience and develops a love of learning through innovative approaches that give a ‘real-life’ context to everything we do. It ensures our children are challenged and stimulated, while understanding how their learning fits into the wider world and provides a springboard for the evolution of future aspirations.

Embracing a nurturing ethos, celebrating diversity and inclusivity, and promoting ‘skills for life’, our curriculum carefully weaves through the national curriculum creating a vehicle for purposeful teaching and learning.

Key curriculum priorities:

Supporting Well-being

Our curriculum is designed to ensure children are taught about how to stay safe and be healthy. We support children in making choices that keep them safe online and in the real world, and foster a nurturing ethos in which children feel safe and are confident to talk if they do not. We allow children to be active and support choices that improve their physical and mental health and well-being. We support pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, not only through the curriculum but in everything we do.

Advancing Basic Skills

Our curriculum fosters the development of the basic skills of reading, writing, maths and communication.

• Children develop their language skills and vocabulary across all subjects and are encouraged to be adventurous with the language that they use and see it as a tool for effective communications.

• It supports children in becoming proficient and fluent readers so that they can access all areas of the curriculum. A high priority is given to early reading skills and we dedicate time and effort to support our children to be fluent readers.

• Children are encouraged to transfer their reading skills through interesting opportunities that support the development of imaginative and capable writers.

• A focus on the development of deep maths skills encourages children to think about, explain, test and understand maths concepts in ways that will help them to apply these in the real world.

Elevating Aspirations

We want our children to understand what the world has to offer and to work hard to reach their goals by striving for the very best and understanding the wide range of possibilities available for their future, including further education and the world of work. Our curriculum promotes ‘skills for life’ such as problem solving and enables children to develop knowledge, understand concepts and acquire skills, and be able to choose and apply these in relevant situations. There is also a strong focus on self-improvement through the development our ‘Core Attributes and Values’ of Kindness, Creativity, Bravery, Curiosity and Fairness.

Broadening Experiences

We ensure our curriculum provides opportunities for our children to experience situations that are wider than the national curriculum. We want them to be immersed in their education and do this by linking teaching through contexts that mirror the real word. The children experience education out of the classroom and use the outside areas of school, the local area and further afield. We provide ‘life experiences’ that pupils may otherwise not have the opportunity to take part in, including visits to museums, galleries, sporting events, places of interest and residential trips.

Embracing Diversity

An understanding of diversity and an open and accepting perspective are fundamental in playing an effective part of society. We want our children to celebrate diversity and inclusivity at all times. We strive for absolute acceptance of others and the school actively embraces a culture of inclusion. Children are supported to question and form opinions about the world and their place in it and are encouraged to be who they are, to celebrate our similarities and differences and to challenge discrimination where they see it. Fundamental British Values are celebrated and used as a cornerstone to learning within many areas of the curriculum and school life.

PSHE & SRE

At Bedlington Station Primary School we use ‘Jigsaw PSHE’. These parent guides explain more about PSHE and Sex and Relationships Education and what we cover in the Primary phase through ‘Jigsaw’.

Relationship Education

At Bedlington Station Primary School we recognise the importance of children all children seeing themselves and their families as valued in the same way as their friends. The Relationships Education statutory guidance introduced in September 2021 requires all schools to do this.

Primary school statutory guidance states that:

Relationships Education must be taught in all schools in England.
It is recommended that schools teach Sex Education too.
All schools should teach about different families (which can include LGBTQ+ parents), along with families headed by grandparents, single parents, adoptive parents, and foster parents/carers, among other family structures.

Overall the guidance states that:

Schools need to make sure that the needs of all pupils are appropriately met.
All pupils need to understand the importance of equality and respect.
Schools must ensure they comply with the relevant provisions of the Equality Act 2010, which name sexual orientation and gender reassignment as protected characteristics

The statutory guidance states that teaching Relationships Education in primary schools should be delivered in an ‘age-appropriate’ way.

We believe it’s vital for children to know that LGBTQ+ people and families exist and that they should be accepted like everybody else. Children should learn this throughout primary and secondary school. Not only will this help young children from LGBTQ+ families feel accepted, it will also prevent bullying in the long run.

As children and young people grow up, it’s crucial that they can be themselves without feeling that there is anything wrong about doing so. This means teaching should not only be ‘age-appropriate’ – it should also be timely. Research shows that anti-LGBT bullying is common throughout primary schools, so it’s essential that children are supported to develop inclusive attitudes from a young age.Every school must teach children about relationships and families. The guidance for primary schools says that this can include LGBTQ+ families. In practice, that means teaching children that it’s OK to have two mums, two dads or another family structure, such as being cared for by grandparents, single parents, or adoptive/foster parents.