Our children’s needs and backgrounds, and the school’s mission values underpin all areas of our curriculum. At Avondale our curriculum is closely designed around our school motto “Learning, Smiling and Remembering” and has been developed to support the needs of our children. Our curriculum is a rich, broad, balanced curriculum, which is ambitious, coherent and planned with progressive knowledge, skills and vocabulary. It meets the needs of all Avondale children from Reception to Year 6 and ensures our learners are ready for the next stage of education. Central to our curriculum is “The Avondale Adventure”. These values sum up the distinctive nature of Avondale School:

 

• Respect – Treat all people with respect and look after property and equipment

•  Resilience – If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again!

•  Learning – Allow everyone to learn without interruption

•  Do your best – Always set high standards in your work and behaviour

•  Make the Right Choice – Understand how your choices affect you and others

•  Kindness – Show kindness to others

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These values are embedded throughout all our teaching and learning to promote high expectations of behaviour and achievement. They reflect the needs of our children and a shared commitment to equip our children with the essential skills for lifelong learning. These values also link closely to our British Values were are also promoted throughout our curriculum, our classrooms, our ethos and the general interaction between all of the Avondale family.

 

The intent of our curriculum is to support pupils in becoming happy, confident and educated citizens, thus making a positive contribution to the community, and the wider society. We have carefully planned and structured our curriculum to ensure our children learn to be proud of themselves, Avondale School and the community they serve. This combined will help them get ready for life in a diverse, developmental and ever-changing world. The curriculum is a means by which we can provide our children with the cultural capital they require to achieve those ends. In studying the curriculum our pupils will acquire valuable social skills and positive attitudes to learning necessary for effective personal development.

 

Our school population is made up of children of differing needs, backgrounds and prior attainment. Regardless of these factors we are highly ambitious for every child. Those children with identified special educational needs or disabilities, with English as an additional language, with challenging social circumstances, etc are all expected to make good progress and to perform at age-related levels if at all possible. Those with high prior attainment are expected to broaden and deepen their understanding so that they can continue to excel.

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In order to do this, we

• ensure that reading and language development is at the heart of the curriculum.

•  provide knowledge in all subjects that builds sequentially through their time at Avondale

•  reflect the needs of our pupils and ensure our curriculum is specific to our local area and community

•  provide a safe, secure and caring environment where engaging learning experiences encourage creative, lively and enquiring minds

•  build children’s knowledge through rich, motivational and inspiring learning experiences that provide them with real life skills that enable them to move into the world with integrity and confidence

• recognise the achievements of everyone within the school community and foster a belief in their ability to succeed; we want the children to be proud of their achievements.

•  build up children’s confidence and motivation to learn through the use of a range of learning and teaching styles.

•  embed key skills in order to prepare children for real-life and everyday situations.

•  provide opportunities to apply knowledge and learning in practical ways.

• provide stimulating, fun and memorable experiences for all children which is extended into an enhanced extra-curricular school life

•  encourage children to become more educated citizens within the school community

•  develop life-long learners who are knowledgeable and aware of their own well –being, social, emotional and physical needs A curriculum that is language rich is must for our school if we are to open doors for the children’s futures.

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We, therefore, place a high focus on developing the children’s vocabulary and spoken skills and use quality texts to do this. Reading and language development is at the heart of our school and central to the children’s learning. We purposefully plan exposure to meaningful language across all subject areas that deepens and broadens learning.

 

This vocabulary-rich curriculum will equip our children to engage with the national curriculum in a more meaningful way that will secure improved outcomes for all pupils.

 

Cultural capital

Through our curriculum we aim to provide our children with the skills and knowledge they require to be educated citizens with an appreciation of human creativity and achievement throughout human history. With these insights our pupils will have the capacity to be happy, independent, confident individuals able to benefit from and contribute to their local communities and wider society. Thus our curriculum is also deigned to provide children with memorable experiences and many diverse opportunities from which children can learn and develop a range of transferable skills. Our school is proud of its local area and acknowledges its location in many ways. Our curriculum is enriched by linking as many learning opportunities to the local area as possible. It aims to raise pupils’ aspirations, generate a sense of personal pride in achievement and provide a purpose and relevance for learning.

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Reading

The effective teaching of reading is of paramount importance. Becoming efficient readers enables our children to achieve our other curricular aims much more easily. It is a skill for life. We give the highest priority to the improvement of children’s reading whether that involves phonics recovery programmes or the development of higher order reading skills. Every subject leader is required to find space for the development of reading in their subject’s scheme of work. We aim for our pupils to be reading fluently with comprehension so they can successfully access the whole National Curriculum. Physical health and mental well-being are valued and prioritised through our curriculum design. These are taught through a well-planned and structures programmes of personal development. We teach the Blackburn with Darwen RE syllabus and the Jigsaw scheme.