Curriculum Statement  

All children will experience a broad and balanced curriculum enabling them to grow and learn in an environment without prejudice or inequality. It will prepare them for adult life by:

• Enabling them to play an active role in their school and community.
• Offering culturally rich and diverse opportunities
• Enabling them to benefit from a range of positive relationships

The curriculum will:

• Promote children’s engagement in learning
• Equip children for their futures in a rapidly changing world, recognising the importance of technology, science, languages and communication for dialogue and understanding between different groups
• Value, celebrate and build on children’s religious and cultural heritage and develop a sense of identity, honouring the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
• Promote the fundamental shared values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs
• Help children develop a personal understanding of all faiths and none, and participate in the celebration of different religious events in understanding and accepting differences
• Develop children holistically: their intellectual, practical, aesthetic, spiritual, social and emotional capacities
• Ensure an understanding of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010 and how through diversity they can be celebrated
• Encourage children to accept responsibility for their behaviour, show initiative and understand how they can contribute positively to the lives of those living and working in the locality in which Coppice is situated and to society more widely
• To ensure that children understand that they can Make a Difference in the world and have an obligation to do so

At Coppice, all children will be given the opportunity to learn the benefits of physically and emotionally healthy lifestyles, by participating in high quality personal, social and health education including relationships and sex education. Opportunities will also be provided for children to explore their talents and abilities through:

• Developing an appreciation of the arts
• Taking part in a wide range of physical activities, sports and games
• Developing a sense of self in a non-judgemental, mutually supportive environment
• Experiencing music and its intrinsic value for enjoyment and self-expression through performing, singing and playing of instruments
• Experiencing social, moral, spiritual and cultural education that broadens children’s awareness and understanding of the world and their place within it – supported  by participation in the Rights Respecting Award
• Awareness of a broad range of career aspirations that inspires and motivates them to fulfil their potential

Curriculum overview

Coppice Curriculum Intent  

The broad and balanced curriculum provided at Coppice allows for the progressive development of knowledge & skills within each subject.  The knowledge and skills gained should be transferable and beneficial for the children in later life.  

The curriculum aims to instill a lifelong love of learning by piquing their curiosity, challenging them to question and seek answers, to think creatively & problem solve whilst also allowing them to take calculated risks.  

By giving the children a wide range of opportunities, both inside and outside of school, we allow them to identify and fulfil their potential.  These opportunities encourage them to become confident and independent learners with a developed sense of self-awareness.  It also aims to provide opportunities to develop an understanding of their own physical and mental well-being and an understanding of how to keep themselves safe. 

Ultimately our curriculum supports the children to become well-rounded individuals who have developed social skills as well as an understanding and acceptance of others. They recognise the diverse wider world in which they live and appreciate their place in it along with the responsibilities that brings.  

How this is done: 

We currently follow the National Curriculum to form the basis of our whole school curriculum. From that, we then plan a creative curriculum to deliver each aspect in a personalised and engaging way. This often means subjects are taught through a theme, where meaningful cross curricular links are made. Themes are varied to excite and inspire, drawing where possible from the children's interests. The Religious Education curriculum is taken from the Birmingham Agreed Syllabus. 

We believe that children learn best through a wide variety of experiences, so when planning, teachers look for ways to incorporate: practical hands-on activities, visitors, the outdoor environment including Forest School, visits, the local community, meaningful end products and a range of technology. 

The Early Years Foundation Stage Framework shapes the activities and experiences of our Reception classes.  It provides the early learning goals which the children work towards whilst focusing on the seven areas of learning and development. These include: the prime areas of communication and language, physical development, personal, social and emotional development, and the specific areas of literacy, mathematics, understanding the world and expressive arts and design.  

At Coppice we follow the phonics programme Little Wandle Letters and Sounds. Children engage in daily phonics sessions where they are taught letter sounds (phonemes), and their written representation (graphemes), tricky words and high frequency words. The children’s reading skills are further developed through our reading scheme (Collins Big Cat Letters and Sounds) which provides fully decodable reading books aligned to our phonics scheme.   

The children throughout the school have access to a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction books, in the school and class libraries. They are used to help foster independent choice as well as encourage the children to value and enjoy books and become life-long readers with a desire to read for pleasure.  A daily shared reading experience is also provided through a whole class text.  The breadth of texts on offer aims to broaden their minds and experiences to allow them to empathise with the world in which they live and support the development of their cultural capital. 

Through a comprehensive PSHE and RHE curriculum, which is supported by our support scheme Jigsaw, we address the needs of pupils, taking into consideration local and national issues, ensuring that pupils develop the skills they need to cope in a range of challenging situations.  

Teachers skillfully develop pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development across the curriculum supported by our focus on children’s rights through the UNICEF Rights Respecting Award. 

Curriculum development

Curriculum content, organisation and documentation is continually under review in order to fulfil legislative requirements, the revised National Curriculum and the changing needs of the school.  The coverage of the National Curriculum is organised within continuous, blocked and linked units of work. We have developed a framework plan for each year group. We use KAPOW curriculum for support in our foundation subjects, as well as the PE Hub, Jigsaw PSHE and our own bespoke music and French curriculums, planned alongside our specialist teachers. This has created a rich tapestry of knoweldge for our children to elarn over the course of their school career.

Curriculum Organisation 

Oracy, Literacy, Numeracy and Computing are skills that run through the whole of the curriculum. In addition a considerable part of each week is given to teaching Mathematics and English as individual subjects and aspects of these are planned in a continuous sequence of lessons or activities. Subjects are blocked into half-termly learning opportunities. Personal and Social Education is taught in specific sessions and through R.E.

Access and Entitlement 

We believe that every learner is entitled to a full range of activities that gives access to the curriculum. We take account of unequal starting points and provide learning experiences that are planned to ensure breadth and depth, enabling progression through the school of every individual irrespective of gender, ethnic background, age or disability. We aim to empower learners through the curriculum to become confident in their abilities that will prepare them for a purposeful adult and working life.

For more information on the curriculum, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Phonics

We use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds for phonics/reading.

For more information on our phonics system please click on the link below