Background information  

Pupils at Riverwalk join our school with a significant variance of life experiences. Some pupils have limited general knowledge (cultural capital), while others are exposed to a wider life experience by their parents/guardians and typically, this is dictated by their immediate locality. There is an active local community that provides a wealth of local activities that are well attended by the families that live here and there is an element of self-sufficiency with lots of activities for pupils in the immediate locality. Typically, parental engagement is high with parents supporting events. 

Intent  

To meet the needs of our community, our relevant knowledge and skills-based curriculum has been designed to do the following:   

• Provide a broad breadth of content. Areas of Learning have been chosen using the National Curriculum and Consortium Trust Drivers alongside further studies to provide the pupils with as much exposure to concepts and ideas as possible.  

• To undertake a mixture of in-depth and broad-brush studies to ensure the curriculum remains as broad as possible. 

• Provide well-chosen trips/experiences that are outside of the locality as much as possible or offer experiences our parents would not usually expose their pupils to.  

• To link areas of study by concepts that run throughout curriculum areas – the concepts are reinforced to pupils and referred back to when new areas of study are presented. 

• To build up knowledge webs/organisers to help pupils to visualise the collation of knowledge and make links between areas of study taught. 

• To build in curriculum days where the whole school focusses on a theme or area of study that develops pupils’ understanding of their role and responsibilities within society within and away from their immediate locality.  

• New learning builds on previous knowledge – there is a progression in the delivery of new concepts, so that pupils are able to make links and build up a long term arc of knowledge. Teachers refer to previous learning to enable children to build on what they already know.    

Pupils are taught how to access learning and undertake independent inquiry and problem solving as much as possible. These skills are essential for learning both in the classroom and life outside of school.  Our Drivers as well as British Values are interwoven throughout everyday learning.   

At Riverwalk children learn developmentally, and we are assessing progress against developmental levels.  Engagement of learning is the key to making progress.  Education Health Care plans for each child need to be built into the learning activities through the term. 

Inclusion   

Our curriculum has been designed to meet the needs of all learners, including disadvantaged pupils - all pupils have the opportunity to learn in a creative and encouraging learning environment.   

We will do all we can to ensure that the needs of pupils are met, class teachers will be able to provide the resources and support required to enable pupils to access the curriculum at a level that is appropriate to them.  

Leaders promote equality of opportunity and diversity when planning for inclusion in the curriculum at Riverwalk, so that there is no direct or indirect discriminatory behaviour.   

Leaders, staff, and pupils promote tolerance, understanding and acceptance.