At Bow Brickhill CE Primary School we follow the National Curriculum which applies to all children and is organised through the Key Stages.   Key Stage 1 applies to Year 1 and Year 2, and Key Stage 2 applies to Year 3-6. Foundation Stage children work to the recommendations of the Foundation Stage Curriculum.  From Early Years to year 6, teachers plan and deliver lessons to ensure that all skills and knowledge required to succeed are taught throughout the school in a creative, enjoyable and memorable way. We aim to deliver an outstanding curriculum that is underpinned by our aims and our Christian values and which develops the whole child. To support us in achieving this broad and balanced curriculum, we base it around the Cornerstones Curriculum, a nationally recognised approach for delivering outstanding learning opportunities for children.

Our varied and lively curriculum, is one where our pupils are actively engaged to develop their key skills, acquire a rich vocabulary and promote a depth of knowledge, whilst exploring a wide range of subjects and topics. We strive for our children to thrive through purposeful experiences, allowing them to achieve in every aspect of their development.

The Cornerstones Curriculum is a creative and thematic approach to learning that is mapped to the 2014 primary national curriculum to ensure comprehensive coverage of national expectations. It is based on a child-centred pedagogy called The Four Cornerstones and is delivered through Imaginative Learning Projects (ILPs) and Knowledge Rich Projects (KRPs), which provide a rich menu of exciting and motivating learning activities that make creative links between all aspects of children’s learning. We believe children learn better when they are encouraged to use their imagination and apply their learning to engaging contexts. Our curriculum provides many learning challenges throughout the academic year that require children to solve problems, apply themselves creatively and express their knowledge and understanding effectively. Cornerstones also provide a rigorous skills and knowledge framework that outlines the end of year expectations in all subjects. These skills and knowledge are tied to activities and are age-related so that staff can track children’s progress and identify their individual learning needs.

Our two year rolling programme of topics is designed to ensure that each subject within the curriculum is taught to develop key skills and knowledge that build on and deepen previous learning. 

At Bow Brickhill CE Primary School, we teach Maths and English daily in all year groups. Mathematics themes are taught, building upon previous knowledge and skills. Children are taught how to access arithmetic problems with fluency, alongside developing their reasoning skills. We follow a mastery approach, meaning pupils are taught with the aim of acquiring a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of the subject. Where possible, English is linked to the class topics, ensuring the children are gaining knowledge and skills, which can be applied in a variety of meaningful contexts with reading and writing covering a wide range of genres across the course of the year. A love of reading is encouraged through the use of quality text, rich in vocabulary. 

The children in Early Years and Key Stage 1 have daily phonics lessons each week following Bug Club Phonics, a comprehensive phonics teaching programme centred on an accessible and inclusive teaching approach. Evidence shows that working together fosters a sense of social inclusion for pupils and boosts the performance of those that may be progressing more slowly. It is one of the DfE’s approved systematic synthetic phonics programmes. This programme is followed in EYFS, Years 1 and 2 and beyond where needed. Pupils in KS2 receive daily Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPaG) lessons. Within lessons, our teachers use shared and guided writing opportunities alongside a variety of independent writing tasks. 

At Bow Brickhill CE Primary, we ensure our curriculum also promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils. We seek opportunities to deepen our children’s understanding of other cultures, communities and faiths and promote fundamental British Values as well as celebrating these in daily school life. We are proud that every child, regardless of their faith, culture or background is respected and valued. In doing so, we aim to prepare our children for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life in modern Britain; fostering in them our school Christian values to encourage them to become a positive member of society.

Early Years Foundation Curriculum

The children in Acorns follow the EYFS Curriculum, a new version of the curriculum was introduced nationally in September 2021, we adopted the curriculum as an Early Adopter in September 2020. To see the expected progression documents for the curriculum (which runs from birth to age 5) please click on the link here.

We are really lucky at our school to have our own indoor and outdoor area dedicated to Early Years, with a maximum class size of 15 pupils. Our staff are able to build effective relationships with all pupils, they know their interests well and planning is adapted throughout the year to build on these. We make the most of opportunities to involve parents with events such as our Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea, which provides a brilliant opportunity to bring learning to real life from writing invites to our Mum’s, through to baking and then spending time with them enjoying their hard work. At the beginning of the year the children will join in with short carpet sessions sharing stories and building on prior learning, towards the end of the summer term the children are given opportunities to work independently at tables to support their transition into Year 1.

To see our current topic cycle for our Acorns class, please click here and to see the skills progression for 2023-24 please click here

Our Two Year Curriculum

At Bow Brickhill CE Primary School, KS1 pupils in year 1 and year 2 are organised into a combined year group class. This is the same for years 3/4 and years 5/6 as follows;

Oaks Class – Years 1/2
Cedars Class – Year 3/4
Maples Class -Year 5/6

This means our curriculum for year 1 and above follows a two year rolling programme of topics as shown on the link below.

Our curriculum is constantly developing therefore this document will be subject to change over time.

To see cycle A for all Key stages (academic year starting with an even year), please click here.

To see cycle B for all Key stages (academic year starting with an odd year), please click here.

To see a summarised version of the National Curriculum from Years 1-6 please click here.