Curriculum Overview

Every child is entitled to excel and experience success. They should have awe and wonder experiences and know how these areas can enhance the quality of their lives developing their overall wellbeing, personal development and aspirations.

Our broad and inspiring curriculum will equip the children with skills knowledge and understanding to be autonomous learners who fulfil their potential, inspiring them to pursue their curiosities, questioning and communicating with the world around them.

At Cobbs Brow School, children will be prepared for life in a technological society making meaningful links in their learning through a clear, purposeful and well defined curriculum which meets the individual needs of all pupils.

To enable our children to meet the challenges of our demanding, rapidly changing diverse society our curriculum is well planned. There is continuity and progression of teaching and learning. This is achieved through the New National Curriculum, cross-curricular links, the creative curriculum and the ethos of the school. The work is stimulating and interesting, as we believe that children learn best when the learning is enjoyable and fun. Children learn at different rates and in different ways. We plan a diverse curriculum appropriate to our children’s needs and interests, enabling them to become educated citizens of the future. There are 3 Key Stages:

As a school, we regularly review our curriculum content and in doing so, have gone through the following processes:

• Designed our curriculum in line statutory National Curriculum and our school context. Our curriculum acknowledges and explores the local area as well as the diverse communities and cultures beyond the locality.
• Ensured there is continuity and progression through all subject areas across school – curriculum road maps developed. Knowledge and skills are built upon across the phases of school, from Early Years to Upper KS2.
• We identified clear outcomes and identified end points.
• Identified next steps targets for all subject areas including action plans.
• Overviewed attainment and progress of all subjects across the age phases.
• Collated samples of work to support moderation.
• Focused staff CPD to further develop subject pedagogy.
• Shared our intent with all stakeholders.
• Identified cross curricular links and opportunities to consolidate knowledge and skills.
• Further build upon opportunities to engage or immerse with the wider community.

Curriculum intent

Our school has a clear intent behind our carefully designed and balanced curriculum offer:

• We have designed a curriculum that takes our children on a journey beyond Skelmersdale. Knowledge and skills have been identified to teach our children the fundamentals that can be applied in the world they live and inspire them to pursue their curiosities, questioning and communicating with the world around them.
• At Cobbs Brow we are proud to provide our children with a curriculum where:
  • Every child is entitled to excel and experience success. They should have awe and wonder experiences to engage them as motivated learners.
  • Our broad and inspiring curriculum will equip the children with skills knowledge and understanding to be autonomous learners who fulfil their potential,
  • Children will be prepared for life in modern day Britain making meaningful links in their learning through a clear, purposeful and well-defined curriculum which meets the individual needs of all pupils.

Some examples of how our curriculum takes our children beyond Skelmersdale:

• In geography, children study units that include: life in the Alps. Antarctica, Rainforests, Volcanoes etc
• In history, we have local history throughout the phases where children get to enquire and explore their heritage, as well as, history beyond the UK.
• In music, the curriculum takes the children on a musical journey around the world, studying music from the Caribbean, South Africa, Carnival music and musical theatre.
• In science, the children study the disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics which are applied to making connections units and science in action. This helps the children to understand how these disciplines are applied to jobs in the real world and sets aspirations for future careers.
• In RE and Spanish, children learn about different cultures.
• In PE, there are opportunities for all children to take part and experience success in sports and opportunities to be exposed to professional sports people they can aspire to.
• Through themed days and weeks, children get to find out about people and places.

Implementation

Our curriculum is taught and implemented successfully, with the following strengths:

• Subject knowledge (including content and pedagogy) of teachers is strong. This is particularly evident in a range of subjects including the teaching of reading, writing and maths across the phases. Where this has been less strong, the school has used the expertise of subject leads, provided regular CPD to address gaps in knowledge and this has been disseminated to staff through planning meetings to ensure all teaching is effective. SDP targets address current practice and recent initiatives within subjects. Staff appraisal targets are linked to whole school improvement.
• Careful curriculum mapping in the long / medium and short term, ensures clear progressions of skills, increased knowledge and continuity across year groups and key stages. This detailed planning allows adequate time for pupils to practise and apply new skills and embed knowledge and progress through the curriculum at an appropriate pace. Opportunities for creativity and flexibility in planning are identified in order to enhance the curriculum on offer.
• Subject leaders are acutely aware of the progression of their subject across the school and use this to inform their planning and overviews. Subjects are planned to give pupils the tools necessary to develop their subject discipline aspirations. All subject leaders have strong subject pedagogical knowledge. They have ownership over their curriculum areas, monitoring processes, delivery and supporting CPD e.g. working with staff to improve and develop their subject knowledge further which in turn develops the quality of teaching and learning for all.
• Teaching of all subjects is consistently good or better. Effective questioning is embedded and used to elicit accurate starting points, pupils have the opportunity to engage in active learning and misconceptions within learning are addressed. Retrieval activities are used throughout the curriculum. Learning is committed to long term memory through consolidation, retrieval and revisiting over time.
• Oracy skills being built upon across all year groups. Use of correct and specific vocabulary is a key feature in lessons and throughout the school day.
• At Cobbs Brow systems for teaching early reading and a culture of developing a love of reading is always a key priority. skills are taught sequentially through a two-pronged approach, word reading and understanding. In the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1, discrete phonics teaching takes place through the use of our systematic synthetic Red Rose Phonics Scheme which is used with fidelity. This is also continued into KS2 for specific children.
• Pupils read widely across the curriculum with wider opportunities for reading being promoted regularly i.e. class novels, book weeks, independent reading opportunities, inviting reading corners, reading events.

Impact

Our pupils join Cobbs Brow with skills well below those of other pupils nationally and they make progress across the school, because of our excellent curriculum provision and teaching, to achieve outcomes in line with or exceeding national norms on leaving.

Work in pupils’ books, alongside outcomes at the end of EYFS, KS1 and KS2, clearly demonstrate that children’s knowledge and understanding is checked systematically and effectively in lessons. Sharply focused and timely support and intervention have a notable impact on the quality of learning.

Pupils’ transition through EYFS, KS1, KS2 and through to KS3 is smooth due to the clear progression of the curriculum which ensures that skills and knowledge are developed throughout the curriculum.

Our school curriculum has a positive impact upon learners. This is reflected in core subjects through outcomes in statutory assessments, and in other subjects, through our own assessments.

Children enter the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) with abilities below those typical for their age, make at least good or outstanding progress through the EYFS entering KS1 with standards inline or slightly above local and national averages. Pupils make outstanding progress in KS1; standards at the end of KS1 are inline or above the national average. Pupils make outstanding progress through KS2 ending Y6 with standards above the national average.

Overall, pupils make strong progress through our school curriculum. This is indicated by the following

• EYFS achievement over time which is good and shows excellent progress from their starting points
• Phonics screening outcomes are generally above national and local figures
• KS1 attainment is always above national statistics
• KS2 historic data indicates strong attainment and progress which is above local and national figures

Reception children follow the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum. Play underpins all development and learning for young children and therefore your child will take part in indoor and outdoor play experiences that will help them learn and develop their enquiring mind while they are having fun.

Learning covers the following seven areas,
Children should develop the 3 prime areas. These are:

• Communication and language
• Physical development
• Personal, social and emotional development

These prime areas are those most essential for your child’s healthy development and future learning.

As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in 4 specific areas. These are:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the world
• Expressive arts and design

These 7 areas are used to plan your child’s learning and activities. The professionals teaching and supporting your child will make sure that the activities are suited to your child’s unique needs. The curriculum is designed to be really flexible so that staff can follow your child’s unique needs and interests. Please keep us informed about your child’s interests and what they have been doing.

To find out more about our school curriculum EYFS curriculum, please contact Miss Sharples.

The curriculum consists of the following:

• Three core subjects: Mathematics, English and Science
• Religious Education
• Computing
• The foundation subjects: Geography, History, Design and Technology, Music, Physical Education, Art and Design, PSHE/citizenship, Modern Languages – Spanish.

As a school we place great emphasis on teaching English and Maths, so that our pupils will have the best opportunities to develop reading, writing and mathematics skills. Children are able to access e-learning opportunities through our ’Active Learn’ site.

School delivers the National Curriculum through a themed approach. Due to classes having two cohorts in each we plan across a two year cycle. For 2024-25 we are following cycle ‘B.’ For further details of the themes please click on the links below. If you would like any further information about our curriculum please contact the school.

To find out more about our KS1 curriculum please contact Mrs Barrett and Mrs Pugh for KS2. .