Our Curriculum

Here at Abacus Primary School, we are very proud of our curriculum. Click on the video below to view our curriculum showcase.

We are very proud of our curriculum here at Abacus Primary School. Our teaching staff carefully plan engaging and interesting lessons to capture our pupils' attention and support them to be confident learners and active participants in their learning. We teach a broad and balanced curriculum through topics that spark imaginative thought with the aim of enabling children to access their learning in a variety of ways and to retain the knowledge they have been taught.

Curriculum Drivers

Following a strange and unexpected few years, our team got together to think carefully about what we most wanted our children to achieve during their time with us. Our key curriculum goals are based around four areas that we believe will best support our pupils as they move into the next stage of their academic career and, indeed, life.

We have worked hard to develop our curriculum drivers; these four drivers are what we believe to be the most pertinent issues to our school - the most important factors that influence our planning and curriculum development. These drivers will be the vehicles for delivering our curriculum, and will be woven throughout our curriculum. Our intention is for these drivers to be clear and impactful for all stakeholders; we want our children to be aware of these drivers and to be able to recognise when these are being used throughout the school day. We promote these drivers in our classrooms so that our children are aware of their impact and importance.

Our curriculum drivers are therefore as follows:

Wellbeing

We work extremely hard to support our children's wellbeing - we offer an extensive range of nurturing opportunities and emotional support for our learners, both in the classroom environment and as interventions. Developing self-esteem, confidence and independence are so important, so we ensure that these are valued and celebrated throughout the school year. Our SENCO provides a wealth of knowledge and experience in these areas and all staff are fully trained in safeguarding procedures. We also have a school wellbeing mentor who holds intervention groups and before school sessions to support our pupils' wellbeing during school and before the school day starts.

Engagement

We are passionate about increasing our children’s engagement in all curriculum areas, so we have designed our curriculum around topics that aim to excite and inspire our children. We strive to offer many exciting learning opportunities in each year group to capture their interest and spark their imaginations, through opportunities such as topic weeks, theme days, trips, ‘hooks’ and hands-on experiences. We use Kagan structures in all year groups to engage reluctant learners and to provide active learning opportunities for all. We also have class ‘curriculum journals’ that are used to record those “wow!” lessons and learning outside the classroom.

Communication

We believe that communication in all forms is a life skill that we want our children to learn and to be able to use confidently; after all, the very first step of everything we teach starts with the ability to communicate - to speak and to listen – effectively. We will promote this through emphasising subject specific vocabulary, encouraging the importance of verbalising ideas before putting them onto paper, active learning (e.g. active maths and Kagan structures) and making the most of opportunities for discussion and talk.

Independence

Our children, whilst eager to learn, have historically lacked confidence in making decisions for themselves without adult reassurance. We want our children to leave primary school with skills for life, such as problem solving and managing their own learning and individual needs. Our curriculum is designed around learning to learn skills, which provide children with opportunities to develop skills such as independence and resilience, and our subject leaders are developing our curriculum with this in mind.