Austwick CE (VA) Primary School Curriculum Statement

Our Curriculum: 

• has at its heart our Christian vision, ensuring that all pupils can shine by reflecting our values,  

• develops independence, curiosity and the imagination. 

• promotes social responsibility and positive attitudes and encourages pupils to be courageous advocates. 

• is broad, balanced and carefully planned, ensuring a coherent progression in knowledge and skills from Nursery to Year 6, based on the Early Years Framework and National Curriculum. 

• includes a strong emphasis on the teaching of Phonics and developing a love of reading, recognising the importance of reading as a gateway to all other learning. 

• is designed to enable pupils to know and remember more. 

• is inclusive and accessible by all. 

• provides opportunities for reflection and critical thinking. 

• is creative, flexible and responsive to individual needs and local, national and international events. 

• has a local, national and global dimension. 

• acknowledges the lack of cultural and religious diversity in our own community and provides many diverse opportunities to address this. 

• provides learning opportunities that make the most of our wonderful outdoor environment and Yorkshire Dales setting. 

• develops cultural capital, ensuring that our children develop the knowledge and skills needed to prepare them for the future and to enable them to flourish. 

In addition to teaching the requirements of the Early Years Framework and National Curriculum, our Austwick Curriculum achieves the above by: 

• making the most of the areas of expertise of individual staff eg. Specialist teachers in RE, PSHE, Spanish and PE. 

• ensuring that staff CPD is given high priority. 

• being a Forest School; we provide regular outside activities and residentials to enhance learning experiences in the local and wider natural environment. 

• developing strong partnerships and encountering cultural diversity via our link with an educational charity in Uganda, as well as engaging in regular trips outside our immediate community (e.g. Bradford, London, and Edinburgh). 

• teaching high quality RE that helps pupils hold balanced and well-informed conversations about religion and belief promoting respect and tolerance. 

• being flexible and adaptable when required eg. Recognising ‘Now’ moments (such opportunities for learning when it snows) or responding to local, national and international events. 

• providing moments in the day for quiet reflection and spiritual development, including collective worship and opportunities to think about Big Questions in all areas of the curriculum. 

• ensuring that pupils view assessment as an important and positive part of reflective learning. 

Inclusion within our broad and balanced curriculum  

At Austwick Primary School all children have access to quality first teaching and all our lessons cater for all learners, so that they can access the learning at their level and make progress at their level. If further help in accessing our curriculum is required, we have several options and resources available to us to utilise. This means that strategies can be put into place to ensure access for all learners. Below are some of the resources we have in school to ensure inclusion for all within our curriculum.  

We have a qualified SENDCO who is experienced at working with children with a variety of needs. We employ the graduated response of ‘Plan, do, review’ across school for any child. A child’s need can be picked up/identified by parents or teachers and is discussed with the SENDCO in a timely manner. We regularly assess all children and pupil progress meetings are held termly, where progress of all children is discussed. The Headteacher, SENDCO and class teacher/s attend this meeting. If a child is considered not to be making the expected progress for them, then we will put in additional support for that child, according to the area of learning and development need that they have. The SENDCO will assess children and place their need within one of the 4 areas of need, according to the SEND code of practice 2014. 

· Communication and Interaction  

· Cognition & Learning  

· Social, Mental & Emotional Health  

· Sensory and/or Physical  

Support and strategies are put in place for children to help them access learning and the curriculum. To initially meet a child’s need, we will put in place two cycles of ‘Plan, do, review’, through the implementation of an Individual Provision map (IPM). If appropriate progress isn’t made through doing this, then a child would continue the IPM cycle. We would continue to embed support and add them to the SEN list after two cycles of IPM or if the need supersedes this process they will go directly onto the SEN list. Strategies to enable this child to access a broad and balanced curriculum would become more specialised and personalised, to support them. 

PIVATS, and if appropriate, The Engagement Model are used to help assess and plan next steps for those children who are making small steps in their learning and are not in line with National Curriculum. Targets are known by class teachers and teaching assistants so children’s individual targets can be worked towards in all lessons, where appropriate and if understanding is their children will know their own targets. This enables all children to access all learning at a level appropriate to them. We have some resources and strategies that we can call upon once an area of need has been identified. These range from physical resources to long term evidence-based interventions which are put in place to support children in the classroom with their learning. Please refer to the Provision Maps below that we update annually. These run alongside Teacher Assistant knowledge and skills and the interventions that can be delivered by them.  

We use Individual Provision Maps (IPMs) to show the SEN need a child has and how we are catering for this. The IPM identifies need and the barriers to learning. The Class teacher and the SENDCO then look at these barriers to learning and then identify no more than three targets to begin to address the barriers to learning. We then look at how we can help a child to achieve these targets by putting in place ‘additional and different’ this has many guises. This may be an evidence-based intervention, physical resources, additional time for processing, our bespoke life skills program, personal organisational systems in a classroom. The IPM is shared with the child, and we include their voice on the IPM once they’ve had a discussion with teachers and looked at their IPM. The IPM is also sent home so that parents are aware of the support in place for their child, parents are encouraged to include their voice on the IPM as well. 

Date policy adopted: February 2025

Date to be reviewed: February 2026