The school vision, motto and values have directed our curriculum intent and design and are interwoven within in.

Curriculum Intent

At Summerseat Methodist Primary School, we pride ourselves on offering all of our pupils a safe, calm, happy and nurturing learning environment so children can learn effectively, enabling them to access the full breadth of our curriculum offer and ultimately reach their full potential.  Across the curriculum, we engage and interest children through learning hooks and high quality books which will foster a love of reading and learning that will last a lifetime. Our book-led approach supports children to build meaningful connections across the curriculum.  We have designed our curriculum to be sequential, logical and cumulative and meet the ambition of the National Curriculum. Key knowledge, facts, skills and concepts are identified through our ‘Steps in Learning’ curriculum and children have regular opportunities to revisit, recall and apply key knowledge and skills in order to deepen their understanding. When teaching new content and skills, teachers provide explicit support and guidance and fully explain the concepts and skills that students are required to learn in manageable smaller steps. Formative, ongoing assessment is inextricably linked with our curriculum method. We believe in the ‘power of practise’ across all areas of the curriculum enabling children to know more and remember more and move from basic, to deeper understanding and into mastery.  We recognise our school context and want children to leave us with a strong moral and spiritual compass; respecting and celebrating diversity and promoting resilience, care and individuality. We hold high aspirations for all our pupils and want them to grow into successful and responsible adults of the future with a rich ‘cultural capital’ formed through their experience of a high quality, holistic curriculum that has at its heart: key skills, knowledge arranged through concepts, broad and engaging experiences and a focus on personal development.

At Summerseat Methodist Primary School, we have designed a curriculum that not only meets the breadth and ambitions of the national curriculum in an engaging way, but also one that is unique to Summerseat.

We ensure that our curriculum:

• Supports our school vision and values
• Is tailored specifically to the needs of our children i.e. preparing them for life outside Summerseat through three identified key drivers: diversity, aspiration, community
• Prioritises reading; an interest in books and the development of life-long readers
• Enables our pupils to leave the school as ‘well rounded’ individuals with learning to learn skills taught progressively and explicitly in all year groups. These are:

• Building Resilience
• Gaining Independence
• Becoming Collaborative
• Developing Confidence
• Being Inquisitive.

We want to enable children to fully understand themselves as learners and take charge of their own learning, so that they are in the best possible position to make the most of all the learning opportunities that present themselves in our school

• Is enjoyable and memorable for the pupils
• Gives children a toolkit of strategies to help them maintain positive mental health and wellbeing now and for later life
• Places an emphasis upon the development of vocabulary
• Gives our children practical, first hand experiences
• Utilises the rich resource and history of our local community in Summerseat and the surrounding area
• Includes parents in its delivery
• Is skills, knowledge and concept based and creative in essence
• Contributes to highest standards in English and Maths

As part of our unique whole school curriculum offer and to meet our curriculum aims, children access the following additions to the national curriculum:

•             Relax Kids & Calmaclass sessions

•             Forest School

•             Growth Mindset sessions

Curriculum Organisation

Our ‘Summerseat Steps in Learning’ curriculum outlines the broad and balanced curriculum that all our pupils can expect. As stated above, it outlines our emphasis on key skills, knowledge arranged through concepts, broad and engaging experiences and a focus on personal development.

We provide the following key curriculum documents:

• ‘Whole School long term overview’ which shares the overview of topics for every year group across the year. This is available to download below.
• ‘Year Group Steps in Learning’ which provides an overview of the topics taught in the year group for all subjects and also outlines the end points for the learning for the year group. It also shares the progressive learning to learn skills.  These are available to download below.
• ‘Subject long term overviews’ which share the whole school sequence of topics that are covered in each year group. These are available on the individual subject pages.
• ‘Subject Steps in Learning’ which outline the progressive subject skills, knowledge and concepts from Nursery to Year 6. This is our key progression document for each subject. These are available on the individual subject pages.
• ‘Unit Plans’ which guide staff on the learning journey a class may take to meet the end points identified for a unit of work. These highlight prior knowledge a child would need, hooks and supporting books. They work in close conjunction with the ‘Subject Steps in Learning’
• ‘Knowledge Organisers’ outlines key knowledge and vocabulary we want children to know in particular subject areas. These are available on the individual subject pages.

We have mixed age classes and so we operate a two-year curriculum cycle (Cycle A and Cycle B) which you will see across our curriculum documents. In 2023-24, we will follow Cycle A. 

In Early Years Foundation Stage, topics are flexible and dependent on class interest and need and are used as a guide.

If you would like more information about our curriculum please contact the School Office on 01706  823 427.