At The Abbey CE VA Primary School, our aim is to provide a curriculum that prepares pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities, and experiences of life. We want to inspire children, encourage innovative thinking, foster individual creativity, and, above all, ignite a passion for learning, while fulfilling the requirements of the National Curriculum.
Our Christian ethos underpins our educational environment, helping instil our school values of endurance, thankfulness, trust, friendship, wisdom, forgiveness, justice, and love in our students. Our curriculum is thoughtfully mapped to ensure comprehensive coverage of the National Curriculum while offering pupils opportunities to develop as resilient learners. We encourage creativity, curiosity, and independent learning, guiding children to ask questions, seek answers, and persevere in their studies.
Content is chosen to cater to the specific needs and interests of our pupils, ensuring a broad and balanced approach to all subjects. Each subject is designed to build on prior learning, making lessons engaging and memorable. Teaching and learning are further enriched by a variety of extra-curricular activities, including trips, workshops, expert visits, and collaborative performances with other schools.
Reading holds a high priority in our curriculum. Each classroom is equipped with a wide selection of books, and our library boasts a diverse range of age-appropriate materials. Upper Key Stage 2 school librarians help staff promote reading for pleasure by arranging book clubs, celebrating authors and reading in other classes. Reading is taught through phonics, with children using their understanding of sounds to decode words. We follow Essential Letters and Sounds, which covers all phonemes. We aim to make reading enjoyable through initiatives such as author visits and ‘Mystery Readers’.
In Mathematics, we adopt a mastery approach where all pupils are taught to meet their year group’s expectations, with additional challenge for the more able and extra support for those who need it. Pupils with specific needs are well-supported with additional resources and interventions to help close individual learning gaps.
Assessment plays a key role in our teaching. We assess pupils’ understanding in each lesson through targeted questioning and reflection on previous learning. Formal assessments in reading, writing and maths are carried out each term. In foundation subjects, we assess students’ substantive and disciplinary knowledge to address any gaps in learning.
We are committed to helping our children strive to reach their full potential. We believe the curriculum we have designed is ambitious and challenges pupils to achieve their best.