Article 28 (right to education)
Every child has the right to an education. Primary education must be free and different forms of secondary education must be available to every child. Discipline in schools must respect children’s dignity and their rights. Richer countries must help poorer countries achieve this.
The children and their learning are at the core of everything that we do at Grafton Primary School. Our school motto 'Together we learn. Together we Achieve' reflects our vision.
In order to prepare children as life-long learners and global citizens, we must provide a curriculum that goes beyond the statutory content. Our curriculum is designed to take into consideration children's varied backgrounds, cultural experiences and starting points. Our children deserve a curriculum that expands their life chances, paving the way for social equity and mobility.
At the heart of our curriculum, we consider our position as a gold award Rights Respecting school and the impact that this has. We create a community where children's rights are taught, respected, protected and promoted. Children understand their own rights, as well as the rights of others. Learning through rights, children at Grafton benefit from a wide curriculum which recognises and develops varied talents and interests whilst also developing understanding and fascination in the world around them.
Our staff, governors and the broader school community learn about the rights of the child and how these underpin our curriculum.
Our curriculum seeks to achieve strong academic outcomes while developing and preparing children educationally, socially, morally and physically.
Our curriculum aims to:
Our curriculum gives every child the opportunity to succeed. We do this through our REAL curriculum.
R - Relevant, research-based, reflective
E - Engaging, enquiry-led
A - Aspirational, achievement for all
L - For life-long love of learning
Through planning our curriculum, we ensure that it is:
Relevant- We adapt the curriculum to the changing demographic and needs of the school, so that children are able to see themselves in the curriculum we teach and their sense of self is recognised.
Research-based- We strive to ensure that we are up-to-date with developing pedagogy and understanding of different approaches which might benefit our children’s learning. We spend time researching the best ways forward for our children.
Reflective- We take time to reflect on our school offer, ensuring that it is relevant and that it meets the requirements of the National Curriculum as a minimum. We continue to assess what our children need in their learning, so that they achieve well.
Engaging - We understand that, when children are engaged by their learning, they are more likely to attach to and remember concepts. We work hard to make lessons interesting in a variety of ways, as well as using trips and experiences to expand their world.
Enquiry-led - Using enquiry-led learning, children respond to questions through both the academic and personal development curriculum.
Aspirational - We are unashamedly aspirational for our children and we want and expect them to leave Grafton with the skills needed for their futures. There is no ceiling for our children. We expect the very best behaviour for learning and the best teaching of subjects.
Achievement for All - We are an inclusive school where all children are expected to achieve and make at least good progress from their starting points. Learning is carefully planned for and adapted to support and extend learning for all children.
Life-long learning - Above all, we want to impress on pupils that learning is a life-long process. We develop the skills needed for pupils to be curious and determined in their learning so that they are able to replicate these skills beyond their time at Grafton.
Curriculum Implementation
The statutory National Curriculum and school-chosen learning is mapped out by Subject Leaders and overseen by Curriculum Leads. Learning is organised into half-termly ‘units’. These build carefully within the school year and across the school, ensuring that learning is sequenced in a way which builds knowledge and memory skills over time. Where possible, lessons make links to other curriculum areas. Building on prior learning in this way helps to achieve greater depth of understanding, concepts and skills.
Enriching the curriculum
Personal development
Our work as a Rights Respecting school ensures that we provide a rich curriculum which develops the whole child. In our ever-changing and challenging world, the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of our pupils are of paramount importance. These are taught explicitly through the curriculum, assemblies, workshops and cultural experiences.
Experiences and Opportunities
We plan a variety of ways to enrich learning, build self esteem, widen horizons and create lasting memories.
These take many forms:
We measure the impact of our curriculum through:
To support learning at home, year groups send out curriculum maps at the beginning of each term, to provide parents and carers with information about the learning ahead. These curriculum maps can be found on the year group pages of the school website.
If you would like to find out more about our curriculum, then please contact Ms Prince (Curriculum Lead) via the school office, to discuss in more detail.
Hard copies of the information published on our website are available free of charge from the school office.
