Curriculum Intent

Educating for Life in all its Fullness.  John 10:10

At Chiddingstone Church of England School, we are extremely proud of our creative and vibrant curriculum which puts children at its heart and fosters a love of learning and support for each other, underpinned by our Church School values of Compassion, Creation, Forgiveness, Hope and Koinonia (community or fellowship). 

We believe that childhood should be a happy, investigative and enquiring time in a child's life and our curriculum is designed to promote curiosity, exploration and collaboration, to excite and sustain children's interest and encourage a thirst for knowledge.

It is a highly inclusive curriculum. Diversity and difference is celebrated, every child is valued and makes an important contribution to our unique school. Members of staff respond sensitively, support the needs of every child, and work tirelessly to break down barriers to learning, providing an accessible curriculum but one where high expectations are set for every child to achieve their potential and beyond.

Our curriculum is planned to give pupils real life and memorable experiences and exposure to a range of cultural opportunities to promote life-long learning. This is often beyond the classroom walls, through an extensive range of educational experiences and visits, Forest School and outdoor learning. Children are encouraged to be reflective and have the confidence to make mistakes and learn from them.

The Cornerstones curriculum approach is ambitious and challenging, broad and balanced, knowledge rich and ensures coverage and progression of knowledge and skills in subject areas, taught through engaging and well sequenced topics. It aims to ensure that children know more and remember more but are also able to transfer knowledge and skills in a cross curricular way so that no subject is taught in isolation and children are able to see connections and relationships. Fluency and application of knowledge and skills to promote mastery is key to our curriculum choices e.g. Maths is taught using the Singapore approach through the Maths No Problem syllabus.

Personal development and wellbeing is embedded throughout the curriculum and our Church School values are central in supporting children's spiritual, moral social and cultural development as well as diversity and tolerance. Our curriculum encourages pupils to develop resilience, independence and respect so they can become responsible, caring, happy and healthy individuals who are able to make a positive contribution to their community and in the wider world.

The curriculum at Chiddingstone enables all children to flourish and live life to the full. 

Curriculum Subjects (Please see subject specific policies):

English and Early Reading: We follow the National Curriculum Programmes of Study for English and teach Reading through the Systematic Synthetic Phonics programme called Little Wandle.

Maths: We teach using the Singapore Maths methods using the Maths No Problem (MNP) scheme, which follows the National Curriculum Programme of Study for Maths. From September 2022, EYFS will also adopt the MNP scheme.

R.E: We follow the Kent Agreed syllabus across EYFS, KS1 and KS2.

French: We follow the National Curriculum Programme of Study for MFL. We extend the curriculum to EYFS and Key Stage 1, as well as Key Stage 2.

PE: We follow The PE Hub curriculum across EYFS, KS1 and KS2.

Cornerstones Curriculum: For Science, History, Geography, Art and Design, Design and Technology and Music, we adopt the curriculum designed by Cornerstones Curriculum Maestro. These are knowledge rich projects with subject focus and support the school’s curriculum intent of ensuring children learn in an engaging and motivating way, seeing the connection between subjects and transferring their knowledge and skills across the curriculum.

Computing: We currently follow the Twinkl scheme of work. However, there are a number of opportunities to incorporate the computing curriculum into the Cornerstones Curriculum (see below).

PSHE: We currently follow the Twinkl scheme of work, including the curriculum for Relationships Education.

EYFS: Follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework, which is delivered using Little Wandle (SSP), Maths No Problem (from Sept 2022), Cornerstones EYFS curriculum projects which cover all the areas of learning, and the curriculums outlined above for RE, PE and French.