Our Beechwood Community
We are an inner city, coastal junior school with pupils from widely varying personal, cultural, socio-economic and religious backgrounds. We value our local community and teach our children how to be a positive member of society and how to celebrate the place we live in. At Beechwood, we believe in being inclusive and all children are welcomed and supported to learn regardless of their abilities and behaviours. It is also our firm belief that all children are entitled to a broad and balanced curriculum which is matched to their individual needs and allows them to grow, explore their interests and raise aspirations for their future.
The purpose of our curriculum
We aim to provide a curriculum that:
- Is ambitious and accessible for all pupils, particularly the most disadvantaged and those with SEND.
- Provides a broad foundation of knowledge and skills across a wide range of subjects.
- Is progressively sequenced to deepen pupils understanding ready for the next stage of learning.
- Ignites pupils’ passions and cultivates their individual talents and interests which are developed through their learning and a range of enrichment opportunities.
- Equips pupils with the personal and social skills they will need in order to contribute positively to the community around them.
- Is research led and built upon the principles of Quality First Teaching and metacognition.
In addition to the ‘taught’ curriculum, we aim to embody a ‘family culture’ through our shared HEART values that everyone will demonstrate through their everyday interactions with each other. This provides a secure environment for pupils to learn and will set them up to be responsible citizens for the future. Alongside the formalised curriculum, our Collective Worship curriculum and HEART value assemblies are used to explore and reinforce Safeguarding, Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) themes throughout the year. It is also an opportunity to learn and celebrate key dates and festivals from around the world.
These values are:
- We base learning on open and honest feedback about progress and clear and realistic expectations; we encourage all to reflect honestly on their learning.
- We believe in encouraging and equipping children with the tools they need to work and try their hardest.
- We believe in celebrating achievement to develop pride and to encourage perseverance in the pursuit of excellence.
- We respect all people, the world in which we live and value all opinions and beliefs.
- We believe that by working together, supporting each other and collaborating towards common goals, we can achieve truly outstanding outcomes for all.
How will our children learn?
At Beechwood we base our teaching and learning on Rosenshein’s Principles in Action which forms part of our research-based approach to education. We believe the best learning happens when we empower our teachers by providing them with the most up to date evidence from cognitive science. Our staff are reflective practitioners who are constantly seeking to improve their practice through well-thought out CPD and who know that all pupils will thrive when their teaching is good.
Rosenshein’s Principles are based on four key strands:
- Sequencing concepts and modelling
- Questioning
- Reviewing material
- Stages of practice.
What does this look like in the classroom?
Teachers use a variety of retrieval tasks at the beginning of lessons to ascertain prior knowledge and to help pupils make links between previous learning and present learning. This will be done on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to ensure knowledge remains part of a pupil’s long-term memory allowing them to apply it to a range of situations.
At Beechwood children will learn new material in small steps using well thought out models which will give clear and detailed explanations. This will be accompanied by scaffolds to ensure that all learners can access the lesson and be successful. Feedback provided by teachers is understandable, helpful and actionable and pupils will be given time to respond.
Our teachers will ask lots of different types of questions during this process based on their deep understanding of a subject which will aim to help explain, clarify and check for understanding. They will create an environment where pupils know it is safe for errors and doubts to be discussed so that we can learn together.
Within a series of lessons pupils will be given lots of opportunities to practise new skills. This will initially be guided by the teacher through models, worked examples and questions to check for understanding. Once they are ready to be independent teachers will continue to monitor to ensure misconceptions can be identified immediately and action taken to correct.
We are committed to the early identification of Special Educational Needs (SEND). Following a Graduated Approach to SEND, where needed, additional targeted intervention is identified and employed to further support specific areas of learning or social, emotional needs through an offer of evidence-based additional intervention programmes.
What will they learn?
- To be honest and kind individuals who know how to make the right choices.
- To be emotionally intelligent and be able to develop healthy relationships with those around them and become part of the community in which they live.
- To be creative, curious and critical thinkers who have a life-long love of learning.
- To keep themselves and others safe and healthy (physically and mentally) in the wider world and know when to ask for help.
- To be confident to challenge others and be resilient in the wake of setbacks or distractions.
- To be ambitious and reflective and have faith in their abilities.
