Curriculum Design

"The school has carefully planned an ambitious curriculum to meet the needs of all pupils, including in mixed-aged classes... The curriculum is regularly enriched with visits from speakers and trips into the local countryside." (Ofsted May 2024)

"Pupils are encouraged to be courageous learners, to help others and work together to solve problems. Teachers feel they know pupils well, due to the school’s size. This enables them to tailor the curriculum, encouraging individual flourishing." (SIAMS June 2023)

Primary school age is so often the time when flames are kindled and passions are ignited. We endeavour to nurture within each child a spirit of enquiry and a love of learning which will last them for a lifetime. We strive to provide every opportunity to equip children with the knowledge and skills they need to move on with confidence. We intend to prepare our children as fully as possible for the next stage of their learning, and ultimately for their adult life. 

At Cranham C of E Primary School children are taught to care for and enhance the world that has been entrusted to them through our core values of courage, compassion and community. We have a passion for tailoring our provision to allow every child to reach their full potential. Happy children make the best learners, and the staff at Cranham embrace this principle. As a church school, our curriculum is led by values, and each term the learning is linked to developing understanding of a specific value and how this can positively shape our lives. Our curriculum content is based on the National Curriculum, and allows us to explore personal and social skills, alongside building key knowledge.

"The school is highly ambitious for all pupils. The curriculum reflects this. It has been carefully planned and is responsive, for example to pupils’ interests and current affairs." (Ofsted May 2024)

Our curriculum aims to maximise on children’s natural curiosity: planning for themes is enquiry-based and children identify what they would like to find out as they move through topics. The teaching focuses on the core skills for enquiry, such as critical thinking and reflective reading.

We look for a meaningful focus each term to engage learners, such as a current environmental issue or a national or global event. This helps to capture the children’s imagination, gives a sense of purpose to their learning and underpins our values of courage, compassion and community.

We want children to have courage as they learn, and we help them to develop a growth mindset, so that they are resilient and believe in themselves.

Part of our curriculum involves helping children to understand the factors that inhibit and promote effective learning. 

As we teach in mixed-age classes, our curriculum is based on a two-year rolling programme, with the foundation subjects of history, geography and science as topic drivers: 

curriculum theme progression map 2022 26.pdf

"Pupils make meaningful links within and between subjects. Staff present information clearly to pupils and ask questions that deepen their understanding. Consequently, pupils retain information and build on prior learning in lessons." (Ofsted May 2024)

We have worked closely with children, parents and governors to design our curriculum. For every phase there is...

• a topic chosen by children and their parents
• a STEM led topic
• a topic based on a novel

While maths is taught discretely, we link English and foundation subjects to our theme where we can - we do not make tenuous links. Each term's learning webs and theme overviews can be accessed below.