Within this section information will be found on the following:

Design of Our Curriculum

The Coppice curriculum has been designed and evaluated through two lenses: through looking at the needs of The Coppice children in mind and through ensuring that we matched or exceeded the scope of the 2014 National Curriculum.

At the very start of our curriculum design journey, we clearly identified what it was that our children needed in terms of developing both their academic knowledge and their character traits. As a result, The Coppice curriculum that we have designed and which we teach, aims to empower our children to be more knowledgeable, ambitious, curious, resilient and empathetic. These are our key curriculum drivers and, through them, we aim to ensure that our children are fully prepared for the next phase of their education by the time they leave us in Year 6 and that none of their talents have been left undiscovered.

Please see the following document which explains our curriculum drivers in further detail, including the "child-friendly" copy that we display in every classroom across our school. 

Our curriculum is designed with the following elements at its core:

Knowledge:

The curriculum progression at The Coppice has been carefully considered: topics have been chosen because of their cultural capital value, relevance to our children’s lives and sequenced in such a way as to support the development of detailed schema. Our curriculum is sequenced coherently and deliberately, allowing for cumulative knowledge and understanding to be built. Our subject leaders specify the knowledge to be taught in detail in our planning and core ideas are shared with children and families in our knowledge organisers, which are also used as a focal point for retrieval practice.

Concepts:

Our subjects are systematically designed around progressive knowledge and concepts. Knowledge pays off when facts are related to one another so our curriculum deliberately plans for, and draws attention to, these overarching ideas. Concepts are reinforced and revisited – not just in other subjects, but also built upon year on year, cumulatively developing knowledge and deepening understanding.

Reading:

At The Coppice, we regard reading as the master skill that makes all other learning possible. As such, we plan for our children to receive a reading-rich education. We have a ‘spine’ of core texts that have been carefully selected to expose children to a wide range of characters, genres, ideas and vocabulary. In addition to class novels and work in English lessons, Coppice children read throughout the curriculum to improve their knowledge of the world we live in and build their vocabulary. High quality texts that relate to the content or theme of a year group’s topic are carefully selected and used by the teacher in lessons. We also know that the will to read and the skill to read mutually reinforce each other: once our children can read, we ensure they are given time to read for pleasure every day.

Evidence:

Our curriculum is designed to be remembered, not just encountered. Because of this, much of our staff development work aims to increase familiarity with the latest cognitive science research about how children learn and remember. Our goal is for all of our children to remember what they are taught in the long term. To support them in this, our staff consider the limitations of working memory, presenting new learning in small steps with checks for understanding.

Retrieval:

Through retrieving previously learnt information, children’s memory is strengthened and they are more likely to remember knowledge in the long term. At The Coppice we are aware of this and use spaced and interleaved retrieval practice quizzes and questioning.

Progress:

Progress has been made when there is a change in long term memory. Our curriculum is deliberately planned so that links are made within and across subjects and knowledge is built upon year on year. This doesn’t just include declarative knowledge (knowing that…) but also procedural knowledge (knowing how to…). Skills in each subject are also developed to build upon the knowledge being learnt, particularly in subjects like Art, DT, Music and PE which are designed around technique development as well as subject specific knowledge. Assessments in each subject check children are retaining knowledge and making progress. Consequently, our well-planned and engaging curriculum ensures that all children are able to make good or better progress and exceed the very high expectations that are set for them.

Support for all:

All staff work hard to identify needs, overcome any barriers to children’s learning that they may face (e.g. SEND) and to scaffold learning appropriately: for example, we consider how explanations and demonstrations can support learners with poor working memory. Our staff support all learners in the classroom in accordance with the Equality Act 2010, Chapter 1 pertaining to schools. Our teachers plan lessons that scaffold learning for all children within our care and we ensure that reasonable adjustments are made to the environment and resources to support learning. Furthermore, we ensure that the curriculum is accessible for all children and is delivered in a multi-sensory way for all types of learners.

Enhancements to the curriculum:

A wide range of other activities enhance the curriculum. History theme days ensure that children are fully immersed and engaged in learning about the past. Specialist support is used to enhance the curriculum in music with all children in Year 3, 4 and 5 learning to play a variety of instruments such as guitar, piano and violin. IT specialists enhance the IT curriculum, especially in Upper KS2 to ensure areas such as computer coding are delivered effectively. Other visitors to the school contribute specialist knowledge and skills across a range of subjects, such as PE, first aid and art. Children have the opportunity to engage in a wide range of extra-curricular activities and trips such as: theatre visits; museum visits and residential visits for Years 5 and 6.

Ultimately, our curriculum is designed around ensuring that children know more and remember more, make maximum progress and are able to become the best version of themselves during their time with us.

Please see the following document which explains our curriculum design and curriculum research.

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Assessment

Teachers provide children with frequent opportunities to revisit knowledge and concepts. Assessment is then used to assess what knowledge children have remembered.

One way to assess whether the curriculum has been learned is through regular low-stake quizzing. End of unit summary tasks are also used to assess what knowledge children have remembered and their depth of understanding. This task may take different forms e.g. a double-page spread, Venn diagrams, graphic organisers or a short essay.

Children are assessed against “curriculum related expectations” - our curriculum specifies what has been taught and children are assessed as to whether they have met a minimum threshold in their understanding.

Children also have formal assessments at various stages during their time at The Coppice, in line with national standards. 

To explain our approach, we have created the following documents:

Note that there is narrative about assessment during Early Years within the Early Years Curriculum content link below. 

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Content of Our Curriculum

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is how the Government and early years professionals describe the time in your child’s life between birth and age 5. For The Coppice this means children in our Nursery and Reception classes. Further detail on Our EYFS Curriculum can be accessed below. 

For Our Curriculum from Year One to Year Six, the content is broken down by each subject. 

This subject content, including Subject Summaries and Subject Roadmaps, can be accessed from the table below.  

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Educational Off-Site Visits

Educational Visits and Outdoor and Adventurous Activities are an integral part of the children’s education at The Coppice Primary School. They offer opportunities to enrich the curriculum, enabling the children to have first-hand experience of a wide range of topics and activities. On residential visits especially, there is opportunity to develop social skills which have a long-lasting beneficial effect.

Through providing children with an array of experiences outside of the classroom we aim to fulfil our school vision - To promote happy, confident and successful learners well prepared for life.

We aim to provide a broad range of off-site Educational Visits that support our broad and balanced curriculum; promoting spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development.

We also have many visitors and events in school that further enhance our curriculum.

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