If you require any further details regarding our curriculum, please contact the school directly.

Curriculum Intent

At Snape and Thornton Watlass, we believe that every child is unique and deserves the chance to develop their individual interests, talents and skills whilst being inspired to explore and discover new experiences, and what the wider community and world has to offer.

Our curriculum provides rich and varied learning experiences, which are underpinned by the statutory requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum and the Primary National Curriculum for the core and foundation subjects.  Our vision of Inspire, Engage, Enjoy, Succeed, and our Christian Values of Compassion, Respect, Honesty, Hope, Love, Forgiveness and Justice, permeate through the core of our curriculum and everyday practice. 

We fully recognise the need for a broader curriculum full of engaging and purposeful quality learning opportunities, which embrace the strengths that living in a rural area offers (a strong sense of community and fantastic Forest Schools experiences to name a few).  In addition, we know the importance and value of enabling our children to develop wider knowledge, understanding and experiences of diversity, British Values and a sense of responsibility for the world in which we live.  Here at STW Federation we are committed to ‘The Sustainable Development Agenda’ (United Nations) and have carefully incorporated these into our curriculum design with the intent on inspiring and supporting our children to make a difference.  Our curriculum, carefully designed with these broader values in mind, provides memorable experiences and purposeful learning opportunities from which they can learn and develop a range of transferable skills. 

We acknowledge that effective learning is a change in long-term memory and strive to achieve this through a knowledge-rich curriculum, recognising that information, combined with an understanding of vocabulary and know-how, are all essential.  In addition, we also recognise the need for repetition.  Broad, rich opportunities through which our children can enquire and make links between the learning, transferring their knowledge and skills are carefully planned for.

Underpinning all learning is a commitment to promote positive learning behaviours and attitudes.  We are committed to enabling our children to become resilient and independent learners, helping them to grow as individuals whilst developing a life-long love of learning and high aspirations for their future. 

For some curriculum subjects, we use Kapow Primary this provides engaging and progressive schemes of work which we have adapted to the unique needs of our school. 

Curriculum Implementation

Our curriculum is carefully designed to balance the National Curriculum expectations with the unique needs of the children within our school family community.  We have carefully selected engaging and relevant topics which have been enhanced to ensure they best meet our curriculum intent, incorporating our vision and Christian Values, British Values, and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.  In addition, we have created our own projects which provide unique learning opportunities relevant to the needs of our children. 

From the projects on our long-term plan, the focus of teaching and learning for each curriculum area has been planned.  This is underpinned by carefully sequenced progressive learning through which opportunities for repetition; the development of a rich, varied vocabulary; and transferable knowledge and skills, are provided in such way that it supports a change to long-term memory, which we recognise as essential for effective learning.  Frequent monitoring and evaluation will ensure that our curriculum is dynamic, adapting to the context of our school and our children’s needs. 

Our teaching staff value the different ways in which children learn and plan lessons tailored to these differences.  Lessons are planned to ensure a range of experiences which allow our children to build upon previous learning and knowledge, draw upon knowledge and skills from different subjects, make connections, and understand the relevance of this knowledge in everyday life.  Planning, which is rich in knowledge and skills, is driven by age related expectations which ensure a purposeful and exciting learning journey for every child.  Repetition is deliberately planned for enabling learning to ‘stick’.  High expectations to demonstrate a breadth of vocabulary, develop strong cross-curricular links and transferable knowledge, understanding and skills underpin all teaching and learning.  Quality classroom environments and resources stimulate and promote quality thinking and reasoning, while our metacognition work and feedback policy is an opportunity for children to become independent, resilient and self-assured learners.  Personal development and relationships shape our approach to learning ensuring that our pupils are happy, emotionally intelligent citizens who understand themselves and also their place in the world as unique individuals.

Curriculum Impact

We are confident that the impact of our curriculum can be clearly seen by the way in which our children develop into confident, motivated learners; they are well equipped to face the challenges of their next stage of education.  We know that each of them will take away fond memories of their time in our school, of the staff and of each other.

Through continued commitment and opportunities, our children’s personal development is a strength; evident in the way that they contribute to school life and how they interact with each other and the world around them.  Our children understand and express their emotions well and handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically.  The children have demonstrated great resilience and adapted well to remote learning; a continued focus from school has supported their mental health and wellbeing.  Visitors to our school comment how confident our children speak to them and how articulate they are. 

We are proud to see that our drive to improve children’s learning behaviours is having a clear impact.  They are becoming increasingly independent and resilient; developing a repertoire of life-long skills which support them in overcoming challenges and making progress.  This is not only evident in classroom-based learning but through the plentiful outdoor education opportunities they are provided with.

Through a collective responsibility for raising standards and improving pupil outcomes, and a rich, broad and relevant curriculum, our children develop detailed knowledge and skills across the curriculum.  They are able to transfer their knowledge and skills into wider contexts, making links.  One example of this could include children applying what they know about the British Value, Democracy, and the impact that this has had on different periods in history.

We use rigorous monitoring throughout the year to evaluate the impact of our curriculum design. As part of a robust school improvement plan, staff and governors monitor individual curriculum subjects. Reviewing learning and the impact of teaching, evaluating pupil voice, tracking attainment and progress, celebrating and sharing highly effective practice, is proven to have an impact upon learning.  We continually review provision and how effectively it meets the needs of our children and feed areas identified for development into our focused school improvement plan.

Assessment for Learning is continuously used to drive forward the learning of our children.  Summative assessments show evidence of an improving trend in pupil learning outcomes; demonstrating a relatively low impact upon outcomes during periods of remote learning, which we know is a positive reflection upon our remote learning offer. 

Just as importantly as their academic successes, our children also achieve success in the wider aspects of life.  Our children represent the school in sporting events, take part in community events, and are proactive in considering how they can impact upon and improve the lives of others and the world around us.  Our recently established group, ‘The Planet Protectors’, is a great example of this.

We fully recognise the privileged position that we are in to be working with our children at Snape and Thornton Watlass; our greatest reward is seeing our children flourish and hearing of their achievements.

Curriculum Expectation

The Standards and Testing Agency outline expectations of what children should be able to do by the end of Year 2 and Year 6 in reading, writing, maths and science to achieve the national standard.  Please click the links below to access the frameworks: