GLEBE  -  Grow Learn Enjoy Believe Encourage

Our Curriculum

At Glebe Junior School, we offer a positive climate where children are encouraged to develop their learning together, practice their skills and become happy lifelong learners through ambitious and progressive cross-curricular subjects. We have developed a curriculum rich with innovative and exciting learning opportunities built upon our Glebe values.

The Glebe way encompasses the values that are important to us and everything that we do is based around these. We aim for all children to encourage others to enjoy every opportunity as well as grow as learners therefore developing their ability to believe in themselves.

The school is very much at the heart of the community and we make every effort to engage the whole family and make links to the children’s learning within the community. Before developing our curriculum, we took into account all stakeholders and gave Governors the opportunity to voice their opinions regarding the content of the curriculum, agreeing the knowledge and skills that pupils need in order to be successful. Giving the children a say in what they learn, or at least the context within which they acquire knowledge and learn skills, has given them a sense of ownership- they are more invested in their learning and the learning is more relevant to them. We believe that this has led to greater motivation and positive relationships between children and their learning.

At the heart of our curriculum are Glebe’s Intentions: the acquisition of knowledge; nurturing learning behaviours and developing our children’s values. These are interwoven in all parts of the curriculum. Our curriculum is designed with knowledge at its core and we ensure that we carefully consider children’s needs every step of their school journey. Knowledge is power, and we do children a disservice if we narrow the curriculum, particularly to children from disadvantaged backgrounds. We have ensured that each child has access to a range of wider opportunities and experiences to provide them with wider knowledge of the world which foster the children’s aspirations.

Bolsover district is ranked as the 26^th worst performer against youth social mobility indicators (State of the Nation 2017: Social Mobility in Great Britain) as well as having low Indices of Deprivation (LoD= 11304) so we have ensured our curriculum offers the experiences necessary to make this knowledge relevant and provide a context from which to learn.

Creative planning ensures that cross-curricular links are made and National Curriculum 2014 Programmes of study for KS2 are utilised, ensuring breath and balance in core and foundation subjects. Hooks for learning and experimental learning opportunities engage the children from the beginning, and help to address social disadvantage, while working towards authentic outcomes for each topic providing real purpose which motivates children to produce high quality work. We are mindful to take advantage of links with children’s previous learning to embed and build on skills previously acquired. Where possible, English skills are taught within the context of the topic and the focus on oracy skills and written work is central to every subject.

At Glebe Junior School we actively promote the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of our pupils (SMSC). We uphold and teach children about the fundamental ‘British Values’ which are defined as: democracy; rule of law; individual liberty; mutual respect and tolerance for those of different faiths and beliefs. These values are taught explicitly through PSHE, Religious Education (RE), assemblies and Thought of the Week. Our curriculum planning and delivery includes real opportunities for children to explore these values.

At Glebe Junior School, the mental health and well-being of our children, their families and our staff is extremely important to us.  We are proud to provide a supportive, caring and inclusive learning environment where every person feels respected, valued and safe.  We take the view that positive mental health is everybody's business and that we all have a role to play.  As such, we strongly believe that nurturing the mental health of our children is important to help them feel secure, safe and ready to learn.

Teachers and school leaders assess children’s knowledge, understanding and skills in non-core subjects using a range of strategies: through questioning and observation of pupils, marking books, annotation of planning and through curriculum leader feedback. During reviews, school staff will work collaboratively review the School Improvement Plan (SIP) before analysing progress through each subject in order to ensure that learning is built on and there is clear progression throughout the Key Stage.

Curriculum Over View

In September 2014 the New National Curriculum became statutory for all local authority-maintained schools. New tests were released for Summer 2016.

The National Curriculum contains the programmes of study and attainment targets for all subjects, at all key stages and can be downloaded from www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum.
National Curriculum is only part of education and contributes to the wider school curriculum. We have developed a broad and balanced curriculum considering local links, priorities and additional features. We engage children through a range of enrichment activities such as visits to places of interest, specialist visitors working with children at Glebe, use of drama and artefacts.

Our Curriculum Map provides an overview of topics covered for each year group and term. Further information can be found in our Termly Curriculum Booklets which are given to all children at the start of each term and are also available in the year group section of Learning or from the office.