Summerside’s Curriculum Intent:

‘Creating excellence – Inspiring Success for all’

Our curriculum is purposeful and exciting.

Through our purposeful and exciting curriculum, we develop a real love for learning and a thirst for knowledge. Our planning is informed by what our children already know, want to know and wonder, giving them more control over their own curriculum. Our engaging subjects are inspired by the National Primary Curriculum and are planned in a way which capture our children’s excitement and interest. Topic days provide a fun way to immerse the children into their subjects and provide children with a memorable experience that stays with them throughout their learning and beyond. 

Our curriculum is broad, balanced and manageable.

Across the school, we teach a wide range of subjects which allow the children to develop their knowledge and interests in different areas of the curriculum. We model a talk for learning approach in English, which inspires the rest of the curriculum too. The curriculum encourages children to be articulate about their knowledge in all subjects and focusses on teaching our key values in all subjects ensuring they build on and remember clearly the knowledge they have learnt before. 

Our curriculum is well sequenced, progressive and memorable so children can reach their full potential.

The skills that we teach are progressive and grow over time. We ensure that we build on the previous year’s learning to sequence our planning and teaching of each curriculum subject. We provide our children with memorable experiences in order to ensure that knowledge stays with them long term and provide children with the necessary tools to help them know more and remember more.

Our curriculum involves everyone.

We are extremely proud of the inclusive nature of our curriculum and cater to the needs of all of our children through careful planning and adaptions. Our Special Education Needs children and Provision for Deaf Children access the curriculum which is built around them. As a school, our sense of community is strong; the community involvement we receive further enriches our curriculum. Parents are also invited to be a part of the curriculum over the course of the year for many different events. All of our supportive and caring staff are fully involved in our curriculum too.

Our curriculum is nurturing and gives our children tools to be lifelong learners. 

Summerside is safe and nurturing place to learn, for all. With our work in the Zones of Regulation, our children are provided with ways to articulate the way they are feeling; they also develop a toolkit which allows them to regulate their emotions. We believe in the vital importance of promoting positive mental health in our children. By teaching weekly PSHE lessons with a mindful approach, we are constantly working on and developing the children’s mental health. This reflects our cohort, with a high number of our children coming from vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds. Having a growth mindset is embedded as a school; we celebrate the mistakes we make and fully acknowledge that they are a key component in success; our values underpin this. PAWS B sessions and referrals to BICS, further enables us to nurture the mental health in our children who need it.  

Our curriculum promotes diversity and is inclusive.  

Our curriculum is built around our extremely diverse community, where we promote acceptance. This is vital and reflects the high percentages of EAL, disadvantaged and SEND children in the school. Our subjects cater for and excite our wonderfully multicultural cohort. Our carefully planned RE curriculum further promotes understanding and acceptance for all faiths. Throughout the curriculum, we embed our British values, making links where applicable. 

Extra-curricular activities add value to our curriculum. 

The 11 before 11 scheme makes the curriculum richer and more fulfilling, providing our children with experiences which they may not be able to have access to outside of school. Some of these experiences include: 'Sleeping under the stars' and 'Messing about on the water.' Trips are planned regularly to add value to the themes within the curriculum and after school activities including Art and various sports clubs further enrich the children’s school experience.