Rationale

'Stop making the children fit the curriculum and start making the curriculum fit the children' Ofsted 2010

Educating our children for life in the 21st century is more important than ticking all of the curriculum boxes. Our children are special and deserve the best we can give them. If this means an occasional gap then so be it. Our aim is to plan for what we know the children need.

The Foundation of our curriculum:

Sir Ken Robinson talking about the challenges in education YOUTUBE Shift Happens UK YOUTUBE We are the people - YOUTUBE

Our shared purpose developed 6 June 2011:

// We promote and provide opportunities to develop self belief, // // independence and life skills by communicating, valuing and // // nurturing people and by giving clear direction and rewarding // // outcomes for all. //

All our professional decisions, behaviours and actions should be founded in this purpose. This includes designing our curriculum, teaching, and our relationships with each other, our children and our community.

Staff created a curriculum backlog (a list of must/should/could) and Mike arranged the ideas into 4 strands:
 * Thinking and Learning Skills
 * Values and Attitudes
 * Knowledge and Experiences
 * Learning Together



Each strand was split into 6 themes, one for each half term:

The image of a spiral is used to show how the different strands work together and how each theme is visited at least once a year.