Our Curriculum

What is the purpose of our curriculum?

At Meridian Community Primary School and Nursery, we are passionate about children achieving their best, both academically and personally, enhancing their learning through our bespoke curriculum. Our curriculum has been mapped out to ensure progression in learning from Nursery to Year Six and is underpinned by high expectations of teaching and learning across all subjects.  At Meridian Community Primary School and Nursery we know the importance of making learning engaging and interesting and our thematic approach supports making meaningful links within and across subjects.  We follow the National Curriculum (2014) and Early Years Foundation Stage Framework.

What do we want to achieve with our Meridian Curriculum? (Intent)

At Meridian, we have worked together to design our own curriculum which not only delivers the statutory EYFS Framework and National Curriculum but is also personalised to the needs of our school community.

At the heart of our curriculum are our school values (respect, kindness, strength, honesty and responsibility) which are promoted and supported through everything we do.  Children understand that our school values support them to grow and develop into positive citizens now and in the future.

At Meridian, we have a high focus on developing fluency and mastery in reading, writing and maths knowledge and skills and we provide opportunities for the children to apply these knowledge and skills in abstract and creative ways across other subjects.  We have a particular focus on developing children to be confident readers, confident communicators and have a wide vocabulary and this is taught and supported through all subjects in school, from Nursery to Year 6.

Our children love learning about people, places and stories so we ensure that our curriculum provides opportunities for children to learn about a wide range of people (including themselves), real and imagined places, and factual and fictional stories.  

We have six key themes that are key to our curriculum and what we want the children to learn about at Meridian:  Leadership and Community; Environmental Issues and Citizenship; Art, Culture, Music and Literature; Science, Technology and Engineering; Discoveries and Inventions; The Natural World.  These themes are taught across Early Years Foundation Stage, Key Stage One, Lower Key Stage Two and Upper Key Stage Two through a two year cycle of themed learning.

We also have three mini-studies across the year to develop children's love of reading and extend their understanding of the world:  an author study, an important person study and a global study.

All learning has been carefully mapped out to ensure coverage and progression across all subjects.

We teach our children how to be effective learners and how to be healthy (both physically and mentally) to support their achievements in school and in life.  Our curriculum develops children's understanding of equality, diversity and inclusion through the learning opportunities we provide.  All of which supports children at Meridian in becoming well rounded people and citizens of the school, local, national and global communities to which they belong.

As part of our bespoke curriculum, we enhance children's learning through hands-on experiences, visits to places of local and national importance and interest and invite visitors to our school.  We want our children to broaden their experiences and widen their world view as part of our curriculum offer.  Children will also have different opportunities to contribute to or experience - all part of our commitment to "Learning For Life".  For more information, see our Curriculum Pledge below.

How do we teach our curriculum at Meridian? (Implementation)

Senior Leaders and Subject Leaders have carefully mapped out learning across the school and teachers use curriculum overviews, knowledge organisers and progression documents to plan a thematic learning journey that have an over-arching enquiry question linked to the theme and topic for the term. Prior learning is built on and assessment strategies are used to plan effectively and ensure new learning has been acquired.

We encourage children to think like an expert through carefully crafted lessons that put the learning into a real-life context.

Training and support from Subject Leaders, including the use of some schemes, ensure teachers have the necessary subject knowledge to deliver the curriculum.

Regular reading, writing and maths lessons across the week prioritise these basic skills and opportunities to apply these skills are planned for across the curriculum.

Links across and within subjects are made where appropriate and all topics have either a visit, visitor or experience as part of the learning journey.  Where meaningful links are not possible, subjects are taught discretely.

We block some subjects across a term to allow children to be immersed in the knowledge, skills and, in particular, vocabulary of that subject.  This, in turn, develops their understanding and allows a more intensive and repetitive build up of new information - this approach is particularly supportive for our SEND children.

Some subjects are taught weekly across the school:  P.E., music, outdoor learning and PSHE; and Science is also taught weekly across Key Stage One and Key Stage Two.

We are lucky to have specialist teachers for P.E., music and outdoor learning which supports high quality teaching and learning in these subjects.  

We have a high focus on developing reading across the school, including specific reading lessons and/or phonics lessons as well as reading opportunities and specific vocabulary planned and taught through all subjects.

What difference will our curriculum have for the children at Meridian?  (Impact)

From their different starting points, all children will make at least good progress and achieve their academic and personal potential.  In particular we aim for all children to become competent and efficient readers so that they can access the learning and are ready for secondary school.  Children will have strong communication skills, both written and verbal, and understand the importance of respecting the views of others.  They will take pride in everything that they do and are always striving to do their best.  Children will have positive attitudes to learning and understand and use the key skills they need to be an effective learner, including persevering when they encounter challenge.  They will demonstrate our school values (kindness, respect, honesty, responsibility and strength) and understand why these are important.  All children will be ready for the next stage of their learning.

Our Curriculum Pledge

Whilst we ensure that we teach the Early Years Foundation Stage and National Curriculum, at Meridian Community Primary School and Nursery we aim to educate the whole child through wider opportunities and experiences that demonstrate our school motto "Learning for Life."  We are a true community school and as such we encourage and support all children to learn and play together and treat each other with dignity and respect.  We help children learn from their mistakes and take responsibility for their actions.  Ultimately, at Meridian we children to be safe, happy and learning and a rich, wide and varied curriculum with lots of meaningful, engaging learning experiences

We will visit . . .

We will have the opportunity to: