Curriculum Statement
‘Excellence, Truth and Grace’
‘Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious – the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realised. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.’
Philippians 4: 8 – 9
At Middleton Parish, we are inspired by our mission statement from Philippians 4 and truly believe that our motto ‘Excellence, Truth and Grace’ is at the core of all we do. Excellence, truth and grace is of course at the heart of our curriculum too, helping to ensure that all children can learn to live these values in many forms, not only whilst they are a member of our school family but throughout their life. We believe in showing excellence every day, from everyone, for everyone and are always looking deliver the highest standards in all we do – to which our curriculum is not exception.
At Middleton Parish, we understand that knowledge empowers our children and enables them to have their own aspirations for the future. We aim to ensure that children develop a solid base on which to build as they move into Key Stage 3 and beyond. Our curriculum sets out specific substantive knowledge (facts) as well as disciplinary knowledge (skills), so that children are continually able to know more and remember more. The implementation of the curriculum is founded in research: ensuring children are given explicit instruction relevant to the subject being taught, having regular opportunities to recall previously taught content to ensure it is stored in the long-term memory, understanding the importance of oracy throughout the school and its links to all areas of the curriculum as well as understanding the importance of developing children’s rich vocabulary as they move through the school. We know that if knowledge is to stick and not be lost, it needs to be explicitly connected to prior learning and experiences which is what we aim to achieve in all areas of our curriculum through clearly defined progression.
Our curriculum overall aims to:
- Develop and prosper the whole, unique child
- Be inclusive whilst celebrating diversity
- Raise aspirations and eradicate social disadvantage through the provision of enriching opportunities
- Increase cultural capital
- Enable children to develop a wide vocabulary and be skilled readers, writers and language speakers
- Be accessible, by beginning with the known and familiar
- Be ambitious and clear in developing engagement, connections and a lifelong love of learning
- Develop both skill and knowledge base
Our motto of ‘Excellence, Truth and Grace’ is evident throughout our curriculum in the following ways:
Excellence
Our curriculum is ambitious, broad and sequential, ensuring not only children know more and remember more within all the subjects of the National Curriculum but that children develop their emotional, social, cultural and spiritual awareness. Children are encouraged to make every piece of work their best piece of work to ensure children aspire to show excellence every day. We understand that excellence does not look the same for all children and so adaptations are made as and when necessary to ensure achievements, both personal and academic, are centred on what excellence looks like for each child.
Truth
As children progress through our curriculum, obtaining more knowledge of the world and developing a variety of skills, they begin to develop their own truth; they develop their own world views, discover new interests and passions, establish their own beliefs and understand their personal areas for development. Truth is at the heart of the way we assess the impact of our curriculum, so that we can get a true picture of what children do know and can do, enabling us to continually work with the children to improve. We promote the value of truth when we make mistakes and teach the children how to learn from them when we make them.
Grace
As an inclusive school, grace is at the centre of how children learn to interact with each other. Through collective worship and throughout our curriculum, we teach children what it means to be respectful to others and show grace in all we do. We value the importance of grace as an important tool when we are learning – understanding that learning requires us to get it wrong and make mistakes to be able to continually improve. Through showing grace, children learn to value the feedback given from staff and peers to enable them to be the best that they can be.
We invite you to visit the curriculum pages for each of the subjects taught at Middleton Parish to learn more about our curriculum offer. Our curriculum is based on the National Curriculum and a copy is available to view below.
Curriculum Statement
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