Our ambitions are high -

we want every child to grow up to be proud of themselves;

proud of each other, 

and strive to make the world a better place,

as we learn and grow in Faith, Hope and Love.

Our curriculum is based upon our core principles - to enable every child to:

• Enjoy a healthy and active lifestyle.
• Be a curious and creative problem solver.
• Be in awe of God’s wonderful world and celebrate the diversity of creation.
• Value and serve every member of our community as a compassionate and generous citizen.
• Be knowledgeable and inspired by significant changes and achievements shaped by people from the past to the present day.
• Build knowledge about world issues and to strive for fairness, justice and respect, knowing that small actions can change the world.
• Attain the highest possible academic standards through learning with confidence, a positive mind-set and strong self-belief.

Here at Christ Church C of E Primary School  we provide a broad and balanced curriculum based around the Cornerstones Curriculum, a nationally recognised approach for delivering outstanding learning opportunities for children.

What is the Cornerstones Curriculum?

The Cornerstones Curriculum is a creative and thematic approach to learning that is mapped to the 2014 primary national curriculum to ensure comprehensive coverage of national expectations. It is based on a child-centred pedagogy called The Four Cornerstones and is delivered through Imaginative Learning Projects and Knowledge Rich Projects, which provide a rich menu of exciting and motivating learning activities that make creative links between all aspects of children’s learning.

We believe children learn better when they are encouraged to use their imagination and apply their learning to engaging contexts. Our curriculum provides many learning challenges throughout the academic year that require children to solve problems, apply themselves creatively and express their knowledge and understanding effectively.

Cornerstones also provide a rigorous skills and knowledge framework that outlines the end of year expectations in all subjects. These skills and knowledge are tied to activities and are age-related so that staff can track children’s progress and identify their individual learning needs.

Our curriculum is planned based on four distinct stages. These stages are: 

Engage, Develop, Innovate, Express

Engage

Engage is a short stage in which children take part in a memorable experience to stimulate their curiosity, ask questions and talk about their prior learning. They are introduced to the required baseline knowledge to support future learning.

Develop

Develop is a longer stage, where children delve more deeply into the theme, explore and acquire new skills and knowledge, revisit previously acquired skills and knowledge, make links between subjects, explore, make, read and write for a variety of purposes across the curriculum.

Innovate

Innovate is a crucial opportunity for children to return to previous skills and knowledge and apply them in new contexts. 

The Innovate stage poses a thematic problem, challenge, provocation or scenario that requires children to think creatively whilst applying, reflecting and revisiting what they have learnt in previous stages, in a real-life or imaginary context. 

Express

Express gives children a structured opportunity to reflect on their learning, test their knowledge and celebrate their achievements.