Wider Curriculum Subjects
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day." Albert Einstein
The wider curriculum is the means by which children begin to explore and understand the world around them. Our aim is for pupils to leave Broadwater Down Primary School with all the skills and knowledge that they may need to participate fully in life at secondary school and beyond. We aim to pupils to be knowledgeable but curious; independent-minded but open to new ideas; and adaptable to the world around them but courageous enough to stand up for what they believe in. We want pupils at Broadwater to be interested and excited by history, geography, art, music and all of the other wider curriculum areas.
Art and Design
Art and Design Curriculum Overview
At Broadwater Down our Art and Design curriculum engages, inspires and challenges pupils giving them the skills and knowledge to experiment, invent and create their own works of art. Throughout years 1-6, will experience the following creative subject areas. Depending on the termly outcome, the Class Teacher will decide the order in which they are undertaken:
Broadwater Down is committed to creating learning experiences that embrace our core values: Community, Excellence and Diversity. Our Art and design curriculum allows children to develop their creativity through opportunities to engage, be inspired and challenged. At Broadwater Down we are strong believers in the impact of Art and Design and is a key part to our broad and balanced curriculum. Creativity is a key form of expression and explored within the whole school. Children are exposed to inspirational art and creativity within classrooms, on large displays along school corridors, including bespoke commissioned pieces by our Artist in Residence and competition winning photographs. The children are immersed in creativity and have the opportunity to explore a wide variety of mediums and learn about numerous artists throughout history, from modern day artists from a range of countries, cultures and beliefs. The school have invested in high quality art equipment from paint brushes and paints to watercolour and cartridge papers as not to inhibit the children’s creativity.
Through Art and Design, the children are learning to explore creativity. Creativity is vitality important in modern society and rapidly becoming more so, our aim is to give the children every opportunity through experiences to thrive in their futures.
Our Art and Design policy places our school’s core values at the heart of our learning.
Diversity
- Develop children’s awareness of art and great artists from different parts of the U.K. and different countries around the world.
- To explore how art communicates ideas and tells stories and how different cultures and religions use art to voice their attitudes and beliefs.
- Develop children’s understanding of the historical and cultural changes within artists work.
- Value their own and other people’s creativity and cultures in a modern, multicultural Britain.
Excellence
- To produce high quality creative work that explores the children’s ideas.
- To discover and celebrate a sense of purpose and fulfilment in artistic expression.
- Learn the skills to use a wide range of media and to have the confidence and knowledge to know best practice to use them.
- To develop children’s observation, analytical and descriptive skills to appreciate their and others’ achievements.
Community
- To work alongside local artists to inspire, engage and excite the children through experiences, direct teaching and providing CPD sessions to up skill teaching staff
- To enable children to exhibit their work within the local community
- To work alongside an artist in residence to create beautiful key pieces of artwork within the school.
Computing
Curriculum Intent
At Broadwater Down Primary School we understand that a high quality Computing curriculum is essential for pupils to become confident, creative and independent learners. With technology playing such a significant role in society today, we believe a broad and balanced Computing curriculum is vital for ensuring all of our pupils are able to participate effectively and be ready and safe users in the digital world in which they live in.
Pupils will develop their knowledge, skills and understanding in the three main areas of computing. These are:
Computer Science, Information Technology and Digital Literacy.
Whilst engaged in our Computing curriculum the children will be supported to develop the essential knowledge and skills for their year group, which will enable them to use a wide range of technology in purposeful ways at school and home. This curriculum area will also support them to develop the key character traits set out in our whole school curriculum intent.
These are:
- To be safe and happy
- To be ready for learning and life and
- To be respectful global citizens
Each of these traits will be promoted, interwoven and celebrated within our wider curriculum.
Click here for our Computing long term planning document
Knowledge and Skills Progression
Please click here to open our Computing progression document.
Design and Technology
Design and Technology Curriculum Overview
At Broadwater Down our children creatively design and make products that solve real and relevant problems. Depending on the termly outcome, the Class Teacher will decide the order the children design, make and evaluate within the following subject areas:
Curriculum Intent
Broadwater Down is committed to creating learning experiences that embrace our core values: Community, Excellence and Diversity. Our Design and Technology curriculum allows children to develop their problem solving, analytical skills and creativity through opportunities to engage, be inspired and challenged. At Broadwater Down we are strong believers in the impact of Design and Technology in our day to day activities and is a key part to our broad and balanced curriculum. We teach the children to design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values.
Through the evaluation of past and present design and technology, the children develop a critical understanding of its impact on daily life and the wider world. The design briefs, follow the classes’ learning projects and contribute towards the final project outcome. The children are encouraged to identify a need, evaluate existing design and technology solutions to the problem, before designing and manufacturing their own product. The children find this start to finish process extremely rewarding. Through the study of design and technology the children combine practical skills with an understanding of aesthetic, social and environmental issues.
Our Design and Technology policy Intent to cover the curriculum with our school’s core values at the heart of our learning.
Diversity
- Provide an exciting, relevant and challenging projects for all pupils.
- Develop children’s awareness of design and technology in the wider world and how different problems are solved by design and technology solutions.
- Learn how products and technology have evolved over time to suit consumers changing needs.
Excellence
- To develop children’s observation, exploratory and critical skills to appreciate existing designs, their own and their peers designs and products.
- To develop a “can do” attitude to problem solving and become reflective thinkers.
- Learn the skills to use a wide variety tools and equipment, materials and components.
- To produce high quality, detailed and accurate technical drawings.
- To become independent and creative problem-solvers, both as individuals and as part of a team.
Community
- To work alongside local designers and technology companies to inspire, engage and excite the children through experiences, direct teaching and providing CPD sessions to up skill teaching staff.
- To enable children to exhibit and present their work within the local community.
- To question the world around them and to find and solve real problems.
Knowledge and Skills Progression
Please click here to open our Design and Technology progression document.
Geography
Curriculum Intent
At Broadwater Down we want our pupils to have a good understanding of the world around them - the places, people and interconnections that make it such an awe-inspiring place. Geography often provides context for our other learning as well so will often be seen cropping up in our History lessons or our English lessons. All Geography curriculum design is underpinned by our school core values:
Diversity
- Inspire in pupils a curiosity about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives
- Provide pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments
- Acquire knowledge of the characteristics of people living in particular areas, including their attitudes and beliefs and their social, cultural, religious and ethnic diversity
- Understand how people of other places may have different values and attitudes from our own and an understanding of how physical and human geography affects this.
Excellence
- Encourage children to pose and answer geographical questions
- Stimulate curiosity and understanding about the world
- Consider how people live across the planet
- Think critically and identify different ways in which information is presented
- Learn and explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time
- Develop a growing knowledge about the world to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments
Community
- Help children to understand the process of change, the diversity of societies and the relationship between different groups.
- Develop a sense of place and identity and an awareness of the challenges of physical and human environments
- Understand cause and consequence and appreciate their place in the world as it changes
- Value their own and other people’s cultures in a modern, multicultural Britain
Knowledge and Skills Progression
History
Curriculum Intent
The study of history is a study of people: What is our society like and what are the previous events and people who have shaped the way we live? How can we learn from the past and how can we shape the future? Our study of historical events and figures is always guided by our school core values:
Diversity
- Develop children’s understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world.
- Develop a sense of identity and a cultural understanding based on historical heritage.
- Acquire knowledge of the characteristics of people living in particular periods, including their attitudes and beliefs and their social, cultural, religious and ethnic diversity.
- Understand how the past was different to the present and the people of other times and places may have has different values and attitudes from our own.
Excellence
- Encourage children to pose and answer historical questions
- Stimulate curiosity and understanding about the past
- Consider how people lived in the past and from that, inform their life choices today
- Think critically and identify different ways in which the past is represented.
Community
- Help children to understand the process of change, the diversity of societies and the relationship between different groups.
- Develop a sense of identity and an awareness of the challenges of their time
- Understand cause and consequence and appreciate their place in the world as it changes
- Value their own and other people’s cultures in a modern, multicultural Britain
Knowledge and Skills Progression
Please click here to open our History progression document.
Spanish
Curriculum Intent
Studying a modern foreign language is a window into another culture, teaching children empathy and tolerance, as well as extending children's opportunities for learning into a whole new vocabulary! Successful MFL teaching at primary school fosters pupils’ curiosity and deepens their understanding of the world, while preparing them for learning other language to a more advanced level later on in their educational journey.
Diversity
- Raise awareness of the multi-lingual and multi-cultural world.
- Introduce an international dimension to pupils’ learning and provide insight into their own culture and those of others.
- Develop intercultural understanding by describing the life of children in the countries where the language is spoken.
Excellence
- Support children’s literacy and oracy in school, by raising awareness of aspects of their own language(s), thereby enriching their understanding of both English and their Modern Foreign Language.
- Children become aware that language has structure, and that the structure differs from one language to another.
- Pupils develop confidence in speaking, listening, reading and writing in another language.
Community
- To help children develop their awareness and interest of cultural differences in other countries.
- Recognise how symbols, products and objects can represent the culture of a country, and how aspects of the culture of different countries become incorporated in the daily life of others.
Music
Curriculum Intent
“Music does a lot of things for a lot of people. It’s transporting, for sure. It can take you right back, years back, to the very moment certain things happened in your life. It’s uplifting, it’s encouraging, it’s strengthening.” Aretha Franklin
At Broadwater Down Primary School every child in every year group is able to engage in musical activities and gain an experience of all that music offers. Music lessons are taught weekly to years 2-5 by our music specialist teacher and by the class teachers in year 6, 1 and Reception with the support and guidance of our specialist.
Our music lessons consist of:
Singing a wide range of styles in order to develop pitch, range and performance skills;
Listening to music from a wide range of musical genres and eras in order learn about the technical elements which make up the music we hear and to develop an appreciation of music;
Playing musical instruments tuned and untuned percussion – learning how to read notation both rhythm and pitch, performing individually and in groups;
Improvising and composing applying knowledge of notation to compositions and developing musicality - feeling the beat, structure, tempo in order to improvise a rhythm or a melody.
Music at Broadwater Down is inclusive of all children. It is an activity which contrasts to all others and provides the opportunity for all to succeed.
Music promotes focused listening skills, concentration, team work, respect, determination, and creativity. The outcomes of regular music lessons can be profound and can include:
Increased personal confidence and self esteem,
Motivation and improved attitude to other curriculum areas and school as a whole,
Development of friendships and improved communication skills – social bonding,
Confidence to participate - have a go and try something for the first time,
To develop a ‘try, try again’ attitude - practice makes progress!
An increased sense of achievement and pride. Happiness!
Extended music provision
Music at Broadwater Down reaches further than the weekly class music lessons.
We have guitar and piano peripatetic teachers visiting the school once a week. Children who are learning musical instruments are invited to perform in assemblies and school concerts under the advice of their teachers.
Key Stage 2 Choir come together once a week primarily to have fun singing together and also to rehearse for school concerts and events such as the biannual Tunbridge Wells Singing Festival and Young Voices.
Assessment in music is mostly formative: by observation of each child’s engagement, their use of musical vocabulary and the skills they show in playing instruments, singing, improvising and composing. Sessions may be recorded using an ipad and children will also sometimes record their music work on paper.
Having attended Broadwater Down Primary School, our aim is for pupils to move on to secondary school equipped with a thorough experience of music as a whole subject, a wide range of musical knowledge and skills and (most importantly) a genuine love for music and an enthusiasm to learn more.
Knowledge and Skills Progression
Please click here to view Intent, Implement and Impact statement
Please click here to open our Music progression document.
PE (Physical Education)
Curriculum Intent
Physical Education is a key contributor in the overall development of each child. Physical Education develops physical skills, knowledge and understanding in games, gymnastics, dance, athletics, outdoor and adventurous activities and swimming. Physical Education provides children with opportunities to complete individual challenges and social experiences working alongside others in teams. The development of fundamental skills and knowledge is essential for children to live a healthy life. Opportunities to compete in sport and other activities build character and help to embed values such as fairness and respect.
Broadwater Down staff ensure that all children will:
- Develop competence to excel in a broad range of physical activities from the school’s Physical Education long term plan.
- Be physically active for sustained periods of time during a class lesson or club.
- Engage in competitive sports and activities both intra and inter formats.
- Be educated to lead healthy, active lives.
- Develop positive attitudes to different circumstances such as fair play, failure, success, good sporting behaviour, co-operation and perseverance.
- Increase and develop self-esteem and confidence.
- Understand the effects of physical exercise on the body.
- Be able to evaluate themselves, their peers and groups of pupils constructively and critically to enhance achievement and competence.
- Show a sound understanding of the need for safe practice in physical education lessons and can demonstrate how to achieve this.
Knowledge and Skills Progression
PSHE and SMSC
At Broadwater Down Primary School we aim to develop learners who are passionate, take ownership of their learning and are proud of their achievements. We believe that the teaching of Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHEE), Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) Development and Fundamental British Values cannot be separated and are evident throughout our whole curriculum and school day.
We help our pupils to develop an inner discipline and encourage pupils to not just ‘follow the crowd’ – but to make up their own minds and be ready to accept responsibility for what they do.
Aspects of SMSC are developed throughout the school with all of our pupils and permeate all areas of school life.
Our core values are a fundamental part of this.
Coram Life Education & SCARF is the UK's leading charity provider of PSHE and wellbeing education in primary schools.
SCARF resources are developed by teachers for teachers. Over 50,000 subscribe to SCARF as their chosen provider of PSHE. SCARF offers us:
- A Whole-school approach to health and wellbeing
- Fully-resourced, comprehensive PSHE programme - over 360 lesson plans
- An online platfrom that is always up to date
- A programme that fulfils all DfE statutory requirements for Relationships & Health Education
- Half term units of work & planning from Nursery to Year 6
- An Ofsted Audit tool meeting expectations for Intent, Implementation and Impact through the SCARF coherent, sequential curriculum
- Assessment tools & progression that are embedded
- Comprehensive free staff SCARF training
- Access to free and low-cost specialist training
- Support of a SCARF co-ordinator
SCARF's whole-school approach supports our primary school in promoting positive behaviour, mental health, wellbeing, resilience and achievement – giving us everything we need to meet the DfE RSHE statutory requirements. It is more than just a PSHE scheme of work as SCARF supports great learning every day.
Please click here to browse the learning objectives and lessons taught in every year group.
Click here to view the latest Well-Being survey report.
Spiritual Development
Pupils’ spiritual development is shown by their:
- beliefs, religious or otherwise, which inform their perspective on life and their interest in and respect for different people’s feelings and values
- sense of enjoyment and fascination in learning about themselves, others and the world around them, including the intangible use of imagination and creativity in their learning
- willingness to reflect on their experiences
Moral Development
Pupils’ moral development is shown by their:
- ability to recognise the difference between right and wrong, and their readiness to apply this understanding in their own lives
- understanding of the consequences of their actions
- interest in investigating, and offering reasoned views about, moral and ethical issues
Curiculal Development
Pupils’ cultural development is shown by their:
- understanding and appreciation of the wide range of cultural influences that have shaped their own heritage
- willingness to participate in, and respond to, for example, artistic, musical, sporting, mathematical, technological, scientific and cultural opportunities
- interest in exploring, understanding of, and respect for cultural diversity and the extent to which they understand, accept, respect and celebrate
- diversity, as shown by their attitudes towards different religious, ethnic and socio-economic groups in the local, national and global communities