Stonegate Church of England Primary School

We believe that the curriculum should engage children so they not only see a value and use for learning but come to appreciate that the concept of lifelong learning is a key component in a rich and fulfilling life.

At Stonegate where we undertake a 'Learning Journey' approach to the curriculum where a number of subjects are linked together under one topic to create the greatest levels of excitement and enrichment. 

Our vision drives our thinking for which learning experiences and curriculum activities will allow every member of our school community to flourish. 

The breadth of our curriculum is designed with four goals in mind:

1. To give pupils appropriate experiences to develop as confident, responsible citizens (provide a rich ‘cultural capital’)

2. To provide a coherent, structured, academic curriculum that leads to sustained mastery for all and a greater depth of understanding for those who are capable.

3. To complete much of our learning outside of the classroom, as we believe that this provides children with real life, concrete examples of learning.

4. Highlights the importance of living to the values described by Jesus and reinforces the benefits of community. 

Our curriculum design is based on evidence from cognitive science; two main principles underpin it:

1. Learning is most effective with spaced repetition.
2. Retrieval of previously learned content is frequent and regular, which increases both storage and retrieval strength.

In addition to the two principles we also understand that learning is invisible in the short-term and that sustained mastery takes time.

Some of our content is subject specific, but we link concepts whenever possible in a cross-curricular approach.