Working together and inspiring success
Yew Tree Community School
Our Curriculum
Read below for the rationale behind our school curriculum.
To find out more about our school's curriculum click on 'the school curriculum' tab to view the curriculum plans for all year groups. If you require any further information you can contact the school.
Our Curriculum: Why?
At INSPIRE, we work together as a community (staff, parents/carers, children, governors, trustees and members of the wider community) to inspire success for our pupils.
Our curriculum has been carefully planned and organised to ensure breadth, balance and depth of education for every child in our school. Our curriculum prepares our children for life in modern Britain.
Our curriculum is based on the National Curriculum but we have adapted it to meet the needs of our children.
In the design of our curriculum, we have considered knowledge progression and sequencing of concepts that enable pupils to build on what they have learnt previously.
With a very high proportion of children who have English as an additional language, early English language acquisition and the learning of phonics are prioritised.
Reading throughout school is also prioritised. The teaching of reading and promoting reading for pleasure are highly organised. Children are encouraged to come before school for additional reading. There is 100% commitment from all teachers who voluntarily give their time to support with this.
The school is highly ambitious for all children to be well-equipped with basic skills in reading, writing and maths needed across the curriculum and to prepare them for the next stage of their education.
Mathematical fluency and confidence in numeracy is regarded as preconditions of success across the school’s curriculum.
We strive to ensure that our curriculum is accessible to all, including for those children who have special educational needs, in line with Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014. Children with special educational needs or disabilities also receive additional interventions e.g. speech and language.
Our curriculum has been designed to: activate children’s prior knowledge, provide first hand learning experiences, build resilience and become creative, critical thinkers.
We promote equal opportunities to all of our pupils in line with the Equality Act 2010 throughout our practice.
We promote diversity, celebrate difference and encourage respect for all through our curriculum. This enables our pupils to embrace the world around them and encourages adherence with fundamental British values.
The school values of ‘Learn, Care, Respect and Be Safe’ underpin the work of our school.
Our ‘Wheel of Well-being’ promotes the spiritual, moral, social, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at our school.
Children’s mental health and well-being are important aspects of our curriculum.
Our free extra-curricular provision is heavily weighted towards sport and physical activity. This is to promote the health and well-being of our pupils and to help towards reducing the high levels of obesity amongst children in this community.
Inspire Education Community Trust fully supports Birmingham City Council’s Curriculum Statement which is reproduced below.
BIRMINGHAM CURRICULUM STATEMENT
- PREAMBLE
In Birmingham community cohesion means working towards a society in which strong and positive relationships flourish and continue to be developed in schools, the workplace and wider community. This is achieved through our shared values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, tolerance and mutual respect for people. The Equality Act 2010 places a duty on us to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and to foster good relations. To achieve this, every child in Birmingham should have the best opportunity to go as far as they can in life and education is the key to that success. This is our commitment to equip children and young people to be happy, talented, confident and ambitious citizens of Birmingham and of the world.
- THE STATEMENT
A statement for our children in Birmingham: a guarantee for their future.
ALL children in Birmingham will experience a broad and balanced curriculum enabling them to grow and learn in an environment without prejudice or inequality. It will prepare them for adult life by:
enabling them to play an active role in their school and community
experiencing a culturally rich and diverse life
developing and benefitting from a range of positive relationships
The curriculum will:
promote children’s engagement in learning through enquiry-led approaches that develop skills, dispositions and attitudes to learning
equip children for their futures in a rapidly changing world recognising the importance
of technology, science, languages and communication for dialogue and understanding between different groups
value, celebrate and build on children’s religious and cultural heritage and develop a sense of identity, honouring the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)
promote the fundamental shared values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs
help children develop an understanding of all faiths and none, and participate in the celebration of different religious events in understanding and accepting differences
develop children holistically: their intellectual, practical, aesthetic, spiritual, social and emotional capacities
ensure an understanding of protected characteristics of the Equality Act and how through diversity they can be celebrated
develop children to take the lead, accepting responsibility for their behaviour, to show initiative and compassion for others, to make a positive difference in their own lives and in the lives of those living and working in their local, national and global communities
At school, all children and young people will be given the opportunity to learn the benefits of physically and emotionally healthy lifestyles, by participating in high quality personal, social and health education including sex and relationships education. Opportunities will be provided for children to explore their talents and abilities through:
developing an appreciation of the arts
taking part in a wide range of physical activities, sports and games
developing a sense of self in a non-judgemental, mutually supportive environment
experiencing music and its intrinsic value for enjoyment and self-expression through performing, singing and the playing of instruments
experiencing social, moral, spiritual and cultural education that broadens children’s awareness and understanding of the world and their place within it
independent careers advice that inspires and motivates them to fulfil their potential
The UNCRC, Article 29 states that education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full. It must encourage the child’s respect for human rights, as well as respect for their parents, their own and other cultures and the environment. We will not allow any attempts to narrow the curriculum, or to deny our children and young people their right to education.
Signed
Councillor Jayne Francis
Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and Culture
Councillor John Cotton
Cabinet Member for Social inclusion, Community Safety and Equalities
Date: March 2019