Curriculum Statement

‘Achieving Success Together’

Staff make every effort to enrich the educational experiences of our children.

Our curriculum is planned to be not only educational, but also enjoyable for both pupils and staff. The school day is carefully planned to ensure children gain maximum benefit through an exciting curriculum and other extra-curricular activities. Our staff have a wealth of experience and knowledge and lessons are alive with challenge and involvement for all. Children demonstrate an interest and a keen approach to learning and this is encouraged through the carefully planned curriculum for all. Through the School Council and other opportunities with classroom learning, pupils have a voice that is heard.

The foundation stones to a successful education lie in the acquisition of basic skills. Without these skills, children will not make the educational progress that is expected of them. At Boxmoor Primary School, we place great emphasis on learning basic skills. Children will be taught and expected to learn number bonds and times tables, as well as calculation methods to support the fluency aspect of the Mathematics Curriculum. In addition, children will be taught phonics, through the use of the Essential Letters and Sounds programme, basic spelling rules and reading skills. We ensure that children are given a range of reading materials and structure this accordingly so that they can make appropriate progress. Our aim is that when pupils leave Year Six, they will be highly numerate and literate, with a real joy for learning.

Computing skills is also central to the curriculum and is integrated into a range of subjects. The school is well resourced with interactive screens in all teaching rooms, which allows us to create visually stimulating lessons and greater opportunities for interactive learning. In addition the school has a computer suite of 15 computers and a class set of ipads to be used for Nursery to Year 4. Year 5 have enough ipads for 30 children to share one between 2 and Year 6 are fortunate to have an ipad each to support all aspects of the Curriculum.

Embedded in our curriculum as a way of nurturing children to access basic skills through different learning styles as well as challenging themselves further in different areas, are the Arts. We value the Arts for their intrinsic quality, promoting self-esteem, leadership opportunities and providing an interesting stimulus for all areas. Aside from regular PE/dance, art, design and technology and music lessons, many art forms, including drama are used in other areas - facilitated by our creative curriculum. In addition to this, we organise a number of themed weeks throughout the year which enable children to work alongside professionals or organisations visiting the school. Our ‘World Week’, for example, encourages inclusiveness and cultural diversity in every curriculum area.

We support The Arts by providing opportunities for children to learn a musical instrument taught by peripatetic Music teachers visiting the school. Children are given the chance to learn both tuned and untuned instruments as we provide lessons for strings, brass, woodwind and percussion.

We are extremely fortunate that so many staff value the contribution made by other activities beyond the classroom. As a result a range of extra-curricular clubs and activities are offered at lunchtimes and after school all year round. These range from sports clubs, such as Netball, dance, and football, to drama, orchestra, choir and technology based clubs. In addition, a range of educational experiences also support our school curriculum. Visits are arranged for all classes and include, amongst others, trips to the zoo, museums, places of interest such as Hatfield House, Chiltern Open Air Museum, Museum of London and a short residential school journey for children in Year Five with a longer one in Year Six.

Boxmoor Primary School is enjoys a rich and varied outside space. The school has developed a ‘Forest School Area’ which Reception to Year 3 use in a structured way and other year groups are invited to use the outdoor area to enhance the learning opportunities that the teachers plan for the children.

To find out more about our curriculum, please look at our Curriculum News documents which provide more detail about what each year group is learning each term. Also, please feel free to talk to your child's teacher about our curriculum.