"Your passion for learning permeates through the school"

(Ofsted inspection 2018)

Situated in the heart of the Lake District, Borrowdale School's fantastic grounds and surroundings offer endless opportunities for learning and exploration. Learning should be fun and relevant. We strongly believe in 'Learning Outside the Classroom' and we therefore enrich our curriculum with many outdoor field trips.

Intent

Our curriculum excites and stimulates children's imaginations and creative thinking. At Borrowdale School, we place quality literature at the heart of learning. Quality stories, texts and beautiful books provide a rich and meaningful context in which children study units of English, Science, Geography and History. The learning sequence for all subjects has been set out progressively so that pupils consistently build on their prior knowledge. 

Where appropriate, the knowledge and skills are planned out on a year-by-year basis. Every unit of learning contains 'key subject knowledge'. The focus on subject knowledge enables the pupils to think, speak and write like historians, geographers, scientists, engineers, artists, etc.

Each unit of learning starts with an over-arching question, which is then broken down into components (not more than 5) to make the learning manageable. The curriculum design ensures that these components are sequenced appropriately to maximise the impact on long-term retention.

Pupils with SEND and those from disadvantaged backgrounds have been considered as teaching is adapted so that activities are varied while ensuring that coverage remains the same.

Implementation

Our curriculum takes full account of Rosenshine's Principles. The 'link it, learn it, check it, show it (make it stick)' system is used throughout. In this way, the curriculum is highly focused on pupils' prior knowledge and ensures enough time is built in for children to retrieve information beyond the point of learning. 

This pedagogical process also ensures that there are opportunities for us to check that pupils are keeping up and, hopefully, not being required to catch up. 'Check it' activities can be quick activities (five to ten minutes) to help determine if there are any gaps in pupils' learning so that further support can be offered.

The focus is on 'show it'. At this stage the pupils are recording the main learning from a subject in their books or on their iPads using Showbie. This record of learning allows pupils to revisit past learning to help them 'know more' and, crucially, help them 'remember more'. 

The 'know it' stage of the methodology encourages children to revisit learning after they have finished the unit. The retrieval can be later in the same academic year or later in the key stage. 

Lessons are enriched with first-hand and practical experiences so that pupils learn through varied and rich experiences. The approach is further enhanced by themed-days, special weeks (such as Art-Week), and numerous other events. This makes our curriculum fun, relevant and memorable because pupils understand the point of their learning and enjoy their education. 

Impact

There are many opportunities to check if the curriculum and the teaching approach has had the desired impact, for example through recorded work, teacher assessments, quizzes and any other retrieval activities. There is an expectation that pupils use their skills and knowledge across subjects and units of learning which helps to further embed the learning (reading skills are applied in research, mathematical skills are applied in data collection in geography, etc)

Our curriculum is wide and rich, and aims to equip the children with the knowledge, skills and values to successfully tackle the challenges of their future lives. It inspires the children to work hard, to persevere and to aim for the highest possible standards. In short: 

Educating for life in all its fullness

"Pupils have frequent opportunities to explore the natural world, experiment and take risks. They work collaboratively, relishing challenges and overcoming obstacles. As a result, they become articulate, confident learners who are able to recognise their place in the world and the way in which they can support others." 

(SIAMS inspection 2019)

"Leaders have established an innovative, creative curriculum which excites and inspires pupils. The rich diet of experiences supports pupils' personal and spiritual growth extremely well."

(SIAMS inspection 2019)

"Pupils appreciate the opportunities they have to broaden their horizons beyond the immediate locality with trips and residential visits."

(Ofsted inspection 2018)