Curriculum Summary 2025-2026

  • Learning at Glan Usk Primary School
  • Our Vision & Values
  • What We Learn...
  • Progress & Assessment
  • Metacognition

Learning at Glan Usk Primary School

At Glan Usk Primary School, our curriculum has been developed over time through close work with our cluster schools to ensure it is purposeful, locally rooted and informed by research and regional guidance. Shaped by the Curriculum for Wales and our values of Excite, Challenge and Empower, it is carefully planned to provide meaningful learning experiences that build knowledge, skills and positive learning behaviours. Learning is designed across the six Areas of Learning and Experience - Languages, Literacy and Communication; Mathematics and Numeracy; Health and Wellbeing; Expressive Arts; Humanities; and Science and Technology - ensuring clear progression and high aspirations for all learners. We are committed to continually refining our curriculum so that it remains ambitious, inclusive and responsive, supporting children to make strong progress, develop a love of learning and be well prepared for the next stage of their education and for life beyond school.

At Glan Usk Primary School, we serve a large and diverse school community within the city of Newport, providing education for children from Nursery to Year 6. As a three-form entry school, our curriculum is designed to ensure consistency, clear progression and high expectations across all classes while remaining responsive to the needs of individual learners. Our school community is richly diverse, with children bringing a wide range of languages, cultures and experiences into school. Many pupils speak English as an additional language, and this diversity continues to grow. This context shapes our curriculum design, placing strong emphasis on inclusion, language development, wellbeing and a sense of belonging for every child. We also support a number of pupils with additional learning needs, and our curriculum is carefully planned to remove barriers to learning while offering appropriate challenge and ambition for all. As a Curriculum Partner school for Languages, Literacy and Communication, Humanities and Religion, Values and Ethics, and a lead school for Initial Teacher Education in partnership with the University of South Wales, we continually reflect on research, professional learning and best practice to refine and strengthen our curriculum offer.

Our Vision & Values

At Glan Usk Primary School, our mission is to Excite, Challenge and Empower every learner. This mission is brought to life through our three visionary principles: making learning irresistible, striving for equity and excellence, and nurturing our community. Together, they guide how we design our curriculum and learning experiences, ensuring they are engaging, inclusive and ambitious, while placing wellbeing, relationships and high expectations at the heart of school life.

At Glan Usk Primary School, our REACH rules underpin our school culture and support positive learning behaviours across the curriculum. Built around the values of Respect, Engage, Aspire, Care and Honesty, they help create a safe, inclusive and supportive environment where all learners feel valued and ready to learn. Rooted in the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, REACH encourages pupils to take responsibility for their actions, build positive relationships and develop as confident, respectful and resilient members of our school community.

What We Learn...

At Glan Usk Primary School, our curriculum is designed within the Curriculum for Wales framework, which sets out what matters most in learning from ages 3 to 16. It is built around a shared purpose: supporting children to become ambitious, capable learners; enterprising, creative contributors; ethical, informed citizens; and healthy, confident individuals. These four purposes guide all aspects of what we teach and how learning experiences are planned across the school.

Children’s learning is organised through six Areas of Learning and Experience, which allow knowledge, skills and experiences to connect meaningfully:

  • Languages, Literacy and Communication
  • Mathematics and Numeracy
  • Health and Wellbeing
  • Expressive Arts
  • Humanities
  • Science and Technology

Learning at Glan Usk is carefully planned to ensure progression across these areas, while allowing flexibility to respond to pupils’ interests and strengths.

We place strong emphasis on cross-curricular learning, ensuring literacy, numeracy and digital competence are developed naturally through real and purposeful contexts. Welsh language learning is woven throughout school life alongside English, supporting children to develop confidence and pride in bilingual Wales. Statutory elements including Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) and Religion, Values and Ethics (RVE)are thoughtfully embedded, helping pupils develop understanding of relationships, respect for diversity and their place in the world in ways that are appropriate to their age and stage.

Our SHINE Curriculum brings together all of the learning experiences and assessment opportunities that support our children as they grow and work towards the Four Purposes. Our journey began in 2015 when we became a Pioneer School, working with the Welsh Government as the Curriculum for Wales started to take shape. This important work sparked the ongoing development of our own curriculum and laid the foundations for what SHINE has become today. Developing our curriculum has been a a dynamic and ongoing journey of innovation, reflection, and improvement. We’ve listened to the voices of our children, staff, parents, Governors and our wider community, using their views to help guide every stage of our progress. We’ve also drawn on excellent practice and educational research to keep our work purposeful and informed. Our partner school work has further helped us strengthen key areas of our curriculum offer. Our conceptual and progressive frameworks effectively support learning, helping us ensure that children’s experiences are clear, connected and genuinely meaningful as they move through the school.

Our SHINE Curriculum reflects the values and ambitions of the Curriculum for Wales and is designed to enable every child to make meaningful progress as they grow towards the Four Purposes. Through collaboration with staff and cluster schools, we have co-constructed progressive conceptual frameworks across all six Areas of Learning and Experience, rooted in the What Matters statements and the Principles of Progression. These frameworks ensure learning builds systematically from Nursery to Year 6, allowing children to develop secure understanding, increasing depth and meaningful connections over time. Learning experiences are enriched through cross-cutting themes such as human rights, diversity, careers and work-related experiences, and local, national and global contexts, helping children connect their learning to real life and to their community. Together, this approach supports curiosity, critical thinking and a lifelong love of learning.

At Glan Usk Primary School, our SHINE Curriculum comes to life through carefully designed Learning Journeys that provide clarity about what children are learning and why. Each learning journey sets out a clear sequence of experiences that help children build knowledge and skills in connected and meaningful ways. These journeys ensure learning has purpose and direction, while remaining flexible and responsive to children’s interests and needs. Through shared planning priorities and regular reflection, teachers support consistent progress across all Areas of Learning and Experience. Learning Journeys ensure our curriculum intent is translated into high-quality classroom practice.

At Glan Usk Primary School, our Steps to Success form a key part of our Learning and Teaching Strategy. They provide a shared framework for high-quality teaching and effective learning across the school. Each step represents an essential element that contributes to successful learning, learner independence and continuous progress.

Progress & Assessment

Our clear cycle of assessment fosters relationships and supports all learners to make progress from their starting points in both learning and wellbeing.

Progression is guided by Descriptions of Learning which provides information on how learners should progress within the Statements of What Matters for each Area of Learning.  These are expectations across a period of time and broadly relate to the ages 5, 8, 11, 14 & 16. At Glan Usk this means: Progression Step 1: Nursery, Reception & Year 1 Progression Step 2: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 & Year 4 Progression Step 3: Year 4, Year 5 & Year 6

Metacognition

We support the children at Glan Usk Primary School to become efficacious learners by developing their ‘learning behaviours’ and metacognitive skills. They learn ‘how to learn’!  These behaviours are integral to our curriculum and to learning and were developed using research and evidence informed practice, initially based upon the work of Guy Claxton (Building Learning Power).  6 ‘Metacognition Superheroes’ support our children to develop these learning behaviours over time, through fun characters. Each character has their own story of how to be a better learner using the characteristics of the learning behaviours they represent; Resilience, Effort, Motivation, Collaboration, Achievement and Independence.  We aim to equip our children with the skills and language to reflect on their learning, to find ways to solve problems and know what to do when they ‘get stuck’.  Our language of learning is used by staff from Nursery to Year 6 in a developmentally appropriate way so that pupils can talk meaningfully about their progress.