Our Federation Curriculum

The Federation of Blenheim Road Community and Coed Eva Primary Schools

We believe in everything we do:

We grow thriving successful learners,
We lead our people to excellence,
We change our community and country for the better.

Our School and Community Context

In order to understand our curriculum journey, you must first understand a little more about our school and wider community and our unique place in Wales.

We are a unique federation in Wales, consisting of two primary schools, Blenheim Road Community Primary and Coed Eva Primary Schools, working as one learning organisation.

Established in the 1950s post war, Cwmbran is a commutor town geographically situated close to Newport, between both Cardiff and Bristol. Our Federation serves the smaller community of Coed Eva and Fairwater with a population of around 7,500 residents. We have 705 pupils on roll, 263 pupils in Blenheim Road and 442 pupils in Coed Eva, aged 3 - 11. What makes us special is our capacity to harness the expertise of our 76 staff members, who together lead and plan for learning across both school sites.

From understanding the needs of our community, our curriculum aims to focus on our learners' holistic development and raise their aspirations for the future.

A Snapshot of our School Context:

A Snapshot of our Community Context:

25% of residents do not have a passport
Torfaen is ranked 18 out of 22 in in Youth Opportunity Index
71% of young people do not enter higher education
20.5% of residents aged 25 - 65 have no qualifications
35.2% of Cwmbran households are classed as in poverty
10.2% of residents in Cwmbran can speak Welsh, lower than the average for Wales (19.0%)
Largest industries are retail, wholesale and manufacturing

Our Vision

Starting with WHY…

With our community at the heart of what we do, in February 2020, we began our journey by co-constructing our school vision with our stakeholders. This now permeates throughout everything we do as a learning organisation.

We believe in everything we do:

We grow thriving successful learners,
We lead our people to excellence,
We change our community and country for the better.

Our Federation Curriculum Design

Our Curriculum

Our curriculum is led by broad, overarching concepts. They are big ideas that are important to our learners and the community.

They allow us to provide purposeful, authentic learning experiences, which will enable learners to develop in line with the four purposes of Wales.

From our concepts, our contexts for learning have been designed to encompass the Areas of Learning and Experience (AoLE), cross-cutting themes and cross-curricular skills.

Each year group focuses on three concepts and each concept is revisited three times throughout a child’s primary life. Each time a concept is revisited, it is through a different context for learning and these are enriched through:

childhood experience: an event or occurrence that leaves an impression on someone
projects: an individual or collaborative enterprise that is planned with a specific aim
community experts: who impart knowledge and skills to enhance context for learning.

These are all part of the learners’ learning journey and feed directly into our end goals. Our end goals are high quality events or products that children can be proud of and have an impact on themselves and the community. Learning is cross-curricular and authentic in pursuit of the end goal.

Example - the concept of Identity

Children will first visit this in Nursery through the context for learning of ‘Who am I?’. They then revisit in Year 2 through ‘Cynefin’ before finally revisiting in Year 5 through ‘Social MEdia’. Each time they revisit the concept, the knowledge, skills and experiences are built upon and explored in greater depth.

Progression

To ensure progression, we have utilised the What Matters Statements and Descriptions of Learning to create our federations progressive skills maps for each AoLE. Teachers use these to ensure learning experiences are skills focused and progressive throughout the federation.

We utilise the mastery approach to develop learners' Maths skills using the White Rose Maths scheme to underpin our federations Mathematics and Numeracy Curriculum.

We have progressively mapped learners' Language, Literacy and Communication skills which we call our ‘fundamentals’. We utilise Read, Write Inc, Accelerated Reader and the Writing Hub to support the development of learners' Language, Literacy and Communication skills.

We recognise that Mathematics and Literacy are key to unlocking learning in all areas.

Planning

Staff from across the Federation work collaboratively in their PPA sessions to sequence the learning journey. They are the architects of the experience, meaningfully sequencing knowledge and skills development to achieve embedded authentic learning. (Professor Mick Waters, 2021).

Through the realisation of our curriculum, we aim to grow learners that are:

Ambitious, capable learners,
Ethical, informed citizens,
Healthy, confident individuals,
Enterprising, creative contributors.

Assessment

We use a range of assessment approaches including, formative, summative, diagnostic and ipsative. Our formative assessment strategies inform our day-to-day teaching practice and inform our next steps in teaching and learning. These link to our teaching and learning blueprint.

We recognise that assessment is always criteria or norm reference based. As a Federation we identify that assessment should focus on considering evidence of how learners are making progress - how they are developing in their knowledge and skills and engaging with experiences.

Our progress & aspirations systems and processes are the bedrock for recording, tracking and sharing pupil progress and next steps in their learning. This process involves all stakeholders and takes place termly.

Pedagogy

With the 12 Pedagogical Principles as the starting point, we are in the process of designing our Federation’s Pedagogy Blueprint, which has been designed in collaboration with all staff. This has involved diving into key areas of pedagogy including assessment for learning, provision, differentiation, outdoor learning etc. Collectively, we are leading ourselves to excellence by engaging in relevant reading and research, sharing best practice and harnessing experts. This is an ongoing process for us at the Federation and will continue to inform our teaching and learning.

School Development Plan Priorities 24/25

P1. To develop high standards in writing

P2. To develop high standards in Digital and ICT

P3. To develop high standards in Mathematics and Numeracy

P4. To develop high standards in spoken Welsh

P5. To develop Early Years practice based on the Froebel approach to early childhood experience.

Following Simon Breakspeare’s 'Agile Leadership' training, our five key priorities will be developed and delivered through our Rapid Action Cycles, led by our Senior Leadership Team and the Leaders of Learning. Our Leaders of Learning are activators of change; changing mindsets, outlooks and the wider culture of the Federation in line with the key priorities. There is a Leader of Learning for each of the School Improvement Priorities:

The work of the Leaders of Learning will drive our Rapid Action Cycles as part of our constant Evaluation and Review process.

Evaluation and Review

We seek to have a continual cycle of evaluation and reflection throughout the year following each Rapid Action Cycle. Reflection and review will take place each half term and annually. This will enable us to reflect and improve rapidly and effectively and to target our time and resources in an agile way across the academic year. As a federation we utilise the Monday software to underpin our MER cycle.