Curriculum

Our curriculum at East Stour is underpinned by our core values:

Respect

Empowerment

Tolerance

Resilience

Optimism

Wellbeing is at the forefront of all we do and we pride ourselves on our provision for this, with every child seen as an individual. Our school therapy dog, Calli, plays a huge part in this and can often be found supporting our children around the school!

Each term we have a whole-school focus on one or two of the values listed at the top of this page. We embed them within the school day through consistent vocabulary, age-appropriate key phrases, and events linked to the current term’s value. These events include assemblies, lessons, performances and celebrations.

This development of strength and character is promoted further through our extensive enrichment opportunities for our children. This includes sports events both in school and with other schools, the 'daily mile', very strong links with Ashford College, a school choir and opportunities to learn the violin, recorder, drumming and a variety of other instruments. You may notice that our classes are, in fact, named after musical instruments! Music is loved hugely in our school and is used as a tool to support creativity, collaboration and well-being. 

Equality and Diversity is also celebrated and actively integrated into our curriculum. We benefit from having an Equality and Diversity lead and we ensure that "all are welcome here"! Assemblies, PSHE, our environment and many special events throughout the year contribute to this crucial component for our inclusive culture here in our East Stour family. Every child is seen as unique and loved as an individual. Our curriculum ensures equal access to learning for all pupils, with high expectations for every pupil and appropriate levels of challenge and support. 

We also plan ‘Cultural Capital’ to equip pupils with the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.and create an appreciation of creativity and achievement. We also include learning about British values, current events, diversity, music and the arts as well as promoting pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

Our curriculum at East Stour is designed to provide a broad and balanced education for all pupils, that is coherently planned and sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge for skills and future learning and employment. We want our children to be prepared for success when they leave, ready to achieve their full potential! 

Our curriculum identifies key learning components or knowledge that we expect the children to remember from the year’s learning in each subject;  we call these end points and map these out alongside progression documents in each subject. During teaching, careful attention is paid to identify prior knowledge and experiences and any misconception or gaps are then planned for. Our teaching approach uses spaced retrieval and repetition to encourage children to retain their learning, embed this into long term memory and make links to previous and future knowledge and experiences. We aim for pupils to know more and remember more!

Reading is a priority in our school and we use high-quality, age-appropriate texts as a base for our topic planning. This engages our pupils with text, exposing them to a range of high-level vocabulary and encouraging the application of this within topics. Vocabulary is explicitly planned and progressive across all years. We use RWI phonics to create a solid foundation for reading and encourage our pupils to read widely and often, using shared and guided reading sessions in addition to class books. Please see the specific RWI page for details on this. 

We use the principles of Maths Mastery in our approach to mathematics, allowing our learners to become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, reason mathematically and solve problems. For further information about subjects please take a look at our subject pages which include our progression maps and further detail. 

We aim to inspire our children to become lifelong learners, providing every child with the knowledge, skills and personal values to empower them to achieve their full potential.

If you would like a paper copy of any information on our school's website, or further information, please do contact the school office.