EPS Curriculum Statement – Spring 2023

Our curriculum uses the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework and the National Curriculum as a basis and fulfils the aims of these. All subjects can be tracked from the beginning of Year R to Year 6. Each subject has its own curriculum with a clear intent detailing what it aims to achieve for the children in that subject. The overall intent of the curriculum at EPS is to ensure that all children have the knowledge and skills they need to access the next stage of their education.

The over-arching principles the curriculum is based on are: enjoyment, perseverance and success. This is because we truly believe that if children enjoy their learning and can learn to persevere and celebrate their success, they will be better prepared for the next stage of their learning and life beyond.

Historically, the school has used the Hampshire curriculums as a basis for all foundation subjects but in the last 18 months, a review has begun to ensure that each subject curriculum is true to our principles and fulfils our over-arching intent, this review is still ongoing and part of our school improvement plan for 2022-2024.

When reviewing/designing and choosing new curriculums for different subjects, the subject leaders ensure that the new curriculums are personal to ourschoolandcommunitycontext. Soinart,forexample,theschemeKapow was chosen because of its clear end points, breadth of coverage and progression of skills but before it was implemented, the context of some units were changed to suit the needs of the school. In Year 1, this included the unit on line drawing being adapted to still teach the same skills but the context to focus on city skylines. These context changes are not made to create strenuous links between subjects but to enhance and enrich the understanding of the children. So, for example, Emsworth is a small town and so understanding what a city skyline might look like is a key learning for the children here as well as providing an enriching link between their art curriculum and other learning.

Cohort needs and our local context also play a huge part in our curriculum design. Whilst meeting our statutory expectations we also respond to current events and what is important or relevant to our pupils in global, national and local contexts e.g. Being the pilot school for the Bridge to Unity project. Another recent example can be seen within Year 5 with knowledge and skills set within a unit regarding plastic pollution. Within our curriculum we work with the local Harbour Conservancy to look at the impact of plastic pollution and last year one pupil was so inspired by this that they started a petition to put pressure on a local group to rethink their environmental impact. They were successful in effecting change.

We place a strong emphasis on rich, high-quality texts which lead many of our curriculum units. Pupils are immersed in whole texts which are carefully chosen to motivate and engage them whilst also reflecting diversity and the wider world. We regularly review our text choices so that they allow our pupils to investigate others' lives as well as being able to see themselves reflected.

Our curriculum implementation is measured in a variety of ways. Progression and coverage are monitored by subject leaders and ongoing assessment is used to evaluate pupil progress and inform curriculum design and improvement. We fully utilise the Local Authority’s professional development and advisory service as well as sharing expertise with other schools. We measure the impact of our curriculum by talking to pupils, assessing their outcomes, engagement and application of skills and knowledge and by regularly reviewing our content and progression models.

The school website contains curriculum maps and detail for each subject including links to statutory content. Families are kept up to date with curriculum content through home-school communication, invitations to special events or assemblies, as well as open events where their child acts as host and shows evidence of their learning; open mornings/afternoons; parent/teacher meetings and subject workshops.