Our Curriculum Intent

At Bosham Primary School, we believe in making learning exciting, fun and unforgettable. By the time the children leave us, they will have blossomed into independent, creative emotionally intelligent resilient learners who achieve well. We believe that children learn best when they are excited by their learning. Our approach – through Learning Experiences – means we teach and learn differently. Each learning experience is rooted in two or three areas of the National Curriculum. These are taught in depth, allowing the children time to explore and develop key knowledge and skills in these areas. An exciting and engaging hook into learning makes the experience simply irresistible, and the children know at the outset exactly what they are setting out to achieve in the form of an ‘authentic, high quality, outcome. Learning experiences can last any length of time; from just a couple of weeks to eight.

Our core values of resilience, independence, creativity and emotional intelligence underpin each of our learning experiences. Each learning experience will be framed by an enquiry question which will encourage the children to think philosophically. The enquiry questions, which are based on our core values, ensure the children develop connections outside the curriculum. They encourage personal development and thinking skills which do not necessarily fit within a subject box.

The drivers for our Learning Experiences are historical, scientific or geographical because we recognise that our children demonstrate high levels of engagement in these areas of the curriculum. Other subjects are blocked together within a topic where we can make links and build on previous learning. We ensure pupils learn the knowledge and subject specific skills for each of the subjects they are taught. 

Our English is linked to topic themes and key texts are carefully selected in order to drive this learning.  Each Learning Experience is planned to incorporate rich, first-hand, purposeful experiences, where we make meaningful links between subjects. An emphasis on understanding vocabulary is key in all subjects. Environments and expertise beyond the classroom are actively encouraged and within topics we are both flexible and responsive to individual needs and interests. Sometimes it is not possible to incorporate Maths, Computing, French, Music and PE into our learning experiences so these subjects are taught separately.

What inspired us to this approach?

We aim to provide every child with the key skills they require to achieve in all subjects and develop a love of learning that will be with them for their whole life. We will do this by ensuring we provide high quality teaching and learning experiences to the children who attend Bosham Primary school. Our curriculum was originally inspired by the Essentials Curriculum by Chris Quigley.

One of the primary reasons we chose this curriculum is because it emphasises the importance of developing the depth of children’s learning. In essence, this means providing children with increased cognitive challenge, allowing them to apply the skills which they have learnt independently in a range of contexts rather than moving them onto the next skill needlessly when they have not truly mastered it. Having used this approach for a number of years we have redesigned our curriculum in 2022-23 to use the best parts of this approach but make it more meaningful for our setting and pupils. 

 Chris Quigley - Essentials

All of our learning now builds a pupil's understanding towards achieving an authentic outcome which is relevant to them. Our curriculum is designed by our experienced and talented staff in order to make the learning irresitable to our pupils.