Curriculum vision

Curriculum Intention

Motto: ‘Positive Minds, Positive Futures’

Primary schools are unique and special places. They are where children have the opportunity to become the best they can be. At Gayton, we recognise that becoming your best self, someone who can help contribute to a better world, is about more than just 'learning things'. It is about striving to master the curriculum, producing high quality work to be proud of and becoming an individual of good character.

In order to achieve this, we provide our children with the tools that enable them to become effective learners as well as ethical individuals. Learning in an environment where they feel welcomed, heard, valued, loved and supported is powerful.

We believe that a sense of belonging is paramount. We strive to ensure that our pupils feel that they are valued members of our community. Creating an ethos of shared vision enables children and staff to invest their time and energy on the shared purpose of learning.

We want our children to be enthusiastic in all they do. To this end, we have endeavoured to create a curriculum that is both engaging and challenging. We teach our children to reflect on their work, to consider how well they are making progress and to recognise what they can do to improve. By learning and working together, understanding the value of teamwork and collaborating on tasks, we hope to empower our children to become valued members of society who can make a change for good.

Curriculum Drivers

Our curriculum has been woven around 3 curriculum drivers which we consider to be important to our children at Gayton. These include:

Environment

Location. Location. Location! We are so fortunate that our school is in such an amazing part of the country. Our immediate locality offers a wealth of geographical and historical opportunities. We don’t have to look very far to find one peninsula, two rivers, two cities and even another country. Such an incredible area demands to be explored and it is our intention that our children will leave school with a thorough understanding of where they live.

We want our children to understand and appreciate the immediate environment of the school (Heswall) and then expand their learning to develop a broader knowledge of our near neighbours (Liverpool, Chester and Deeside) and look at the impact of these places on the community today. We aim to further develop children’s locational knowledge of the UK, Europe and other continents. We want our children to make a direct, positive impact on the environment and to be aware of how the actions of others may affect the environment both nationally and globally.

Personal Development

Every year we welcome a new cohort to our school. The seven years they are with us seem to race by and all too soon, we have to say farewell to the children we have nurtured throughout their time at Gayton. The future will place many demands on our pupils and we aim to help them prepare for life beyond primary school by developing a sense of self and purpose whilst recognising the importance of the community around them, society as a whole, and their role within it.

Relationships lie at the heart of all human experiences and interaction. It is therefore vitally important that all children are helped to learn the social skills needed to interact successfully with other people. They need opportunities and encouragement to look at the world from the perspective of others and to develop empathy. Successful learning can be a social experience where individuals learn from more experienced others (both adults and children). Children who have the skills to interact well with others can tap into a huge resource to support their learning.

Good mental health is fundamental to be able to thrive in life and our motto ‘Positive Minds, Positive Futures’ recognises the need for our pupils to understand the importance of emotional well-being. Quite simply, good mental health helps us to cope with life’s ups and down.

Democracy

“So, what do you think?”

Discussion is something our children love to participate in. They know we value their opinions and they love to tell us (and their classmates) what they think. But we want to develop that further and encourage our pupils to make informed, considered opinions.

In a healthy democratic society, everyone can have a say. One fundamental principle of democracy in our school is that it allows children to participate in decisions that affect their lives whilst recognising there will be times when not everyone will agree. We want our children to take part in the decisions that affect the way our school community is run.

We aim to develop our children’s understanding of global citizenship and to appreciate our place in the world whilst encouraging our pupils to have a sense of personal and social responsibility (a direct link to their personal development). Mutual respect and tolerance involves acknowledging our similarities and celebrating our differences and therefore our pupils should acquire an understanding of how democratic procedures have shaped and have continued to shape history.