Our Curriculum Drivers

Our drivers are elements that are central to our school vision and ethos. They help to drive and shape the curriculum and are incorporated across all subjects and themes. We aim to ensure that our children receive a school curriculum that is designed to broaden their horizons and extend the boundaries of their lives, equipping pupils with the knowledge and cultural experiences they need to succeed. To this end, teachers and leaders work to ensure the curriculum we offer is enriched and personalised to our children and that it prioritises the things we want our children to experience.

Based on the needs of our children we have identified the following drivers to underpin our curriculum:

Be Ambitious

Be Creative

Be Curious

Be Active World Citizens

Based on our aspirations for our children we have Oracy as a thread driving through everything.

Ambition

Ambition is the hope, desire and aspiration to strive to achieve something; to be the best they can possibly be and to challenge themselves as a learner. The driver of ambition encourages children to produce work of high quality, take pride in themselves and be the very best that they can be.

We also ensure that our curriculum is aspirational; we want to ensure that everything that the children are learning, and being exposed to, is the ‘best of the best’. This core driver will help inspire and empower our children to go on to be the best they can be and with ambitious targets for what they can achieve in life.

Creativity

Creativity is at the heart of all we do at Spetisbury. We believe that all children are creative and should be provided with opportunities to create across the curriculum. We have a creative approach to all subjects and encourage children to think creatively to solve problems.

Spetisbury Primary is committed to the arts and we have achieved the Music mark. We regularly showcase the children's work in music, art, dance and drama at assemblies and events throughout the year.

Curiosity

Developing curiosity and enquiry skills help to ensure our children are eager to learn and acquire new skills and knowledge whilst being confident to ask for information and question ideas. 

This approach to learning enables inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning and we believe will nurture natural problem solvers. In class, we encourage our children to discuss and debate their ideas. Each lesson includes a discursive statement to stimulate engagement in the subject. Wider curriculum topics have been developed around an enquiry question both overarching a topic and underpinning each lesson.

Active World Citizens

As active world citizens, we want our children to understand the diverse world they live in. We celebrate differences and diversity and actively challenge stereotypes. Our curriculum opens a window onto the wider world from our rural location. 

We want our children to be part of this wider world and know that they can make a difference. A particular area of focus is the environment as it is such an important global issue and is central to our curriculum. We have played an active role in cleaning our local town of Blandford and also making links with schools in Burundi, Ukraine and China over recent years.

Oracy

Communication is the key to ‘articulating ideas, developing understanding and engaging with others’. It encompasses both learning to talk, and is the vehicle for learning through talk. We value this because it:

-Increases confidence

-Improves academic outcomes

-Fosters wellbeing

-Equips students to thrive in life beyond school

-Narrows gaps

-Promotes social equity

The art of effective communication needs to be explicitly taught and deliberately practised. Children at Spetisbury are given opportunities in every subject to practise oracy skills, divided into the following 4 areas: Physical, Linguistic, Cognitive, Social & Emotional