North Duffield Primary School

Our Curriculum

Our Curriculum

We have chosen to follow the Kapow Curriculum which sets out essential coverage, learning objectives and standards which are required for the majority of the subjects. Furthermore, it provides progress measures for all subjects including personal development. 

Intent 

The intent of the curriculum at North Duffield is to develop a solid base of knowledge and skills that are revisited over time to develop links to different concepts and greater understanding that leads to greater progress. This approach supports our vision “Growing Learners for Life”. 

Kapow’s curriculum provides a template for planning and key progression throughout the primary years, ensuring key skills and knowledge are taught. 

Kapow’s Key Concept 

The spiral curriculum is a powerful teaching methodology that can help primary school children build a solid base of knowledge and skills. By constantly revisiting and building on concepts that have already been introduced, pupils are able to deepen their understanding of the subject matter over time. It’s an effective method to support children in making progress. 

SPIRAL Principles 

We believe a strong subject curriculum should be: 

  • Structured 

Think like an architect! It needs a clear and logical framework, with balanced coverage that reflects statutory requirements and best practices. 

  • Progressive 

Ensuring purposeful learning that builds over time and is carefully sequenced to develop knowledge and skills. 

  • Inclusive 

It should work for every pupil. Additionally, content should represent a broad range of cultures, histories and perspectives. 

  • Related to other learning 

Pupils should have opportunities to connect their learning, using skills learned within a subject. It’s also important to make links between different subjects, enhancing cross-curricular learning. Beyond this, a curriculum should support pupils’ personal development, oracy skills, and critical thinking. 

  • Ambitious 

Involve subject specialists and set high expectations with enough depth to encourage rigorous disciplinary knowledge.  

  • Loved 

A curriculum should be engaging, interesting, and inspiring for both pupils and teachers. It should spark curiosity and creativity. 

 

The schemes of work have been designed using a spiral curriculum model with these key principles in mind across all our primary school foundation subjects. This ensures learning is: 

Cyclical: Pupils revisit key concepts again and again.  

Increasing depth: Each time learning is revisited, it is covered with greater depth.  

Prior knowledge: Upon returning to each area, prior knowledge is utilised so pupils can build on previous foundations, rather than starting again. 

Spiral curriculums help pupils to make connections between different concepts and apply their learning in different contexts; when they return to the concept each time, it is often in a different context. This helps to promote deeper understanding and transfer of learning. 

Using a spiral curriculum in teaching does not result in children learning the same concepts over and over again. It’s about using what has already been taught to make connections between new concepts and previously learned material. 

 

Implementation 

A spiral curriculum in action  

In the curriculum, our children are introduced to a topic at a basic level, with the teacher gradually increasing the complexity of the concepts being taught. For example In our Art and design scheme of work, this is the planned progression in drawing skills from reception through to Year 6:  


  Reception  

   Explore mark-making, using a range of drawing materials  

  Year 1  

   Use drawing tools in different ways to create lines and marks  

  Year 2  

   Use different materials and marks to replicate the texture  

  Year 3  

   Create tone by shading  

  Year 4  

   Use pencils of different grades to shade and add tone  

  Year 5  

   Draw the same image in different ways with different materials and techniques  

  Year 6  

   Achieve the tonal technique called chiaroscuro  

 

Or  

In History, children learn about substantive (abstract) concepts such as ‘monarchy’ or ‘empire’. These can be difficult to understand, especially in a historical context.   

In Kapow Primary’s History scheme of work, Year 2 children learn what a monarch is.  

As they move through different year groups, they are introduced to other models of leadership and sovereignty. They learn about:  

 A spiral curriculum and adaptive teaching 

 Kapow Primary’s spiral curriculum design lends itself to adaptive teaching methods, as it starts by revisiting prior learning.  

 Children have multiple opportunities to master new skills and gain confidence in their abilities as they revisit and build upon previously taught concepts.  

 Additionally, the spiral approach allows teachers to scaffold learning, providing additional support and guidance to pupils as needed.  

 This can help those who struggle with certain concepts or skills to gradually build their understanding and become more successful learners over time.  

 

Impact 

Spiral curriculum and assessment  

The spiral approach allows for formative assessment.   

By revisiting topics multiple times, teachers can assess children’s understanding and adjust their instruction to ensure that the children are making progress and achieving an understanding of key concepts.   

If a summative assessment shows that they haven’t understood something, then next time that concept is covered, teachers can address that need rather than it never being revisited again.   

You can assess pupil progress by using Kapow Primary’s assessment tools such as our end-of-unit quizzes, knowledge catchers or formative assessment grids.  

Ofsted and the spiral curriculum  

Using a spiral curriculum approach helps schools to evidence the current focus on knowledge retention.   

“(Teachers) deliver the subject curriculum in a way that allows pupils to transfer key knowledge to long-term memory. Teaching is sequenced so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before and pupils can work towards clearly defined end points.”  

Overall, the spiral curriculum is a powerful teaching methodology that can help primary school children build a solid base of knowledge and skills. By constantly revisiting and building on concepts that have already been introduced, pupils are able to deepen their understanding of the subject matter over time. It’s an effective method to support children in making progress.  

“All pupils make progress, in that they know more, remember more and are able to do more.”