Ashton Primary School's Curriculum

intent

Our intent is to provide an inspiring and engaging curriculum that enables children to develop their skills across the subjects and acquire and retain key knowledge and facts or 'know more and remember more'. Our curriculum is meticulously planned to promote a progression of skills across each subject area that are essential in enabling children to become independent and resourceful learners that are proud of who they are and where they come from. We aim to empower children with the transferable skills to become life-long learners, having the ability to apply and build upon these skills into their high school years and beyond.

These quotes from our Ofsted inspection in February 2022 clearly demonstrate the impact of our curriculum approach:

Leaders have planned an ambitious curriculum for all pupils. They have identified the important knowledge that they want pupils to learn. Teachers and support staff receive regular training. This helps them to deepen their subject knowledge. As a result, they deliver the curriculum with confidence and expertise.
Pupils are happy to attend Ashton Primary School. They arrive each day with positive attitudes. Pupils are friendly to each other during lessons and at playtimes.
Pupils explained that leaders deal with poor behaviour and bullying so that these do not reoccur. This helps pupils to feel safe in school. Pupils try hard to follow the school rules. They know that leaders have high expectations of them. They enjoy earning rewards and points for modelling good behaviours and attitudes.
Relationships between adults and pupils are positive. In class, pupils listen to each other respectfully. Pupils learn how to create and maintain healthy relationships. They understand the qualities that secure strong friendships.

implementation

As a vehicle for this focus on skill development, our school has developed a bespoke curriculum rich in knowledge, skills and vocabulary. Taking the statutory content set out in the National Curriculum programmes of study as the basis of what children should know by the end of their time at primary school - we have then set out to design our curriculum to take into account the individual character of our school and community and the needs of our children. Our curriculum makes extensive use of both our immediate local area (Preston's docks, canals, rivers and former cotton industry) as well as the wider locality of Lancashire and the North of England. We also consider the wider world beyond our doorstep, thinking about how global events can impact on us as well as how we, in Preston, have made an impact globally.

Each term, we aim to enrich our children's learning with a range of visits and visitors to enrich and strengthen learning and knowledge retention as well as engage and inspire children to find out more. This, combined with a wide range of extra-curricular clubs, contributes towards giving our children the widest possible variety of life experiences.

At Ashton Primary School we are passionate about providing much more than an academic based curriculum. We have an experienced and caring pastoral team that allow us to cater for each child's individual needs.

We strive to prepare our children for prosperous and successful futures. We want them to move onto the next phase of their lives with integrity and the personal skills to be strong, confident and honourable characters. We promote British Values, qualities and personal strengths to enable all of our children to be the very best they can. To achieve this, we have worked with the children, families, governors and staff of Ashton primary school to develop our shared values that enable us to be proud of who we are and where we come from.

purpose - we are always working hard to improve ourselves
respect - we show respect at all times
optimism - we always have a positive and 'can-do' attitude
understanding - we care for each other and our wider community
diversity - we value everybody's contribution regardless of their race, gender or religion

impact

These quotes from our Ofsted inspection in February 2022 clearly demonstrate the impact of our curriculum approach:

Leaders have planned an ambitious curriculum for all pupils. They have identified the important knowledge that they want pupils to learn. Teachers and support staff receive regular training. This helps them to deepen their subject knowledge. As a result, they deliver the curriculum with confidence and expertise.

Pupils are happy to attend Ashton Primary School. They arrive each day with positive attitudes. Pupils are friendly to each other during lessons and at playtimes.

Pupils explained that leaders deal with poor behaviour and bullying so that these do not reoccur. This helps pupils to feel safe in school. Pupils try hard to follow the school rules. They know that leaders have high expectations of them. They enjoy earning rewards and points for modelling good behaviours and attitudes.

Relationships between adults and pupils are positive. In class, pupils listen to each other respectfully. Pupils learn how to create and maintain healthy relationships. They understand the qualities that secure strong friendships.