We have chosen to build our curriculum around six core Learning Powers: Curiosity, Independence, Empathy, Perseverance, Reflectiveness and Cooperation. These have been developed, refined and agreed by all staff and governors, with input from our children and our wider community.

We introduce and promote these themes to our children through six Learning Superheroes. Characters like Claudia Curiosity and Eddy Empathy embody these values and encourage children to become superheroes in their own learning.

We have then developed Skills and Knowledge progressions for each foundation subject, along with policies for Maths, Reading and Writing. These all show what children will be taught in each year group, how what is being taught now both builds on what came before and feeds into what comes next, and how we have shaped our curriculum to ensure that children can develop and use our Learning Powers in an age-appropriate way.

• Skills and Knowledge Progressions  
• Reading Policy
• Writing Policy
• Maths Policy

Experiences we want every child to have at Bedwell:

We believe that practical and first-hand experiences are vital for our children. They bring learning to life and make it meaningful. This is particularly true in our local context, where many of our children will not otherwise have access to the experience which others might take for granted (such as visits to farms, zoos, the theatre or London landmarks). 

As a result, for each subject you will find a list of key experiences which every child should have on their journey through our school. These include everything from trips to museums and the seaside to the chance to see artwork displayed in an in-school gallery and opportunities to see things go ‘bang’ in science!

Cross-Curricular links

Cross-curricular links are a great way to reinforce learning and help our children to apply new skills to a range of contexts - and you will find ideas for doing this listed in each subject area. However, we also recognise that there is a balance to be found between cross-curricular and subject-specific teaching - for instance, a Year 5/6 Design Technology project on bomb shelters could tie in brilliantly with a history topic on World War 2, but teachers would need to ensure that the DT time is still focussed on skills of developing prototypes, using diagrams to communicate ideas and constructing, testing and evaluating their ‘product’. As a result, from Year 1 on, learning should always be organised by subject.