Our Rolling Curriculum
To meet the needs of our mixed-age classes, our curriculum is organised through carefully planned rolling programmes.
In EYFS and Key Stage 1, children follow a three-year rolling programme, organised into Cycles A, B and C. All children experience the three cycles as they progress through Reception, Year 1 and Year 2.
In Key Stage 2, children follow a four-year rolling programme, designed to provide a broad range of learning experiences throughout Years 3, 4, 5 and 6.
These rolling programmes enable children of different ages to learn through shared topics and enquiries while working towards appropriately challenging learning objectives.
Our curriculum is designed to ensure that children build upon their previous knowledge, revisit important concepts and develop increasingly sophisticated skills and understanding as they progress through school.
We recognise that children may encounter curriculum units in different orders. Therefore, progression is not dependent solely on the sequence of topics. Teachers carefully identify the essential knowledge, subject-specific skills and vocabulary that children need to develop at each stage of their education.
Through appropriate teaching, assessment and opportunities to revisit prior learning, we aim to ensure that every child develops the secure foundations needed for the next stage of their education.
Learning Together in Mixed-Age Classes
Our mixed-age approach is a distinctive and valued feature of our school.
Children benefit from learning alongside pupils of different ages, sharing ideas, developing communication skills, supporting one another and growing in independence.
Although children may explore the same overarching theme or enquiry, teaching is carefully planned to reflect their age, prior knowledge, understanding and individual learning needs.
In EYFS, children develop foundational knowledge through play, exploration, adult-led learning and purposeful continuous provision.
In Key Stage 1, children build upon these foundations through increasingly structured subject-specific teaching, while continuing to benefit from opportunities to explore, practise and apply their learning through provision.
In Key Stage 2, children develop greater depth, independence and sophistication in their subject knowledge and skills. Teaching supports progression from lower to upper Key Stage 2 expectations, ensuring that older pupils are challenged to make increasingly complex connections, explain their reasoning and apply their knowledge with confidence.
Across all phases, teachers use assessment to identify what children already know, address misconceptions and adapt teaching to secure progress.
Developing Knowledge, Skills and Understanding
Our curriculum is carefully planned to develop both substantive and disciplinary knowledge.
Substantive knowledge is the important subject content that children learn, such as significant historical events, geographical features, scientific concepts, artistic techniques and technological processes.
Disciplinary knowledge helps children understand how knowledge is developed and used within different subjects. For example, children learn how historians investigate the past, how geographers explore places and environments, and how scientists ask questions and use evidence.
We recognise that each subject has its own distinctive knowledge, vocabulary, concepts and ways of thinking.
Our curriculum aims to ensure that children develop these progressively, rather than simply completing a series of activities or topics.
Important concepts are revisited across the rolling programmes, allowing children to strengthen their understanding, make connections and apply their learning in new contexts.
Vocabulary and Communication
We recognise that vocabulary is fundamental to children's learning and understanding.
Our curriculum identifies and develops important subject-specific vocabulary, enabling children to communicate their ideas, explain their thinking and deepen their knowledge.
From Reception onwards, children are introduced to vocabulary through stories, discussion, practical experiences, modelling and exploration.
As they progress through school, children are expected to use increasingly precise and sophisticated language to describe, compare, explain, evaluate and justify their understanding.
Vocabulary is deliberately revisited across subjects and year groups so that children develop confidence in using it accurately and independently.
Learning Through Experience and Exploration
We believe children learn most effectively when they are actively engaged in their learning and can connect new knowledge to meaningful experiences.
In EYFS and Key Stage 1, continuous provision is an important part of our approach. All children have opportunities to explore, investigate, practise and apply their learning through carefully planned experiences.
Provision complements direct teaching and enables children to develop independence, creativity, collaboration and problem-solving skills.
As children move into Key Stage 2, practical experiences, investigations, discussion, fieldwork, creative activities and purposeful projects continue to enrich learning.
We aim to ensure that children do not simply remember information but understand how to use and apply what they have learned.
Our Local Community and the Wider World
As our school is situated in the rural East Devon community of Broadhembury, we value the opportunities our local environment provides for meaningful learning.
Our curriculum encourages children to develop an understanding of their local heritage, landscape, environment and community.
Through local-history enquiries, geographical fieldwork, environmental investigations and creative experiences, children explore the places in which they live and learn.
We also recognise the importance of extending children's experiences beyond their immediate surroundings.
Our curriculum introduces children to different places, cultures, traditions, historical periods and ways of life, helping them develop a broader understanding of Britain and the wider world.
We want children to appreciate diversity, recognise different perspectives and develop respect for others.
Personal Development and Wellbeing
Our foundation curriculum plays an important role in supporting children's personal, social, emotional and physical development.
Through PSHE, physical education, computing, the arts and wider curriculum experiences, children develop the knowledge and skills needed to make informed choices, build positive relationships and contribute responsibly to their communities.
We encourage children to develop resilience, independence, empathy, creativity and a willingness to embrace new challenges.
We aim to create an environment in which every child feels safe, valued and confident to participate.
Inclusion and Ambition for All
We are committed to providing an inclusive and ambitious curriculum for every child.
Teachers recognise that children learn at different rates and bring a wide range of experiences, strengths and needs to the classroom.
Learning is adapted appropriately, including for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), while maintaining high expectations and access to meaningful curriculum content.
Our mixed-age approach allows children to learn collaboratively while receiving the support and challenge needed to achieve their potential.
We believe that every child should have opportunities to experience success, develop their talents and take pride in their achievements.
Assessment and Progression
Assessment is an integral part of our curriculum planning and teaching.
Teachers use discussion, questioning, observation, practical outcomes and children's recorded work to establish what pupils know, understand and can do.
Assessment focuses on the important knowledge, vocabulary and subject-specific skills that children are expected to develop.
This information is used to identify gaps, address misconceptions, revisit essential learning and provide appropriate challenge.
Within our rolling programmes, teachers consider both the curriculum content being taught and the age-related expectations of the children accessing it.
This enables us to maintain a coherent approach to progression, despite children experiencing curriculum cycles in different orders.
Preparing Children for Their Next Stage of Learning
Our curriculum is designed to provide continuity from the Early Years Foundation Stage through to the end of Key Stage 2.
We aim for children to leave our schools with secure foundations in a broad range of subjects, a rich vocabulary and the confidence to approach unfamiliar learning with curiosity and determination.
We want children to become knowledgeable, creative, thoughtful and responsible individuals who can make connections between their learning and the world around them.
Above all, we want every child at Broadhembury School to recognise their own potential, celebrate their achievements and develop the confidence and enthusiasm to continue learning throughout their lives.
Our curriculum is designed not simply to teach children what to know, but to help them understand the world, develop their own ideas and become confident, capable and compassionate learners.