Curriculum Statement
At Queen’s Park Primary School, we offer a curriculum which is broad, balanced and ambitious: one that builds on the knowledge, understanding and skills of all children, whatever their starting points. Our curriculum incorporates the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum alongside carefully planned experiences and opportunities which best meet the learning and developmental needs of our pupils.
We aim to empower our pupils to believe in their capacity to make a change in the world… a change for the good. We want our pupils to recognise their own unique potential and to believe when they leave Queen’s Park, they will be judged not only by the performance in tests, but by the depth of their thinking, the quality of their work and the strength of their character.
Our curriculum design
At Queen’s Park, we are proud of our bespoke curriculum. Underpinned by the principles of a spiral curriculum, complex ideas are taught at a simplified level first and revisited later at increasing levels of depth and complexity.
Spiral Curriculum Principles
We use an integrated topic approach, driven by Humanities, while recognising that not all subjects lend themselves to cross-curricular teaching. Each topic begins with a ‘big question’ that encourages curiosity, critical thinking and conceptual links across disciplines. Children are challenged to think deeply about this question throughout their learning, making connections between subjects and developing their understanding of local, national and global issues.
Woven throughout our curriculum are the key threads of reading, oracy and wellbeing. High-quality texts are carefully selected to enrich every topic, ensuring that reading underpins knowledge acquisition, vocabulary development and cultural understanding. Opportunities for oracy are embedded across subjects, enabling pupils to express ideas with confidence, listen actively and engage in purposeful dialogue. Alongside this, a strong emphasis on wellbeing ensures that pupils feel valued, supported and ready to learn, fostering resilience and a lifelong love of learning.
Knowledge and Curriculum Structure
Our curriculum is carefully sequenced to ensure that substantive, procedural and disciplinary knowledge are all explicitly taught, practised and revisited over time.
- Substantive knowledge refers to the established facts, concepts and ideas within each subject – what children learn.
- Procedural knowledge refers to the skills, techniques and methods used to apply learning – how children do things.
- Disciplinary knowledge refers to understanding how knowledge is developed and validated within each subject and ways of thinking specific to that field – how we know what we know.
Together, these form the backbone of our curriculum, ensuring pupils learn the content of each subject while also understanding the processes and thinking that underpin it.
Our curriculum is designed to inspire and equip children with the skills, knowledge and attributes needed to assume the role of a professional within each subject area. By engaging with authentic, real-world tasks and challenges, students will develop the confidence, competence and curiosity required to think, act and create like experts in the field.
Curriculum in Action
Children learn not only what scientists, historians, artists and geographers know but also how they know it and how they work. They engage in enquiry, practical exploration, investigation, evaluation and reflection, developing curiosity, resilience and critical thinking. In doing so, pupils begin to think, talk and act like professionals in each discipline – asking questions, applying methods, using subject-specific vocabulary, gathering evidence and drawing conclusions.
Teachers make meaningful links across subjects and bring their own creativity and expertise to planning. Whilst there is a clear framework of key knowledge, skills, vocabulary and disciplinary and procedural understanding, teachers know their cohorts best and plan learning that is responsive and engaging. This creative approach ensures lessons are meaningful, memorable and intellectually challenging.
Curriculum Pillars
Assessment & Progression
Our spiral curriculum ensures pupils build and retain understanding over time. Lessons begin with retrieval, supported by formative checks and end-of-unit assessment. Children reflect on prior and new learning, revisiting the ‘big question’. Progress is shown through accurate vocabulary, application of knowledge and increasingly confident explanation of ideas.
Reading & Oracy
Reading enriches our entire curriculum, developing knowledge, language and empathy through daily exposure to high-quality, diverse texts. Oracy underpins learning across subjects, enabling pupils to articulate ideas, reason effectively and communicate with confidence. Together, strong reading and oracy skills help children think deeply, collaborate and engage meaningfully with the world.
Wellbeing & The Whole Child
As a leading mental-health school, we prioritise respectful relationships, positive behaviour and emotional regulation. Tools like Zones of Regulation and Mind-Up help pupils understand their brains, manage emotions and stay focused. A culture of praise, responsibility and belonging ensures every child feels valued and supported.
EYFS
The Early Years give children the best possible start to school, embracing play as serious learning. Building strong foundations through exploration, talk and rich texts, our children take part in a breadth of learning experiences, including Forest School. Our holistic approach and language rich environments nurture curiosity, confidence and communication.
Guiding Principles and School Values
Our school values underpin everything we do, shaping how pupils and staff behave each day. Guided by TeamWorkules, RespecTrio, AchiEvie, OctoCreate and PercyVerance, we prioritise wellbeing, celebrate individuality, foster ambition and broaden experiences -ensuring children feel safe, confident and well prepared for life beyond primary school.
Our Subjects
English
We teach English with passion and outstanding subject knowledge. We create opportunities for our students to learn new skills by giving them a variety of contexts to practise and apply them to.
History and Geography (Humanities)
We have chosen Humanities as one of our main curriculum drivers. We teach the Humanities with passion and outstanding subject knowledge. We facilitate engaging learning experiences for our children to ensure that new skills and knowledge are acquired and applied successfully.
Maths
We have a mastery approach to teaching Maths with the help of Mathematics Mastery, a professional development programme for teachers.
Art and DT
Learning is linked to the Humanities-driven programme, enriching and extending understanding of the topics explored. Art and Design education provides rewarding activities that inspire, inform, stimulate and challenge.
PSHE
PSHE is integral to the school’s vision and ethos and is carefully woven into all areas of the curriculum. Our PSHE curriculum focuses on the three core themes of mental health, physical health and relationships education and is built with the belief that a ‘well child is a happy child and a happy child learns well’.
Religious Education
Our RE curriculum aims to meet, and indeed stretch beyond, the expectations of our agreed syllabus for RE entitled ‘Living Difference III’. During our half termly RE days we explore concepts, e.g. belonging or specialness, and their link to us and to different religions. By starting with an exciting hook, we spark the children’s curiosity from the outset and will encourage them to take the lead in discovering where their learning will lead.
Languages
At Queen’s Park Primary School we believe that learning a modern foreign language is a vital part of children’s learning, helping to develop their confidence and raise cultural understanding, whilst deepening their curiosity and enthusiasm about the world around them. For our MFL curriculum we have chosen to teach Spanish.
Music
We believe in the power of music to enhance creativity, expression, and cultural understanding. Our music curriculum allows children to perform both solo and in ensembles, using their voices and instruments with growing accuracy, control, and expression. Pupils are encouraged to improvise and compose music for various purposes, while developing the ability to listen attentively and recall sounds with increasing aural memory.
Financial Education
At the heart of our finance education programme for children at Queen’s Park lies the commitment to empower young learners with a comprehensive understanding of money. We aspire to cultivate informed choices, enabling children to grasp the fundamental concept of money and its various applications in everyday life.