The Rationale for Our Curriculum

At Prestonfield our curriculum aims to support our learners to develop meta-skills for lifelong learning and work. It aims to be inclusive and representative of our learners. It is designed to promote outdoor learning and maximise the use of our unique context and community spaces. Our curriculum values play and exploratory learning. It strives to equip our learners with an understanding of their rights and empower them to use their knowledge and voice to promote social justice. The strong relationships within the school and community support our curriculum in developing our learners as responsible citizens. It is underpinned by a desire to ensure a sustainable future.

To realise our motto and vision, the curriculum is founded on our commitment to achieve the best possible outcomes for all learners, secure their rights and wellbeing and equip them with the skills they need to be successful in lifelong learning and work.  Our curriculum takes account of learners’ entitlements, reflects the uniqueness of our setting and takes into account the four capacities: successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens.  At every level, achievement and active involvement are valued and celebrated.

We aim to deliver excellence in learning and teaching, where learners’ needs are at the centre of curriculum design and development.  Our curriculum focuses on the child as learner, and allows for breadth and depth of learning, offering challenge and enjoyment. We offer choice and personalisation as well as progression through levels, allowing the opportunity for attainment at the highest level.

We are acutely aware of our wide demographic catchment and one of the primary missions of our curriculum structure is to engage all children in exciting, powerful learning experiences that will allow them to become active leaders in their community, critical thinkers, and life-long learners.  In order to achieve this goal, our pupils will develop a clear understanding of how their learning in school connects to everyday life in their communities.  Learning experiences will be meaningful and relevant, focussed on equipping our learners with the knowledge and skills necessary to become responsible adults of the future.  To meet the challenges of our ever-changing society, it is essential to educate all our children about the need to practise sustainability in our daily lives.  We all have a role in supporting our pupils to discover new ways to meet the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations.  Our curriculum recognises the need to support personal development and empowerment so that each child within our care is able to develop as a healthy, balanced, self-confident individual and fulfil their educational potential.

Building the Curriculum

The Curriculum for Excellence identifies key values for life:  wisdom, justice, compassion and integrity.  There are six entitlements for all learners to a broad general education (BGE): a coherent curriculum from 3-18; getting the right support for each child; being able to develop skills which will be used throughout life and work; experiencing a senior phase where they can continue to develop their skills and achieve qualifications; and planning and supporting young people to make successful transitions into adulthood and the world of work.

There are four contexts in which learning takes place: curriculum areas and subjects (of which there are eight); inter-disciplinary learning: opportunities for personal and wider achievement and planned occasions to participate actively in the life and work of the school. In addition, the curriculum is designed on the following seven principles: challenge and enjoyment, breadth, progression, depth, personalisation and choice, coherence and relevance.   These values, entitlements, contexts for learning and design principles are at the heart of decision making regarding our Curriculum Structure Rationale.

The Whole Curriculum

We wholeheartedly embrace Curriculum for Excellence in that we continuously improve and extend opportunities to ensure the delivery of the best possible curriculum for all of our pupils through the four contexts of learning detailed below:

The Ethos and Life of the School as a Community

Our curriculum offers a broad range of learning experiences for our pupils, where the children and a wide range of relevant partners, contribute to planning themes and topics in order to make learning meaningful.  Our learners are encouraged to contribute to the school community at every stage, where they have opportunities to lead their own learning and are instrumental in bringing about change and improvement. Shared values are communicated and promoted through Assemblies, School and Class Charters and through Personal and Social Education.  A wide variety of planned opportunities exist for children to take on leadership roles working collaboratively with a wide range of pupils through the Pupil Council, House System, Buddy System, Equality Alliance and PEPAs Leadership Group allowing pupils to lead and improve the life and work of the school.

Curriculum Areas

The period of education from pre-school to the end of S3 has the particular purpose of providing each young person in Scotland with a Broad General Education (BGE).  At Prestonfield Primary School all our learners will experience a BGE which will include all of the experiences and outcomes across all 8 curriculum areas, progressing through the levels, as far as this is consistent with their learning needs and prior achievements.   The curriculum areas are:

Expressive Arts

Languages and Literacy

Health and Wellbeing

Mathematics and Numeracy

Religious and Moral Education

Sciences

Social Studies

Technologies

Skills are developed through an ‘I can’ approach, across all years with the delivery of the Experiences and Outcomes.  The development of skills is essential to learning and supports our pupils to become successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors. The skills and attributes which our learners will acquire will provide them with a strong foundation for their development as life-long learners into their adult, social and working lives and enable them to reach their full potential.  Our curriculum aims to foster the development of key meta skills in communication, problem-solving, critical thinking, inquiry, investigation and analysis, and social and personal awareness and interaction. It also places key emphasis on the acquisition of literacy and numeracy skills.

Inter-Disciplinary Learning (IDL)

IDL is a key feature of Curriculum for Excellence, which enhances the curriculum and is reflected in our contextualised planning.  IDL offers opportunities for increased and improved collaboration across curriculum areas and leads to exciting and challenging learning experiences for our pupils to make connections and apply skills within the context of a BGE.  IDL opportunities exist across two or more curriculum areas to support and enhance learning and details of which can be found in the BGE Overviews.  Developments in IDL have led to more involved experiences at a whole school level in health promotion, financial education, fair trade, Scottish culture and expressive arts.

Personal and Wider Achievement

We greatly value our children’s personal and wider achievements which are shared and celebrated with the whole school community through Assemblies, Reach for the Stars, Newsletters etc. and discussed and recorded through Learner Conversations.  Our charity work led by the Pupil Council develops the concept of giving as well as fostering the values of compassion and justice. The wide and varied programme of extra-curricular activities and clubs which are held in response to children’s interests, offer excellent opportunities for all our pupils to develop their skills, talents and expertise.

Personalisation and Choice

As our pupils progress through their levels there will be opportunities for personalisation and choice in relation to their learning.  Allowing our pupils to make informed choices about their learning encourages and motivates them to become successful learners.  Personalisation and choice takes many forms including what pupils will learn from and within lessons as well as to approaches to learning and assessment opportunities. It also relates to how pupils will learn through active learning, through different activities offered within lessons and to the challenge relating to a learning outcome.  There will also be opportunities for choice as to how pupils will demonstrate their learning through making, saying, writing or doing, offering a range of assessment approaches.

Learning for Sustainability (LFS)

Learning for sustainability is an approach to life and learning which enables schools and their wider communities to build a socially just, sustainable and equitable society.  We are passionate about LFS and are developing our curriculum to weave together children’s rights, global citizenship, sustainable development education and outdoor learning to create coherent, rewarding and transformative learning experiences. We want all our pupils to have the skills and confidence to take up their place in the world and be able to contribute to it responsibly, successfully and effectively.

Information on the Whole Curriculum is collated and shared with pupils, parents and staff through our 4 Contexts of Learning Overviews which we review annually.

Learning, Teaching and Assessment

The success of our curriculum is through the delivery of high-quality learning and teaching to ensure that learning is motivating and meaningful.  This is at the heart of our work and the use of a variety of teaching methodologies is an essential feature of our curriculum.   Learning and teaching approaches to engage and motivate learners include Assessment Is for Learning (AIFL) techniques, direct teaching, self and peer assessment, individual, paired and group work, text-based work and practical work, the use of ICT as an integral tool for learning, outdoor learning, global citizenship, sustainability development education, educational visits and visiting speakers.

Assessment is integral to our planning of learning and teaching and we use a variety of assessment approaches to enable learners to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding, skills and attributes and different capabilities across the curriculum.   At key milestones our assessments provide reliable evidence which we use to report on the progress of all our children.

There is a focus to continually support the professional development of our staff in the field of learning, teaching and assessment which involves colleagues sharing practice, within both the school and the Cluster which has led to further reflection of practice, incorporating new ways of engaging and supporting our learners. The school’s commitment to professional development and review and career life-long learning together with the programme of shared classroom experience visits, further promotes high professional standards.  Formal and informal observation, survey results, attainment analysis and feedback are considered to bring about improvement. Resources are revised and refined as funding allows.

Review

1. All stakeholders will have the opportunity to review and contribute to the Curriculum Rationale.

Reviewed and Updated: January 2024