Please click below for the Finchingfield Academy curriculum for 2022-23

We have a concept led knowledge rich curriculum that is carefully sequenced so that children build the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to perform increasingly complex tasks as they progress through the school.

Scroll down for further details and Planning Overviews.

Curricular Progression 2022-23

The Curriculum

The curriculum is what we intend children to learn at this school. It is based on the school’s vision statement.

‘Living life in its fullness‘ (John 10:10)

Growing healthy bodies, loving hearts and inquisitive 

We have thought carefully about how to put our vision statement into practice to create an aspirational and inclusive curriculum that meets the needs of all our learners regardless of their starting points or preferred ways of learning. This means our curriculum considers education in its broadest sense taking into account children’s social, moral, spiritual, cultural, physical and academic development.

The aims of our curriculum are as follows:

• Every child to be a principled member of society, contributing positively to the world in which they live through kindness, respect, hope, aspiration, good manners, empathy, compassion, making good choices, challenging injustice and spiritual awareness.

• Every child to be a confident independent learner through resilience (staying positive and not giving up), resourcefulness (thinking for themselves,  being adaptable and solving problems, knowing what to do when they get stuck),   being reflective  (able to evaluate, change their minds, think about themselves as a learner and how they might be able to do things better, learning from and with others) and curiosity (willingness to explore, ask questions, research, investigate and think creatively).

• Every child to have the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to be literate, numerate and understand the world around them so they can function, flourish and thrive in a dynamic and evolving world.

The National Curriculum

Our curriculum includes all the programmes of study outlined in the National Curriculum. This includes literacy, maths, science, art, design and technology, computing, music, history, geography, physical education and languages. 

Character development is also important to us. Children also study social, moral, spiritual and cultural education primarily through our Relationships, Sex and Health Education Programme and Religious Education.

Early Years Foundation Stage

Our Reception Class follows an Early Years curriculum and the principles that underpin the Department of Education’s Development Matters guidance.

The seven areas of learning that our Reception children learn through are:

–   Communication and language

–   Personal, social and emotional development

–   Physical development

–   Literacy

–   Mathematics

–   Understanding of the world 

–   Expressive arts and design.

How the curriculum is organised

We have identified four teaching phases at our school.

Our curriculum is designed in a way that children engage in progressively deeper and more complex learning at each phase. It is a concept led knowledge rich curriculum that enables children to acquire key skills and conceptual understanding through knowledge acquisition. 

This is because knowledge underpins both conceptual understanding and skills development.

Concepts are abstract ideas. In art for example, children study the concepts of shape, pattern, colour, shade, tone, texture and form through the media of painting, drawing, collage, textiles, sculpture etc. 

Focusing on a carefully selected number of concepts and studying them in depth allows children to retain their learning by providing numerous opportunities to recap, recall, make connections and apply their learning in various contexts and across different subjects. 

Our curriculum is specifically designed in a way that each teacher and phase of education builds directly on prior learning. 

Useful links

We always encourage our children to take learning outside of the classroom. Click below are some useful links for clubs and activities: