Hooks, enrichment activities and extra-curricular opportunities supplement each topic to enable our children to make connections in their learning and acquire a deep understanding. We teach our children that learning occurs everywhere, at all times, and utilise our outdoor grounds and our Forest School to enhance the curriculum wherever possible along with a wide range of extra-curricular clubs.

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We believe that our school has a responsibility to develop cultural capital and teach our children the skills and knowledge that will enable them to succeed in life. Each year group has designed a bespoke Cultural Capital Journey whereby children take part in 50 activities linked to our 5 core values. Part of this Cultural Capital Journey is to use educational visits to provide rich learning experiences that make links with their learning in school. Residential visits in Year 2, Year 4 and Year 6 further enrich the curriculum as well as developing a sense of wellbeing beyond the classroom walls.  

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Our curriculum is separated into 4 key areas which are led by teams: Sport, Fitness and Health; Science Technology Engineering and Maths; Creative Arts and Culture and Mental Health and Wellbeing. Given that we value our children holistically, all four key areas are given an equal weighting with each team then driving the curriculum forward using the voice of the child to help them to action plan.

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At Oak Meadow, we are committed to building emotionally resilient individuals. To help do this, we run the WELL programme (Wellbeing and Emotional Literacy Leaders). As children move through the school, they each complete the bronze, silver and gold awards for the Wellbeing passport. Each award covers Mental and Emotional Wellbeing, Physical and Personal Wellbeing and Social Wellbeing and this is threaded through our PSHE curriculum. Successful completion of each tier of the WELL award is celebrated in weekly achievement assemblies; this provides an opportunity to embed a culture of celebrating all achievements for every child not just academic gains and inspires children to work hard and recognise their talents and successes in all areas of their learning.

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In our school, we believe that family and community engagement is key. We welcome families in to our school to work alongside their children through Come and Play sessions in Reception and curriculum enrichment projects in Key Stage 1 and 2. Themed weeks such as ‘A Million Dreams Art Week’ are a key feature of the curriculum which also help us to forge links with the local community and showcase our curriculum achievements giving our children a real sense of pride and personal achievement. As well as parents, we also welcome visitors from our community into school. Our ‘More Heroes Needed’ project saw real-life superheroes from the local community come into school to share their career paths; this helped to form high aspirations for the future and a strong belief that our children can achieve in all they do. In addition, we regularly invite poets, artists, governors, university lecturers and members of local faith establishments to work with our children to enrich their experiences. We are also committed to fund raising and community work and help local charities such as Spurgeons using the curriculum to generate donations led by children in our REACH team.

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In reading, we teach VIPERS skills (Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval and Summary) to cover the key skills children need to become great readers. To ensure the consistent teaching of phonics we use the Read Write Inc. Scheme. Children have access to high quality reading experiences through a well-stocked school reading library and teachers also ensure that children regularly read at home and in school using Oxford Owl’s Bug Club. We ensure that children who fall in the lowest 20% of each year group for their reading ability are monitored and supported rigorously to ensure that, by the end of Key Stage 2, all children can comprehend and read fluently. 

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In writing, children learn to become great writers through experiencing quality texts. As children move into Key Stage 2, they study a new book each term which they use to generate high quality writing opportunities. We teach writing through imitation, innovation and invention to a range of non-fiction and fiction genres. We link our writing context to our curriculum topics and aim wherever possible to find a real life purpose for children’s writing to enthuse them further. We explicitly teach cursive handwriting through the Nelson Thornes Handwriting Scheme.

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In maths, children develop mathematical skills through a consistent mastery approach using the White Rose Maths Hub Scheme. They are taught mathematical concepts through a Concrete, Pictorial Abstract Approach and become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics through varied and frequent practice moving onto reasoning and problem solving.

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Sport is recognised as an excellent tool in enabling physical and mental well-being and as a result we employ Sports Plus to deliver a robust and challenging PE curriculum to all children.