Curriculum

Curriculum Intent

At Oatlands, our curriculum is rich, inclusive and innovative. Learning extends beyond the classroom through our outdoor environment and extra-curricular opportunities, involving pupils, parents and the local community. Our children are immersed into interesting and fun topics, that develop lively, enquiring minds as they gain essential knowledge, skills and understanding.  Our curriculum encourages children to imagine and create, to make links through well-connected knowledge and celebrates diversity. They learn how to keep themselves safe and interact with the digital world as independent and enterprising learners.

 

From ‘Our World of Learning’ we want all our children to go out into the world as responsible, confident citizens in a global community, making a positive contribution as life-long learners.

 

At Oatlands Junior School we provide a broad, creative and balanced curriculum, which inspires children to develop a lifelong love of learning and prepares them for life in modern Britain.
Our Curriculum both inside and outside the classroom actively promotes the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.
We aim to develop enquiring and lively minds as well as the knowledge and skills to enable children to thrive in an ever changing world. We have high expectations of all children and challenge individuals so that they can go on to achieve their full potential.
English and mathematics are core skills which children need to develop in order to progress further in other subject areas. These are taught in discrete lessons with cross-curricular links where appropriate to enable children to apply lifelong skills in a variety of scenarios. In Years 5 and 6 children are in smaller class sizes for English and mathematics, which allows teachers to tailor provision for all abilities and provide experience of lessons with different staff in preparation for transition to secondary school.

We have worked together as a staff to devise a series of themes for each year group which provides wide and varied opportunities for academic achievement across all subjects. These themes allow children to be enthused and engaged through a cross curricular approach which also links to current topical issues or fun stimulating environments. The themes include ‘Learning Challenges’ which ask key questions such as ‘What would a journey through your body be like?’ or ‘Will you ever see the water you drink again?’ as well as the more traditional ones of ‘Victorians - How did the Victorian period help shape Harrogate?’. Through this cross curricular approach we aim to nurture and develop childrens' skills and talents through the breadth and creativity of the curriculum in school and in extra-curricular activities.
Geography and History knowledge, understanding and skills are developed and extended through the Creative Curriculum, strongly enhanced by Art, DT, Music and French to name but a few. We encourage Oatlands children to see the bigger picture, increasingly reflecting on their place in the world and promoting British values such as democracy, liberty and tolerance by focusing on communities both in the UK and overseas, their own personal wellbeing and their skills as enterprising teams and individuals.