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The Cranbrook Curriculum

Our School Vision

Ensure equity for all to address social disadvantage

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Our Mission Statement

An ambitious, inclusive and broad curriculum that develops essential skills and knowledge to achieve academic and personal success

 

Our School Values

 

Kindness, Equality, Respect, and Resilience

 

Our values aim to create an ethos and culture that nurtures talent and encourages our pupils and staff to aim high for themselves and each other.

 

Curriculum Drivers

 

These drivers underpin our teaching across the curriculum and prepare children for the challenges and opportunities of the modern world.

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Introduction

At Cranbrook Primary School, learning is an exciting journey designed to spark curiosity and unlock potential. Our curriculum builds on the essential knowledge outlined by the DfE, while going further to shape children into happy, confident, empathetic, and ambitious individuals. We nurture critical thinkers who embrace their authentic selves, celebrate their creativity, and step boldly into the world with courage, curiosity, and compassion.

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We are proud to ensure that:

  • Our approach to learning is rooted in the development of strong relationships within our community, underpinned by an unwavering commitment to equality, respect, resilience, and kindness. We understand that without these principles, the curriculum cannot achieve its intended impact.

  • The development of children through their early and primary years has been thoughtfully considered, with pedagogical approaches tailored to meet the evolving needs of students across different phases of their educational journey.

  • Every phase of teaching is grounded in Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction, with careful attention given to how these principles manifest at each stage of the school, ensuring consistency and coherence in our teaching strategies.

  • Our curriculum is sequenced to ensure that knowledge builds progressively, fostering deeper conceptual understanding as students move through the various stages of their education.

  • Knowledge and concepts are layered to ensure solid retention, enabling students to make meaningful progress from their starting points, while continuously advancing throughout their learning journey.

  • We have integrated recent research on memory and cognitive science to optimize learning, ensuring that students are equipped to move knowledge from working memory to long-term memory, while avoiding cognitive overload.

  • Opportunities for deliberate practice are built into the curriculum, allowing students to deepen their understanding and mastery of all subjects.

  • We are committed to limitless learning for all students, adapting our teaching strategies to meet the diverse needs of each child, ensuring that every learner can achieve success.

Our curriculum is deliberately designed to reflect the unique identities and experiences of our students, considering the context of our community, their worldviews, interests, and specific needs. This, combined with our core values, aims, and aspirations, ensures an educational experience that is not only enriching but also intrinsically valuable, far beyond mere preparation for the next stage of education.

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Our School Values
KINDNESS
EQUALITY
RESPECT
RESILIENCE

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These core values are prominently displayed throughout the school, in every classroom, and are consistently referenced in learning across the curriculum. This intentional integration helps foster an ethos and culture that not only nurtures talent but also inspires both pupils and staff to set ambitious goals and strive for excellence, both for themselves and for one another.
We selected these particular values because they embody the qualities we wish to see our children develop and exemplify. These values are intricately linked to our curriculum drivers and provide a solid foundation for students to rely on when encountering challenges in life. They are key to supporting the achievement of their aspirations and long-term goals.

Curriculum Drivers
Our curriculum drivers form the bedrock of our teaching practice across all subjects, equipping children to navigate the complexities and opportunities of the modern world. These drivers were chosen through thoughtful consultation with staff and are a direct reflection of our school’s unique context, as well as the needs and interests of our students. Aligned with our core values, these drivers ensure that our pupils are prepared with the essential life skills necessary for success in their future endeavours.

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Curriculum Intent

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At CPS, we are committed to delivering an engaging, dynamic, and empowering curriculum that nurtures lifelong learners. Throughout their journey with us, we strive to provide our children with:

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  • Diverse and frequent opportunities to become articulate and confident communicators

  • Rich and transformative experiences that expand their cultural capital

  • The knowledge and insight to develop into responsible, global citizens

  • Lessons designed to create a change to long term memory, enabling students to apply their knowledge and skills to make connections, think critically, make healthy choices, and solve problems

  • A learning environment that fosters curiosity and ignites a passion for discovery

  • The tools and opportunities to widen their horizons, preparing them for future academic challenges and inspiring them to set ambitious goals for themselves

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As a staff, we are on an exciting journey to decolonise our curriculum and actively challenge systemic racism. By reflecting critically on the actions of those who came before us, and considering how historical events have shaped both global and local communities, we aim to provide a curriculum that genuinely celebrates diverse perspectives across history.

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We have intentionally woven representative examples of people from a wide range of backgrounds into every subject area, ensuring that the contributions and achievements of all communities within British society are recognised and valued. In doing so, we help every child to see their own heritage reflected in what they learn, fostering a sense of pride, belonging, and empowerment—both academically and personally.

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Our curriculum also recognises the significant impact that COVID-19 has had on our children’s learning, wellbeing, and personal development. We acknowledge that many pupils have experienced loss in a variety of forms—loss of routine, social interaction, academic continuity, and in some cases, personal loss. In response, we have embedded strategies across all subject areas that promote emotional recovery, rebuild confidence, and support the re-establishment of positive learning behaviours.

 

Alongside this, we have implemented targeted interventions to support children who require additional academic reinforcement or social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) support. These carefully planned measures ensure that every child is given the opportunity to re-engage, make progress, and thrive—both in their learning and in their wider personal development.

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We use a range of tools to ensure the curriculum is implemented systematically and sequenced precisely.  We have a bespoke book based English curriculum and use White Rose Maths.  White Rose Maths is supplemented with the Mastering Number fluency programme to ensure that children have multiple opportunities to practice the foundational knowledge they have to have in their maths.

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Phonics is taught through the systematic synthetic phonics programme Twinkl Phonics.  All children in EYFS and Key Stage 1 have daily phonics lessons that include opportunities for transcription at the level that the child is working at.  Keep up groups happen daily for any learners that need additional support.  Beyond Key Stage 1, children in Key Stage 2 or with SEND who are still early readers also have daily phonics lessons and intervention to catch them up rapidly to their peers.  Handwriting lessons are daily and are taught through the Twinkl Handwriting scheme.

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For the majority of our foundation subjects we use the Kapow curriculum as a starting point so that these subjects are also sequenced precisely.  We supplement the Kapow curriculum with our own examples of diversity to ensure that our diverse community is represented based on the work we have done on decolonising the curriculum.  We also ensure that children’s rights and safeguarding are woven into the whole curriculum as these form the bedrock of all that we do here at Cranbrook Primary School.

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PPA is taught by specialist staff members.  KS1 have lessons in Computing, Music, PE and Drama.  We specifically chose drama as a lesson for our KS1 children so they have dedicated time to developing their oracy and language skills over and above the opportunities provided in the rest of the curriculum.  We know developing oracy is particularly important for our community due to a high number of children coming from families where English is an additional language.  KS2 have lessons in Computing, Music, PE and French.  In EYFS, children have Music, outdoor learning and additional PSED lessons to support their development.

Outdoor Learning is a key feature of our curriculum across the school.  Ilford is an urban environment and our children have limited day to day opportunities to experience nature and being outside for extended periods of time.  Outdoor Learning is woven into our curriculum through all subjects and lessons are expected to take place outdoors at least once a term.

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Pupil voice is also an integral part of our curriculum.  Speaking and listening is promoted through our active learning teaching strategies, particularly partner talk.  Children have the opportunity to rehearse what they want to say before saying it to the whole class.  We have a strong focus on developing oracy in EYFS and this is embedded into all of our lessons but particularly English.  Children who are not at age related expectations have a range of SALT interventions including NELI.  We further develop oracy in KS1 by having dedicated drama lessons that require the children to use language with clarity and confidence.  All children take part in class school council meetings where they debate hot topics and also bring motions forward to SLT and other stakeholders such as parents, the council and our local MP.

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