In preparation for the launch of the revised national curriculum in 2028, King’s Court First School is developing a curriculum that strengthens coherence, relevance and meaningful real-world application. 

Key areas of curriculum development include: 

• Strengthening cross-curricular planning, ensuring knowledge and skills connect meaningfully across subjects 

• Embedding food, nutrition and healthy lifestyles throughout PSHE, science, design and technology, mathematics and physical education 

• Developing pupils’ understanding of where food comes from, sustainability and environmental responsibility 

• Increasing practical learning opportunities, including food preparation, cooking skills and links to physical wellbeing 

• Building progression in vocabulary, health knowledge and self-care skills from Early Years onwards 

These developments will ensure pupils are well-prepared for future statutory expectations while strengthening current provision across the curriculum.

We encourage independence and ownership of learning. Our curriculum is ambitious, offering opportunities for greater-depth learning while ensuring that all pupils, particularly disadvantaged learners and those with SEND, gain the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. 

This is achieved through a strong focus on Quality First Teaching and consistently high expectations across all subjects. 

Our curriculum framework clearly sets out: 

• What? - the knowledge, skills and understanding to be gained at each stage of learning. Children are encouraged to Go for Gold, challenging themselves and striving for excellence at a level appropriate to their individual needs and abilities.

• How? – how learning is structured over time using subject-specific pedagogy 

• Quality Assurance – how we evaluate what children know and understand against expectations 

As learning is a change to long-term memory, the impact is measured over time. 

Impact is assessed through: 

• Teacher assessment and comparative judgement 

• Summative assessments:  

• Reading and spelling ages in English 

• End-of-block assessments using White Rose Maths 

• Termly arithmetic and reasoning assessments 

• Foundation subject assessment using cold and hot tasks 

• Floor books evidencing progression in PE, PSHE, music and computing 

Quality assurance includes: 

• Learning walks and lesson observations 

• Instructional coaching using WalkThrus by Tom Sherrington 

These approaches ensure that teaching methods align with curriculum depth expectations and that pupils are supported to make sustained progress.

For further subject-specific information, please see individual curriculum pages or contact the school office. 

• Subjects are organised around key themes and threshold concepts. Each term is built around one of three curriculum drivers: Community, Culture and The Arts.

• Threshold concepts are revisited across different topics to build strong, connected knowledge schemas 

• Progression is structured through two milestones:  

•  Milestone 1: Key Stage 1 

• Milestone 2: Key Stage 2 

• Each milestone includes procedural and semantic knowledge that deepens over time 

Children may have gaps in their knowledge or understanding if key concepts have not yet been securely grasped. At King’s Court, we focus on the stage of learning a child is currently at, rather than solely on age-related expectations. 

Gaps are addressed through: 

• Quality First Teaching and ongoing formative assessment 

• Carefully planned curriculum maps ensure essential skills are systematically covered 

• Phonics keep-up groups targeting key gaps 

• Provision maps with small-step targets for pupils with SEND 

This approach supports both academic progress and children’s mental health and wellbeing. 

Our curriculum is influenced by well-established educational research, including: 

• Chris Quigley – Essentials Curriculum 

• Tom Sherrington – WalkThrus 

• Rosenshine – Principles of Instruction 

• Education Endowment Foundation – Adaptive Teaching 

• Kirschner – problem-based and enquiry learning models 

We have developed an ambitious curriculum that provides pupils with a rich diet of learning across all subjects, while carefully considering staff workload and wellbeing. 

Across the curriculum, teaching enables pupils to revisit, recap, and build on prior learning. This strengthens long-term memory and understanding. 

Examples include: 

• Learning core sculpting techniques in art before creating final pieces 

• Securing accurate facts and methods in mathematics before applying them to problem-solving