Our Curriculum Intent
At Cockfield Primary School all children engage in an exciting, high-quality broad and balanced curriculum that equips them for today and tomorrow. Our curriculum is carefully planned to support the development of knowledge, skills and enriched cultural capital.
Our curriculum aims to build our pupils ‘Roots and Wings’: a secure grounding and understanding of who they area, where they come from and why they matter and also the drive, confidence and ambition to explore the word around them in an open and positive manner. We aim that by the time pupils leave our school their have found their ‘element‘ in at least one area of the curriculum where they excel and that they have experienced a wide range of high-quality opportunities which have enabled them to find this.
Our curriculum aims to prepare our pupils to be their best now and in the future. It is hugely important to use that when pupils move on to each next stage in their learning they have secured the skills and hold the knowledge (or the ability to acquire it) which will ensure them to be successful.
At Cockfield, our curriculum and ethos plays a central role in developing children’s moral, spiritual, social and cultural understanding. We aim to develop our children’s understanding of diversity and cultural awareness. Children leave Cockfield Primary School with an understanding of the wonder of difference and a respect for the range of different people that will meet in their future lives
Our Curriculum Implementation
We follow the Early Years Framework and the National Curriculum. Our long-term plan sets out when and what is taught for each curriculum subject to ensure full coverage.
Due to our mixed year groups, curriculum content in each class in planned using a 2 year rolling programme and the skills which teachers will teach in each year group are carefully mapped out to ensure that learning progressively builds on secure prior learning. Implementation of our curriculum is ambitious and engaging and is, one of the many reasons, why pupils are motivated to attend Cockfield Primary School.
Across all curriculum areas teachers plan stimulating, interesting lessons to engage pupils and inspire them to learn. Teachers build upon and extend knowledge and skills in all subjects. Curriculum leaders have developed their own subject areas so that they have a clear vision of the progression within their subject and the key skills which are being taught throughout the school. They are champions for their subjects who work with the other teachers to develop and provide an inspiring wider curriculum offer including one-off events (whole school and in individual classes), trips and visitors to school.
During lessons, teachers provide a curriculum that is differentiated to children’s needs and targeted at each year group. Children are encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning and rewarded when they do so. This is inline with our whole-school value of ‘Positivity’. are shown how an ‘I can’ attitude can help them achieve their full potential.
Big Questions
Our Foundation curriculum is based around ‘Big Questions’ each half term. The content of lessons each half term builds up to giving pupils the skills and knowledge which the children need to answer the Big Question at the end of the half term. Answering the Big Question is supported by Little Questions (answered each week) which correspond to each key concept, allowing the main question to be critically analysed and answered.
Each topic begins with a small pre-learning task to assess the children’s prior knowledge about the big question they will be answering. This allows us to tailor the lessons to the needs of the children. At the end of each topic, children answer the big question in a variety of ways/activities (including: a debate; a campaign, practical activities, verbal performances and written outcomes).
Staff provide plan in regular opportunities for retrieval practice (e.g. quizzing, lesson starters) throughout sequences of lessons and the year and also for making links across and within subjects. Staff use a variety of strategies to check pupil understanding before, during and after lessons to identify misconceptions and provide interventions where necessary. Children receive feedback to help them achieve the next step in their learning.
Retrieval Practice
Our curriculum design is based on principles derived from evidence through cognitive science:
- Learning is most effective with spaced repetition.
- Retrieval of previously learnt content is frequent and regular, which increases both storage and retrieval strength.
We appreciate the benefits of active learning and the power of the great outdoors! We have fantastic outdoor facilities and regularly take the learning outside to provide relevance and depth to our curriculum in ways that are difficult to achieve indoors. Learning outdoors is enjoyable, creative, challenging and adventurous and helps our children learn by experience and grow as confident, resilient and responsible citizens who value and appreciate the spectacular landscapes, natural heritage and culture of our local community.
We share details of children’s learning on a half-termly basis with parents and carers using the Class Dojo app so that they can support their children’s learning at home and also feel part of the Cockfield Primary School learning community.






Our Curriculum’s Impact
We use rigorous monitoring throughout the year to gauge the impact of the curriculum design. Senior leaders and subject leaders carefully monitor individual subjects: reviewing learning, evaluating pupil voice, providing individual feedback to move practice forward, celebrating positives and highlighting areas of development. Coverage and progress are accurately assessed through careful analysis of the application of skills across the curriculum to ensure that children understand and can appropriately use topic vocabulary, knowledge and skills.
Our children are respectful, confident and happy. All areas of the curriculum allow children to shine and achieve well. The vast majority of our children reach age related expectations or above; however, our results at EYFS, KS1 and KS2 are not solely a reflection of our children’s endeavour. We have talented artists, sportspeople, scientists, historians and computing experts.
At Cockfield Primary School, everyone feels welcomed, respected and valued as an equal member of the school community. The children enjoy learning more about the heritage and culture of our area and learning how we are part of the wider region, country and world. Children develop respect for other cultures, moral values, spiritual reflectiveness and good social skills. Our school is a happy place where children leave for their next stages in learning being well prepared for life in modern Britain.
If you would like to find out more about our curriculum then please contact us, we would be happy to tell you more details of exactly what we teach and how we teach different subjects.
To see more about the curriculum in action, please visit Our Classes section of our website or our school Facebook page.
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