Curriculum Intent Statement

The Broke Hall curriculum seeks to inspire curiosity, promote knowledge & understanding and encourage independence for a lifetime of learning and personal growth.  We have developed an evidence-based curriculum which is vibrant, challenging, varied and relevant to life in modern Britain.  Our progressive curriculum is built on carefully-selected substantive knowledge, embedded through disciplinary knowledge and shored-up by the explicit instruction of key vocabulary.  Our curriculum supports and promotes our school drivers which are:

Curiosity

Plutarch said that the mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.  At Broke Hall we seek to nurture curious minds by encouraging children to question, to think critically and to reason.  These skills are the keys to innovation, problem-solving and discovery.  Not only that, curiosity is also the driver behind a more spiritual way to experience the world and is a powerful force for creativity.

Knowledge & Understanding

Thucydides is quoted as saying that knowledge without understanding is useless, which is why we place these two drivers together.  At Broke Hall, we do not seek to stuff our learners full of facts to be memorised.  Pieces of knowledge are broken down, linked together with others and built back up to form a coherent unit of understanding which can be applied to other situations.  The mastery approach to mathematics, enquiry questions in foundation subjects and deep, thematic text-level reading are all examples of how we promote knowledge and understanding at our school.

Independence

Our role as primary educators is to create a thirst for learning that will last a lifetime.  This is only possible if we promote independence alongside everything else. Independence takes many forms and among them are: independence of thought – we teach our learners to think for themselves, even when it is difficult; emotional independence, so that one’s self-belief does not depend on the constant approval of others, thus safeguarding our learners against coercion to please; and personal independence – the ability to take care of themselves without reliance on others. We do not, however, view independence as the path to a solitary or selfish life.  True teamwork is achieved when a group of individuals work independently towards a shared goal. In wider life, the freedom afforded to independent people allows injustice and inequality to be exposed, questioned and remedied.  This is our aim for children at Broke Hall.

Inclusion

It is a fact that we live in a world full of diversity.  Inclusion is a choice we make each day to embrace and celebrate, rather than tolerate, that diversity, knowing that as a community we are stronger than the sum of our parts.  There is an Islamic proverb that says “A lot of different flowers make a bouquet” and that is the belief we want to instil in our learners at Broke Hall – there is an equal place for every one in the world, regardless of race, gender, identity or ability.  We seek unity, not uniformity.

Resilience

The things in life that are worth doing are hard: they take effort and time, and we may not get it right at the first attempt.  The children at Broke Hall are taught this lesson and know that mistakes mean we are trying; failures mean we are learning.  We teach our learners to see opportunities rather than obstacles and furnish them with the tools they need to be their true and best selves.

An overview of the curriculum, showing what is covered in each subject in each academic year can be viewed by clicking the attachment below: