The Essentials Curriculum is very new to us and we are currently using our old progression documents alongside The Essentials Curriculum this academic year. We aim to streamline this for each subject ready for September 2023.

Our wider curriculum is underpinned by the Essentials Curriculum by Chris Quigley. The Essentials Curriculum sets out the essential coverage, learning objectives and standards which are required for all subjects. Furthermore, it provides progress measures for all subjects including personal development.

One of the primary reasons we chose this curriculum is because it emphasises the importance of developing the depth of children’s learning. In essence, this means providing children with increased cognitive challenge, allowing them to apply the skills which they have learnt independently in a range of contexts rather than moving them onto the next skill needlessly when they have not truly mastered it.

We feel this curriculum provides us with a coherent, progressive and appropriately sequenced curricular structure to enable our pupils to develop subject specific knowledge and skills to prepare them well for the next stages of their education. The learning in the concepts fits well with our themes and values that shape the content of our learning across the curriculum.

The curriculum, builds progressively on from the learning in the Foundation Stage. The milestones (1, 2 and 3) that are built into our curriculum complements our class structure and planning schedule. Milestone 1 is for Years One and Two; Milestone 2 relates to Years Three and Four and Milestone 3 shows the learning for Years Five and Six. The curriculum is aligned to the National Curriculum and goes beyond National Curriculum requirements in each milestone to ensure repetition of skills and knowledge.

The document below show the learning outcomes for each milestone.