At Reepham Church of England Primary School, we are a family that believes every child deserves to feel seen, valued and loved for who they are. Our school vision, ‘Be Known. Be Loved. Belong’ encapsulates our aspiration for all children to flourish academically, spiritually and emotionally. Through our rich curriculum, collective worship and caring community, we guide our children to become responsible, confident and compassionate individuals - preparing them to ‘live life in all its fullness’ (John 10:10).

We aim for our children to thrive academically, physically and creatively, enabling them to develop a happy and positive mindset for life. Our curriculum is both inspiring and creative; children are taught to utilise their ‘gifts from God’ to achieve their full potential and be ready for the next stage in their learning journey. To ensure that all children flourish, our curriculum is rooted in high expectations, challenge and support, as we strive for excellence across all curriculum areas.

Linked to our vision and demographics, our curriculum is driven by four key principles, all of which are underpinned by the church value of ‘respect’. These principles are:

• Resilience: We encourage children to develop the ability to overcome challenges and maintain a positive attitude in the face of adversity. This is bolstered by our highly-effective pastoral support system, ensuring every child feels secure enough to take risks and our ‘Mini Rangers’ scheme where children can earn their ‘I don’t give up’ badge when they demonstrate an area which they have shown perseverance in.
• Wisdom – Our curriculum fosters critical thinking and informed decision-making, equipping children with the skills necessary to navigate their world. We maintain high academic expectations for all pupils, ensuring they are challenged and fully prepared for their transition to secondary school. Our commitment to ‘Wisdom’ is evidenced by our end of key stage data and other external data, which consistently sits higher than the national average in Reading, Writing, Maths, Multiplication and Phonics.
• Lifelong Learners: We inspire our children to cultivate a love and thirst for learning that extends beyond the classroom, instilling aspirations for their future. For example, during our annual Science Fair, pupils lead their own investigations - based on something they are curious about – presenting their findings to the local community. Additionally, the Reepham Ranger Awards provide a structured framework for a range of development opportunities, where children earn badges for a variety of projects, proving that learning has no walls.
• Understanding: We promote an understanding of community, social action and environmental stewardship; encouraging children to respect themselves, others and the world around them. Our ‘Reepham Rangers’ programme brings this to life, tasking children to earn ‘Social Action’ and ‘Our World’ badges as they learn to respect themselves, others and the planet. This work is spearheaded by our ‘Change Champions’– a dedicated social action group designed to empower pupils to become courageous advocates for change; identifying local and global issues and taking meaningful steps to address them.

In order to ‘live life in all its fullness’, we are driven by the quote, “Who you are is God’s gift to you. Who you become is your gift to God.”  We use these words to ensure our curriculum is relevant, challenging and exciting so that children can discover and develop their ‘gifts from God’ and use them in positive ways. Our aim is to deliver a curriculum which is accessible to all and will maximise the development of every child’s ability and academic achievement so that they know more, remember more and understand more. Informed by our local village catchment and recent consultations, our curriculum is built upon a rigorous academic backbone which ensures high standards for all learners. This foundation is enriched by practical, creatively delivered lessons, designed to foster the resilience and curiosity necessary for our pupils to thrive both within Lincolnshire and the wider global community.

A commitment to pupil and parental voices ensures our curriculum is relevant and meaningful.

 Pupils told us:

“We learn things if it is fun."

“We like writing in the mornings and learning facts in the afternoon, as we remember more."

"I am proud of the work I do."

"My teachers want me to be my best and they help me do this.

A parents' consultation told us :

“You have considered the needs of the children”;

 “A good variety of topics...”;

“Make sure you keep the fun in learning...”;

“It’s good to see you are keeping the focus on making sure the children are ready for secondary...”;

 "Older children are succeeding because of the way this school promoted high standards...”

Parents overwhelmingly told us that they choose us for a proud academic base that best prepares pupils for the next step in their education. These range from Grammar Schools, Independent Schools, outstanding Faith Schools and successful Comprehensive Schools. 

Curriculum Intent

Curriculum Implementation 

Our school priorities are used to drive curriculum implementation alongside appropriate educational research (undertaken at the time of the most recent curriculum consultation). The way the school implements the curriculum is grouped in three ways: academically, emotionally (including resilience, safety and wellbeing) and spiritually.

We understand that demographics and society changes and we want our curriculum to be relevant, exciting and best prepare our children for the next stage in their education, matching their personal context. To this end, we only ever produce a long-term plan for four years, it is then rewritten by consulting parents, staff, and pupils. A four-year cycle reflects a pupil working through Key Stage Two.

Research-based curriculum, evidence-informed pedagogy

To ensure every child has the opportunity to achieve their maximum potential, our pedagogy is research-led and informed by modern educational science. Our practice is guided by the following frameworks:

• Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion: Used to establish high-impact classroom routines and behaviour management strategies that maximise instructional time.
• Barak Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction: Used to structure lesson delivery, guide practice and support cognitive processing.
• The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) Evidence Base: Utilised to guide general teaching standards, inclusive practices and the strategic deployment of support staff.
• Tom Sherrington’s Walkthrus: Used to provide actionable, step-by-step instructional techniques for classroom teachers.

We will protect subject disciplines of Reading, Writing and Maths. Our lessons in the morning will focus on these areas and the foundational knowledge to succeed in them in order to best prepare children for life.

The afternoon curriculum expands horizons by placing a stronger emphasis on non-core subjects, including Science, Humanities and the Arts. Through interactive, hands-on activities, pupils learn by exploring, doing and discussing their findings.

These afternoon lessons offer dedicated opportunities to master foundational skills across all subjects, delivering a broad range of learning experiences within a rich, balanced curriculum. Taught through engaging, thematic topics, this approach ensures a vibrant, well-rounded school day that perfectly complements our morning focus.

Implementing Emotional Resilience, Safety and wellbeing intentions

Our school vision states we know and love our school family; this means ensuring they are cared for and all members of our school family are supported. Our school ensures that when pupils are unhappy, worried, disturbed or upset there are open channels for them to seek or be offered support, without stigma and with appropriate confidentiality. A healthy school actively seeks to promote emotional health and wellbeing and helps pupils to understand their feelings.

Implementing Spiritual Intentions

Spirituality shapes who we are and what we do.  We express this through our strong Christian values, but ensure families of all faiths see us as a safe place to explore and talk about their personal beliefs. This best prepares children for a life where they will be able to live and work in a harmonious multicultural society.  See also our Collective Worship and RE policies. The school also has detailed SIAMs paperwork covering matters of SMSC.

Our Curriculum Policy outlines how we implement the National Curriculum in three different ways. See our Curriculum Policy in Full below this section.

Reepham Church of England Primary School follows the National Curriculum with regard to the content and the subjects we teach. As a proud Church of England school, we always ensure education about values runs throughout our lessons. Our Christian beliefs underpin all that we do. We thread the teachings of Jesus Christ through our curriculum and have a focus value for each term.

 

Phonics

We are committed to ensuring that every child becomes a successful reader. Reading is the gateway to learning and secure early reading is essential for pupils to access the full curriculum.

We teach phonics through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, a Department for Education validated systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programme, taught with fidelity and consistency. Phonics begins in the first full week of Reception. Daily lessons build from approximately 20 minutes to 30 minutes as quickly as possible, alongside daily oral blending. In Year 1, pupils review earlier learning and secure Phase 5 grapheme-phoneme correspondences, developing accuracy, automaticity and fluency in reading and spelling.

Whole-class teaching is the core model. Assessment is used to identify gaps quickly. Pupils who require additional support receive Little Wandle Keep-up teaching, using the same routines, language and resources in smaller steps with increased repetition. Where needed, Rapid Catch-up and continued systematic phonics support are used beyond Year 1 so that pupils secure accurate and automatic word recognition.

Early reading practice is closely matched to pupils’ secure phonics knowledge. Children in Reception and Year 1 take part in three weekly Reading Practice sessions focusing on decoding, prosody and comprehension. Fully decodable books contain only phonics knowledge already taught. Reading for pleasure is developed alongside decodable reading through daily story time, high-quality texts and additional books to share with families.

See the Phonics and Early Reading Policy for full detail.

	Reading Home Readers newsletter
		Phonics and Early Reading policy
			Curriculum policy

We monitor the impact of our curriculum:

Our school ethos is to best prepare children for life. We use assessment and pupil knowledge to ensure they leave us having achieved their best academic results as well as ensuring they are healthy and happy.

We monitor the impact of our curriculum for four clear purposes:

• All pupils make progress
• See where school priorities are emerging
• Adapt future planning
• Ensure all pupils are best prepared for the next stage in their educational journey.

Our policy has much more information about the way we deliver our curriculum. To best prepare children to live life in all its fullness, by ensuring they are ready for the next steps in their educational journey

 

Please also see our Class Timetables for curriculum delivery information. 

All plans are currently subject to change. If you require any more information on our curriculum, do not hesitate to ask.