Curriculum Enrichment

 

Wider Curriculum Opportunities & developing ‘Cultural Capital’

Our curriculum is ambitious and extends beyond the National Curriculum. This includes a broad range of enriching experiences and opportunities both within and beyond the school day. This includes an extensive programme of after-school clubs, that support the core curriculum offer, as well as those which develop specialist skills, such as having specialist teacher for French, Music and Computing.

 

We are always looking to extend the range of children’s experiences (Cultural Capital) in addition to our core curriculum. These include:

Field Trips

Throughout the year field trips are woven into the curriculum to extend the breadth and depth of our offer to pupils. These includes trips to the sewage plant, Letcombe Brooke, Sutton Courtney Nature reserve, places of worship and experiencing ‘live’ performance.

Forest School & Outdoor Learning

Forest School is an initiative designed to encourage and inspire individuals of any age through an innovative, long term, educational approach to outdoor play and learning in a woodland environment. As a school we are very fortunate in having our own woodland area and a teacher trained to deliver the Forest Schools programme.

Forest School is offered to children from nursery age through to Year 6. Many areas of the National Curriculum are intrinsically covered, in the Forest School experience, without the programmes needing to be curriculum led. Teamwork skills are developed through games and activities. Individual skills and self-esteem are heightened throughout activities such as hide and seek, shelter building, tool skills, lighting fires or environmental art, the list is endless. Each activity develops intra and inter-personal skills as well as practical and intellectual skills.

Opportunities are built into the curriculum for children to continue learning beyond the classroom including undertaking fieldwork and enquiry based-work in the local area.

 

Educational Visits and Residentials

School trips and visits are an integral part of the education of children at Charlton Primary. We value the opportunities such visits offer our pupils and the commitment of staff and adults undertaking them. Trips include class visits aimed at bringing learning alive and providing first-hand experience.

Children in Years 5 and 6 take part in residential visits. These are planned to provide new and exciting experiences. Children in Year 5 camp overnight and Year 6 take part in a challenge week at the JCA Activity Centre in Shrewsbury where they experience orienteering, climbing, abseiling, raft building, archery and lots more.

Visitors into School

Visitors have a valuable role to play and provide a link to the local community. 'Re-Start the Heart' Day is a good example of this.

Started in 2014, the purpose of Restart a Heart Day is to reach as many members of public as possible (including children) with critical training around how to restart the heart of someone who has suffered a cardiac arrest. Every year Charlton train all Year 5 children through our First Aid provider ‘Empty Hands Defence’.

After-school Clubs (see ‘School Life’ section of the website)

As a school, we offer pupils opportunities to participate in extra-curricular activities after school or at lunchtime. At any time, a wide range of clubs is on offer – our programmes of clubs and activities available is revised termly, depending on the time of year and space available.

 

PE & Sport

We some of our PE & Sport Premium to fund TA Sports to provide lunch and after school sport every day of the school week (and through the holidays). Sports coaches also provide high quality support during PE lessons in addition to running sporting activities at lunchtimes; and promotes increased pupil participation in PE & Sport beyond the school day.

Specialist teachers for Computing, Music, French and Science

It is important at Charlton that every moment is a learning moment and that our children receive high quality teaching and provision in every lesson. Some subjects taught or supported by specialist teachers. These are French, computing, science and music.