At Emmaus, we embrace everyone as a unique individual who is precious to God.  We nurture the whole child, celebrating their efforts and achievements whilst encouraging their aspirations and developing their potential.  We recognise that having a 'growth mindset' best prepares children to meet that potential.  A growth mindset is a set of beliefs and commitments that underpin all teaching and learning which include:

• Effort is the key to success. 

• Errors and mistakes are a learning experience that can be used to develop understanding.

• Children can always improve through reviewing, editing and practice.

• Seeing learning as an active process with underlying skills.  These are exemplified through our six learning behaviours in our behaviour policy.

Our curriculum is aligned to meet and exceed the National Curriculum.  We teach each subject discretely on a two-year rotation.  We have identified key concepts in each subject.  This allows children to revisit these concepts in different ways during their time at school, becoming more complex each time.

We have carefully sequenced our topics in phases to create a coherent and well-planned curriculum.  For example:

• In Geography, children learn about living on an island in KS1, which is built upon with our rivers topic in Y3/4 and then developed further when children learn about flooding in New Orleans in Y5/6. 

• In History, children learn about how the Vikings and Romans invaded in Y3/4.  In Y5/6, they learn about how Axis forces tried to invade the UK during World War II.

• In Art and Design, children encounter different portraits artists in each phase.  In Y1/2, Leonardo da Vinci’s self-portrait show children how to record an accurate likeness by using different marks and textures.  In Y3/4, children learn how Elizabeth I projected power and strength, using her Armada and Rainbow portraits.  In Y5/6, Frida Kahlo’s self-portrait shows how we can incorporate our life stories into our artworks.

Using these key concepts allows children to make comparisons between different units of study within a subject.

As part of nurturing the whole child, we are also committed to enriching our children’s education and experiences.  These include educational visits, fieldwork, learning to play the violin, concerts and performances into our teaching and learning. 

In line with our commitment to a growth mindset, we believe that all children should have access to the same teaching material.  Some of our children may need some extra support to do so: this may include recording their learning in a different way, having extra adult support in the classroom, having short pre- or post-teaching sessions to introduce or reinforce concepts. 

We also recognise that children need tasks that allow them to demonstrate a greater depth of understanding.  Within school, we use the language of ‘Acquire’ and ‘Apply’.  When children first encounter new knowledge or skills, they acquire a level of understanding.  This means they can demonstrate a grasp of their learning.  To apply this understanding demonstrates a greater depth and can also involve making connections across a subject, beyond the immediate unit of study.  Our subject organisers are structured in this way. 

Our long-term planning page describes when each unit of study is taught within our two-year rolling cycle.  Our assessment and review page explains our approach to assessment and how we help children to retain information and ideas taught within our curriculum. 

Within school, our subject leaders conduct regular subject leader reviews.  Subject leaders identify how teachers' planning aligns with our curriculum.  They also examine books, talk to groups of children and observe lessons.  Leaders use this information to identify areas of strength and areas where we would like to continue to improve.

Please note: paper copies of all documents on this website are available on request from the school office.