Curriculum

Inspiring Minds | Nurturing Futures | Strengthening Community 

At Boorley, we are proud to have an enquiry-based curriculum that encourages children to investigate, explore, discover and draw conclusions in a way that excites them and develops them into well rounded young people. Our aim as a school is for children to leave Boorley as responsible citizens able to integrate positively into society, and be ready for the next step in their learning. With children in every year group for the first time from September 2025, we have been able to map out clear progression in each subject we teach, from Year R to Year 6.

Our Curriculum Intent

• Develop responsible citizens who can contribute positively to the local community and beyond.
• Equip children with skills to think critically, reason and explain, showing tolerance and understanding of others’ points of view.
• Foster innovation and creativity, with children feeling confident to share their ideas.
• Promote inclusion, diversity, equity and equality for all pupils, staff and families
• Enhance cultural capital and give opportunities for a wide range of experiences beyond the classroom.
• Develop confident communicators who can share their thoughts, ideas and emotions with others.
• Celebrate progress, regardless of starting point.
• Acquire knowledge, skills and understanding relevant to modern society, built on what they already know.
• Expose children to a range of high quality literature both as a hook for learning and when reading for pleasure.

Our Curriculum Implementation

The curriculum at Boorley Park is divided into three phases:

• Early Years Foundation Stage (Year R) - up to age 5.
• Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2) - ages 5 - 7.
• Key Stage 2 (Years 3 - 6) - ages 7 - 11.

We follow the National Curriculum to guide the content of our taught lessons, identifying the core knowledge and skills required. Subjects are taught discretely in all year groups which supports children in understanding what they are learning and why. Learning is organised within three key concepts that link to our learning values. In the Autumn Term, we focus on Positive Role Models, linking to Strengthening Community; in the Spring Term, we focus on Innovation, linking to Inspiring Minds, and the Summer Term focuses on Sustainability, linking to Nurturing Futures. These concepts have been chosen to specifically meet the needs of our local context, with the aim of broadening horizons and equipping children with skills to contribute positively to society. The curriculum is ever-evolving, meaning teachers are able to adapt and adjust to suit needs and interests of each particular cohort.

Positive Role Models (Strengthening Community)
Significant figures - both historical and current - are built into units of learning and children are able to explore and investigate why they have been chosen as a role model. In some cases, children are able to debate about significant figures and whether or not they should be classed as a role model. For example, is Banksy a positive role as a famous artist, or not a positive role model as his work could be perceived as graffiti? This supports critical thinking skills, but also allows children to be exposed to new role models that could positively impact on their life.

Innovation (Inspiring Minds)
Innovation is centred around creativity, changes over time and inspiring minds! Throughout units in the Spring Term, children will learn about developments over time whether that be musical instruments in Music, the design and creation of paralympic sporting equipment in PE or the advancements of technology and AI in Computing. They are able to see the impact on their own life and the lives of others around them, and children will be able to see themselves as innovators who can make a difference.

Sustainability (Nurturing Futures)
The Summer Term curriculum includes strands on sustainability, linking to our value of Nurturing Futures. With the aim of developing responsible citizens, children learn how to look after our world, along with understanding the impact we can have. Children will look at how we can re-use, reduce and recycle, with these ideas linked into taught units, such as making rugs in DT from recycled materials, and looking at how Stomp use everyday items to create music.

Learning is pinned to an enquiry question that allows children to investigate and explore, engaging in critical thinking and reasoning. For example:

• What really sank Titanic?
• How does the author create a sense of drama?
• How can we use collage to create emotion?
• Could we survive without rainforests?

We endeavour to incorporate a range of opportunities that enhance cultural capital within our curriculum, organising off-site trips as well as visitors to the school, such as authors, drama groups and even a travelling farm! These experiences put learning into real life contexts and bring classroom learning to life.

Let’s Think in English
In September 2025, we began our full programme of Let's Think in English. Let’s Think in English (LTE) is a teaching programme which helps pupils develop the higher-order skills needed for success in English.
These include inference, deduction and analysis together with confidence and resilience when responding to unfamiliar texts. Let’s Think in English draws on research by Piaget and Vygotsky that young people learn best when exploring ideas together. The lessons are based on structured challenge and include the development of understanding through discussion (social construction), problem-solving (cognitive challenge) and structured reflection (metacognition) which makes pupils more aware of their thinking processes and how they think most effectively.

Future Focused Fridays
At Boorley, we recognise the importance of developing children as well-rounded citizens who are able to contribute positively to society. Every Friday afternoon, children across the school mix into cross-phase groups to take part in project work that links to our key concepts, with each project focusing on the key skills for that term. For example, the Autumn Term focuses on Positive Role Models and Strengthening Community, with children learning the values of team work, social responsibility and kindness. The children have been able to visit local nurseries and care homes each week, as well as organise projects like Community Olympics with representation from the local schools, and plan, organise and run a community afternoon tea, which was attended by leaders of the Trust, local police, parish councillors and other local citizens. The children have complete involvement in each stage of the project, giving them ownership and enabling them to learn and demonstrate the focus key skills. 

For further information about what is covered in each year group, visit the subject overviews that can be found in the ‘Our Learning’ section of the website.