Curriculum Overview

Balgowan’ s values-based curriculum has the statutory requirements of the national curriculum at its core and it is then further enhanced.

We are passionate about developing the whole child, as we strongly believe that our curriculum should extend beyond an academic, technical and vocational focus. It has been designed to nurture personal character, including resilience, confidence and independence, as well as allowing children to become creative, critical thinkers, with a positive outlook. 

Our curriculum introduces the children to the best examples of our developing world, helping them to engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement.  It has been designed with clear purpose and intent to prepare students for life in modern Britain, by teaching them to be responsible, respectful, active citizens who are tolerant of all and who contribute positively to their community and society as a whole.

Every child is recognised as a unique individual and we are confident that our curriculum is accessible and flexible to include all. An inclusively mindful approach has been employed from the fundamental design of progressive and engaging lessons, through to the careful consideration of how learning opportunities can be moulded and tailored for groups or individual children.

We employ a whole range of resources and approaches, including use of concrete manipulatives, multisensory learning opportunities, talk partners, adult scaffolding, tailored questioning/use of language, over-learning, pre-teaching, interests embedded in objectives, active breaks, computer-based programs and toolkits for Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD) to name just a few. Our teaching staff take pride in leading the provision accessed by children in their class and work collaboratively with colleagues, recognising expertise of others and developing approaches that are not restricted to those that have gone before or are mainstay interventions.

We believe passionately in an equitable offer, so that every child experiences fairness, opportunity and achievement in their education and broader life experiences. Our Accessibility Plan is progressive and co-produced with parents/carers. Additionally, it is a core value of the school, that all children are enabled to participate fully in extra-curricular opportunities.

We provide children with relevant and purposeful, first-hand learning opportunities. Experience has shown that this leads to the most effective and memorable learning taking place. By building on children’s existing interests, knowledge and skills, our curriculum enables pupils to know more and to be able to do more, year on year. Learning is underpinned by the teaching of knowledge, key vocabulary, concepts and by transferable skills and values.

Balgowan children progress by understanding how we can build on their previous knowledge and skills, to take on the challenges presented by future lessons. Work produced across the curriculum is of a consistently high standard and a love of reading will be nurtured. Children will be encouraged to reason, to tackle challenges, to persevere and to not be afraid of taking risks or of making mistakes.

We provide enrichment opportunities to engage learning and firmly believe that childhood should be a happy and investigative time of life where there are no limits to curiosity and a real thirst for new experiences and knowledge exists.  Children are inspired by the characters and their pets from the Balgowan ship of values, to promote the characteristics of good learning, the Balgowan values and positive attitudes.

Our children are safe, happy, stimulated and content, leaving our school with a love of learning. They are academically, socially, morally, spiritually and culturally prepared and are able to demonstrate the skills and attitudes required to contribute positively to life in modern Britain and the wider world beyond.

Please click below for year group Autumn Curriculum Newsletters

Newsletter-Year-R-Autumn-2024.pdf

Newsletter-Year-1-Autumn-2024.pdf

Newsletter-Year-2-Autumn-2024.pdf

Newsletter-Year-3-Autumn-2024.pdf

Newsletter-Year-4-Autumn-2024.pdf

Newsletter-Year-5-Autumn-2024.pdf

Newsletter-Year-6-Autumn-2024.pdf

Year Group Curriculum Overviews

Below are the curriculum overviews for each year group. These documents outline what will be taught in each subject over this academic year. 

Reception-Overview-Balgowan.pdfYear-1-Curriculum-Overview-1.pdf

Year-2-Curriculum-Overview-1.pdfYear-3-Curriculum-Overview-1.pdfYear-4-Curriculum-Overview-1.pdfYear-5-Curriculum-Overview-1.pdfYear-6-Curriculum-Overview-1.pdf