Curriculum
In this section you can find out all about our curriculum at Great Denham Primary School. We are proud of the curriculum we offer at Great Denham. Take a look at the different pages to find out more! We believe at Great Denham that our curriculum is fully inclusive and we work hard to ensure all children can access it. Further information on how we comply with our duties of the Equality Act 2010 and the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 can be found on our Special Educational Needs page and in our Equality and Diversity Policy which can be found on our policies page.
Click on the year groups tab to take you to each year group so that you can see the overview of the curriculum for that year group.
Curriculum Intent
What are we trying to achieve at Great Denham Primary?
Our curriculum at Great Denham has been carefully designed over 10 years to fit with our school vision of 'Inspiring excellence; everyone, everyday!' It is also closely aligned with our school values and our life skills. At Great Denham, we teach the majority of our curriculum through R.E.A.L projects of which there are 3 projects a year. One of these projects has a Science focus, another a History and the final one a Geography. Our projects allow our children to develop a deep understanding and knowledge as well as supporting them in the development of key skills and knowledge in each curriculum area. We also try to have different outcomes over the school year, one having an arts outcome, another a local impact and the final one a global impact.
Coupled with our project-based approach to the curriculum is the discrete teaching of Maths, handwriting, phonics and languages ( Spanish in Years 3 - 6).
Click here to read our curriculum intent document 2023 - 2024.
Click here to see our powerpoint presentation of our Curriculum Intent 2023 - 2024.
Curriculum Implementation
How is our curriculum delivered?
Teachers at Great Denham are given the freedom to plan their timetables week by week. We encourage teachers not to have the same subjects at the same times each week and to offer a varied timetable. During the week there are a number of 'non negotiables' which much take place each week which include maths lessons, whole class reading, handwriting practice and phonics. It also includes P.E. lessons, PSHE, Music and Spanish (Year 3 - 6). The teachers have the flexibility to teach other curriculum areas through their REAL project for varying amounts of time each week.
Teaching time at Great Denham is a mixture of whole class mixed ability teaching, ability group teaching in for example mental maths and phonics as well as independent learning time. Subject knowledge and skills are taught in a variety of ways through practical hands on tasks, open ended questions allowing children to investigate and explore as well as opportunities to overlearn key facts and skills.
Children also have the opportunity to take part in a range of educational visits each term. We encourage our teachers to take our children on as many trips as possible during the school year and where this is not possible get visitors into the school.
Click here to see our Curriculum Implementation powerpoint 2023 - 2024.
Curriculum Impact
What is the impact of our curriculum?
The first place to look would be to look at the standards our children reach at the end of each age phase as well as by the time they leave our school. These can be found in the statutory information section of the website under 'School Performance Data.' Here you will be able to see that our results are in line or above national expectations at all age phases.
However, as well as the impact on the outcomes for our children we believe that the most important impact that our curriculum can have is on our children and the community in which we serve. This is why we work with REAL projects where we try to use our local and wider community and have an impact on it. We believe in the importance in creating global citizens and this can be seen in our project work. As well as this children at Great Denham are articulate, confident, happy independent individuals. This is something we are very proud of.
Click here to see our Curriculum Impact 2023 - 2024 powerpoint.
