At Elham Church of England Primary School, Faith, Empathy, Achievement and Community guide everything we do. They shape the way we care for one another, the expectations we have for every child and the choices we make about what and how children learn.
Our curriculum is designed to give every child the opportunity to know more, remember more and achieve more over time. We want children to make meaningful progress from their own individual starting points and to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills they need for the next stage of their education and for life beyond school.
We want children to develop faith in themselves and in others. We want them to understand that effort matters, that they can improve and that perseverance can lead to success. We also want them to have faith in the people around them: to understand that we are stronger when we work together, that others can support and help us, and that we have a responsibility to offer that same support to others.
Our curriculum therefore encourages children to become confident learners who are willing to try, make mistakes, learn from them and keep going.
Empathy is at the heart of our school. We care about the whole child. Children's emotions, feelings, mental health, friendships, experiences and opinions matter to us, alongside their academic development.
We want children to understand themselves and to recognise and respond to the experiences and feelings of others. Through our curriculum and wider school life, children develop the knowledge, language and understanding to listen to different perspectives, show compassion and treat others with kindness and respect.
We believe that academic achievement matters. School is a place where children should learn, succeed and experience the satisfaction that comes from developing their knowledge and understanding. We have high expectations for every child and are proud that our pupils regularly achieve results above national averages in key statutory assessments, including the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile, Phonics Screening Check and end of Key Stage 2 assessments.
At the same time, we recognise that every child begins from a different starting point. High expectations do not mean expecting every child to achieve in exactly the same way; they mean believing that every child can achieve and that every child deserves to be taught well and supported to fulfil their potential.
We therefore place a strong emphasis on progress. We identify what children already know, understand what they need to learn next and provide the teaching, support and appropriate challenge to help them get there. For some children, this may mean closing significant gaps; for others, it may mean extending and deepening their learning. In every case, we want children to experience genuine academic success.
Our curriculum prioritises secure knowledge and understanding. We want children to know more and remember more, building systematically on what they have learned before so that their knowledge becomes increasingly secure and useful.
Elham is a small village school with a strong sense of community. Our curriculum reflects our unique local context, while also helping children to understand the wider world and their place within it.
We want children to know and value the history, geography, people and environment of the Elham Valley and Kent Downs. We want them to understand the community around them, while developing curiosity about communities, cultures and perspectives beyond their immediate experience.
We also want children to recognise that they have a part to play in shaping the communities of the future. Through their learning, relationships and experiences, they develop the knowledge, confidence and sense of responsibility to contribute positively to the world around them.
These four values influence the decisions we make about our curriculum. We consider not only what children need to learn, but why that knowledge matters, how it connects to what they already know and how it will help them understand themselves, other people and the world around them.
Our curriculum provides children with strong foundations in reading, writing and mathematics alongside a broad range of experiences and knowledge across the wider curriculum. Teachers build systematically on prior learning, revisit important knowledge and identify and address gaps in understanding.
We recognise that children arrive at school with different experiences, knowledge, strengths and needs. High-quality teaching, appropriate adaptation and effective support enable every child to participate in the curriculum, make progress and experience success. Inclusion and high achievement are not competing aims: we believe that the right teaching and support enable more children to achieve highly.
Ultimately, we want children to leave Elham as knowledgeable, confident, compassionate and successful young people who have faith in themselves and others, care about the people around them, recognise their own achievements and understand that they have a valuable contribution to make to their communities.
Our curriculum is carefully planned and sequenced so that children build secure knowledge over time. Teachers draw on a range of high-quality published resources and programmes to support this work, adapting them to meet the needs of their pupils and the context of our school.
We use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised to support the teaching of phonics and early reading, Literacy Tree to support our English curriculum, and White Rose Maths as a resource to support the sequencing and teaching of mathematics. In a number of wider curriculum subjects, including science, history, geography, art and design and technology, teachers draw on Kapow resources alongside their own planning and teaching.
These resources support our curriculum; they do not define it. Teachers use their professional knowledge to revisit important learning, address gaps, provide appropriate challenge and adapt teaching for individual pupils. This ensures that learning remains responsive to the children in front of us and reflects the needs, values and context of the Elham community.
Children in Reception, in Farah Class, follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework.
The curriculum is organised around seven areas of learning:
Prime areas
Specific areas
Children learn through a carefully balanced combination of direct teaching, guided learning, play and exploration. Staff build on children's existing experiences and interests while deliberately developing their language, knowledge, independence and early literacy and mathematical understanding.
The three Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning – Playing and Exploring, Active Learning, and Creating and Thinking Critically – support children in becoming confident and engaged learners.
As a small school, Reception children are part of the wider life of Elham from the very beginning. They develop relationships across the school and benefit from the opportunities that come from being part of a close-knit school community.
Children in Potter, Nightingale and Peake Classes follow the National Curriculum for England, alongside our wider school curriculum.
We teach the National Curriculum through a broad range of subjects, including:
We place particular importance on developing strong foundations in reading, writing and mathematics. These skills are explicitly taught and continually revisited so that children can use them confidently across the wider curriculum.
Our wider curriculum gives children opportunities to build knowledge over time, develop subject-specific vocabulary and practise the skills needed to think and work like historians, geographers, scientists, artists and musicians.
Where appropriate, learning extends beyond the classroom. Our location provides opportunities to use the village, church, local environment and Kent Downs as places for learning. Children experience the wider community through visits, visitors, sporting opportunities, cultural experiences and links with local organisations.
We also make use of specialist expertise in areas including music, computing, French and physical education, while class teachers retain responsibility for ensuring that learning is coherent and connected to the wider curriculum.
More information on The National Curriculum can be found here –