The Intent of the Queensgate Curriculum
The Queensgate Foundation School Curriculum has been carefully designed to ensure it meets the needs of the children that it serves. There have been some key factors in driving the decisions about our curriculum.
Firstly, 29% of our school are disadvantaged. This can be as high as 34% in some cohorts. Secondly, 25.5 % of our school have an identified special need. Thirdly, our Key Stage 1 results and Key Stage 2 results need to improve to be at least in line with National averages and preferably higher.
We cover the National Curriculum and then supplement it with an enhanced Queensgate offer.
Out and About
Despite living on a beautiful Island many of our children do not get out around the Island and beyond. We introduced an out and about strand to our curriculum. This focusses on three main areas: heritage, maritime and environment. The Isle of Wight provides a rich basis to learn about these three areas. Our out and about curriculum ties in with the children’s learning from their classroom work.
Recently the focus has changed to enhance the children’s opportunities to write from real life experience. The aim of this is to improve children’s writing to ensure we are in line with national averages by the end of Key Stage 2.
We have identified the acquisition of vocabulary as an area of weakness within our school. Key vocabulary has now been added to the out and about planning to ensure it is specifically taught during the session and in context.
Class trips and visitors into school are also a bit part of the breadth of curriculum we offer the Queensgate children.
Cookery
Our Design and Technology curriculum is enhanced with cookery. We believe that the children should be taught skills to help them live healthy and fulfilled lives. We teach every child to be able to cook. Much of the cookery ties in with the children’s topics or books that they are studying. There is also an element of understanding budgets and using store cupboard ingredients to create delicious food. Within this part of the curriculum healthy food choices are taught and the children learn about sugar swaps.
The skills that the children are taught are broken down and monitored by our cookery teacher.
Physical Education
Tying in with our healthy eating lessons we have enhanced PE provision at Queensgate. The extra-curricular offer is vast and competitive sport is encouraged. The school has achieved the Platinum Award for sport.
Change for Life targets specific children to improve their lifestyles or build their confidence.
We have also achieved the Shift It gold award for sustainable travel, which aids the building of embedding healthy lifestyles.
We have achieved the PEACH bronze award which recognises our work around healthy and physical lifestyles.
Music
At Queensgate we employ a specialist music teacher two days a week. This ensures the children have high quality experiences and provision.
Children are introduced to recorders in Year 3, Samba in Year 4 and ukuleles and keyboards in Years 5 and 6.
The children are encouraged to perform both within the school and beyond taking part in music festivals and always achieving well.
The children take part in Mardi gras which is a themed carnival.
In Year 6 the children are expected to put on an end of year show.
Beyond the Directed Curriculum
Queensgate offers a multitude of extra-curricular clubs which aim to develop the whole person. These change termly to support the needs of the cohort at any one time. Typically they would include environmental, sport and well-being foci.