Curriculum Overview 

‘Learning, Caring and Achieving Together'

At Farnborough Road Infant School we are passionate about ensuring every child fulfills their potential and develops the skills and values to ensure they succeed in life and become exceptional citizens. 

We design our curriculum to ensure it is accessible to all and supports each and every child's development and progress both academically, personally, and emotionally. 

Our Curriculum Intent

Here at Farnborough Road Infant School we intend our children to become: confident speakers, good listeners, fluent readers, skilled writers, Mathematicians/number crunchers and problem solvers, Scientists/inquisitive investigators, historians, geographers, musicians, artists, theologists, gymnastics, dancers, sports persons, computer wizards, designers and technologists.

The aims of our Curriculum are inextricably linked to our Misson statement: 

Learning - Our curriculum promotes curiosity and a passion for learning. We strive to ensure that a rich and engaging curriculum is accessible to all pupils regardless of special educational needs and/or disability, or their experiences or ideas that they arrive with that is their cultural capital. Working with such young children we understand the importance of expanding their vocabulary and we intend to use every opportunity to maximise their use and understanding of language. We aim to meet all needs, enhance talents and develop skills and understanding in a warm and inclusive environment.

Caring – We help our children learn and play happily together, caring for each other and our community. Our curriculum teaches our children to overcome challenges and difficulties which in turn develops their values for life as conscientious citizens as well as promoting good mental wellbeing. We achieve this by providing a strong PSHE curriculum with our core school values and the British Values at the heart everything we do.

Achieving - At Farnborough Road Infant School we believe and teach there are no limits on what we can achieve. Our children develop a ‘Growth Mindset’ through understanding the importance that perseverance, resilience, practice and ‘bouncebackability’ plays in making progress, developing knowledge and understanding and achieving success. We want all our children to have high aspirations and we celebrate their achievements and progress from their individual starting points.

Together - Our curriculum is driven by our surrounding community. We want our children to appreciate our wonderful seaside town of Southport by learning about its Victorian past and the unique features of living ‘Beside the Seaside’ as well as consider national and global issues. We also value our ‘Farnborough Family’ and help our parents to understand and support their children’s learning in our rapidly changing world.

Our Curriculum Implementation  

As a school we understand the importance of implementing a curriculum that has been creatively designed to ensure our children are filled with enthusiasm and an eagerness to learn every day.

Our curriculum is based on topic-based learning relating to our children’s interests which expands, as they grow and develop, by putting their learning into the context of our school locality and highlights important issues nationally and globally.

Our curriculum is designed based on cognitive learning. We believe that this type of learning is active, constructive and long-lasting / ‘sticky’. Our children are engaged in the learning processes, teaching them to become independent and inquisitive. Staff deliver memorable, sequential and connected lessons which enable all children to deepen their knowledge and understanding - building knowledge and skills over time. Staff regularly monitor progress and provide verbal feedback/ ‘live marking’ to develop their learning.

We believe that our children learn more effectively if they can see relationships and make connections so although the vast majority of subjects are taught discreetly staff make meaningful links across subjects to deepen children’s learning.

At Farnborough Road Infant School we enrich our children’s learning with quality texts and unforgettable experiences and opportunities. This enables our children to try new things that may normally be out of reach. ‘If you never try it, you will never know whether you love it’. We use our Sports Premium and Pupil Premium funding to ensure children from all backgrounds have access to sporting opportunities, visits to the local beach, library and art gallery, live theatre and music experiences, ‘Breakfast with Santa’, trips and much, much more.  

Curriculum Impact

The impact of our curriculum ensures every Farnborough child

• Reaches their potential

• Is a confident, happy and enthusiastic learner.
• Is ready for the next stage of their education.
• Has an enhanced cultural capital and life opportunities
• Has good morals, values and makes the right choices so they can become good role models in our community
• Appreciates the town and world in which they live in and understands how they can make a positive contribution locally, nationally and globally.
• Has good listening skills, shares and supports each other whatever their gender, culture or learning difference which ensures the good mental health and wellbeing of themselves and others.
• Continues to practice, persevere and challenge themselves to be successful beyond our infant school 

Subject Leaders have mapped out a progression of skills (see below) for each year group to ensure our children are ready for the next stage of their learning journey and assess against the end of year group assessment criteria in each subject area. 

We strive to have a school full of happy children so that they are able to fully engage with the ambitious and exciting curriculum that we offer.