Belvedere Junior School

Intent & Impact

At Belvedere Junior School we provide a rich and meaningful learning experience for all our learners.  In designing our curriculum, we aim to not only maximise the natural and man-made resources around us, but to build directly on the experience, needs and interests of our children, as well as the expertise of the staff. We take into account the cultural and social diversity of all our community, therefore creating opportunities for all to succeed. This is a curriculum for us, by us.

Our aim is to ensure a love of learning and thirst for knowledge which will last a lifetime.  This is a vocabulary rich curriculum, designed to make links across subjects and the wider world.  Our curriculum reflects our strong belief that all children have the entitlement to a broad and memorable learning experience which has been designed to ensure our children thrive and are resilient in an ever changing world.   Our curriculum is based on the National Curriculum Framework.  We use The International Primary Curriculum to enrich our curriculum and to provide our learners with a clear process of learning within the specific learning goals designed to create interconnectivity between subjects and topic drivers.

Implementation

Our children have high aspirations and a clear viewpoint of themselves within the local and global community. There are key values which lie beneath our subject areas.  They are integral to our philosophy of teaching and learning. Our curriculum develops thinking skills, communication skills, creativity, enterprise, questioning and presentation, all which are transferable skills.  We teach these skills across the curriculum, and discretely through Philosophy for Children (P4C), IPC, Mindfulness and SMSC.  We further enrich this provision by working with groups outside our school such as: Young Voices, The British Council, Bird College, MindUp, BFree Sports and Good2BMe.  We want our children to understand how the brain works, how to identify and handle problems, and how to see themselves as part of the global community; a viewpoint which shifts between “me”, to “we” and to “us”. 

We celebrate the wealth of knowledge within the learners in our school; over 24 languages are spoken in Belvedere Junior School.  Because we are a multilingual school we harness these skills.  Through teaching Spanish, we provide our children with the opportunity to further enhance and expand upon their love of language and their understanding of the global community. We celebrate faith, diversity and languages within the school community and develop links between the school and our wider community through coffee mornings, community days, productions and celebrations such as Black History month, International Women’s day, World Book day, Easter, Diwali, Ramadan, Chinese New Year and World Mental Health day, through this we open doors to our global community and see our school as a hub for the local community. 

Through specialist teaching in music, children learn a variety instruments including percussion (drums, xylophones, cymbals and claves), recorders and keyboards whilst also singing a range of music. Our children also have an opportunity to work with Bird College to learn additional instruments such as guitars, trombones and the trumpet. All children take part in a weekly singing assembly and we have an active school choir, who have been part of the Young Voices performance for the past three years. Our computing specialist ensures our children have access to a wide range of key programming units.  We strive to further home school links through the use of technology in home learning.

We believe that being active and fit builds a happy and healthy future both physically and mentally for our children.  Our PE curriculum is delivered by a specialist coach and the online system, PE Pro, is also used by teachers to further enrich the delivery of PE and develop outstanding practice.  We also offer a range of after school clubs such as dance, steel pans, football, table tennis, netball, computing, chess and gardening.  

Pioneer Pupil Passports

We are passionate in our drive in ensuring that children are exposed to a range of opportunities and experiences in their time in Belvedere Junior School. The Pioneer Pupil Passport allows us to map key cultural, sporting, and skill based experiences through the children’s junior school time.

Eleven by Eleven

Year 3               Visit a museum or art gallery, visit a stately home or a castle, visit a beach and paddle in the sea

Year 4               Visit a zoo or a safari park, attend a sporting event at a professional stadium and learn to play and perform a musical instrument

Year 5                Experience a theatre, learn a non-curriculum sport and visit famous landmark in the capital city

Year 6                Learn to cook a healthy meal and perform a Shakespearian play on a stage.