In line with South Bersted’s vision, the school has constructed a curriculum that is rooted in meeting the needs of all of its learners, inspiring them to become 21stcentury global citizens.
‘Life in all its Fullness,’ (John 10:10) underpins our curriculum design. It ensures that the learning experiences are focused on developing the whole child and we strive towards our school motto of learning for life, aiming for excellence, listening to the voice of God.
We believe it is essential to ensure our children have the skills to thrive after they have left South Bersted; therefore, we have developed a Learning for Life Curriculum, which is driven by our vision and values.
In designing our curriculum, we believe in a thematic approach where children are able to experience meaningful, stimulating and awe inspiring learning opportunities including a range of educational visits and visitors to the school. To support this approach, each half-termly topic is driven by a key question with each learning journey carefully considered to allow pupils the opportunity to respond to the question. Where appropriate, the curriculum has been designed to reflect the historical and geographical context of Bognor Regis and its surrounding areas.
Through our use of big questions, our Philosophy for Children (P4C) approach, our clear links to the Christian Aid Global Citizenship Calendar, we aim to raise pupils’ awareness of national and global issues encouraging them to become advocates for positive change. Where appropriate, teachers plan opportunities for pupils to develop their courageous advocacy where pupils have the opportunity to look beyond themselves and develop an understanding of disadvantage, deprivation and the exploitation of the natural world.
When designing the school’s curriculum, careful consideration is taken to ensure that both skills and knowledge and revisited and built upon to develop pupil’s long-term memory and vocabulary. Therefore, the school is continually developing links to pupils’ prior knowledge.
In further developing pupils’ vocabulary, a love of reading and in promoting high expectations, each half-termly topic is based around a range of high quality texts. In addition to this, the school recognises the value of providing clear opportunities of developing pupils’ vocabulary across the curriculum and is continually reviewing and implementing new ways of doing this across all subject areas.
The impact of the school’s curriculum will be measured through pupils being academically, spiritually and emotionally ready for the next stage of their education.