Our curriculum at Ledbury is divided into past (autumn), present (spring) and future (summer) apart from EYFS where core texts are used to lead the learning.   The autumn term topic has a history focus, the spring term has a geography focus and the summer term has a science focus, although science is taught throughout the year.  This design allows the children to connect past, present and future in their learning and to build upon existing knowledge and skills to ensure that these can be applied in all areas of the curriculum.  In this respect, our curriculum allows for the accumulation of knowledge and skills, for the children to build on what they know and embed knowledge to enter the long-term memory – making it stick!  Each year group follows a theme, such as Flight in year 1.  These themes have been planned with the children’s needs in mind, ensuring that the local community plays a part alongside the wider world.  In order to broaden the children’s experiences, visits and visitors are carefully planned to support and inspire the learning. This theme weaves throughout the year, ensuring curriculum coherence and motivating the children to seek patterns across subjects.  Where links cannot be made, the subject is taught discretely.  In order to support curriculum coherence, our history topics are taught chronologically starting with the present in EYFS and ending with the Stone Age in year 6, again forming links in the children’s knowledge and building upon previous learning. As part of our planning, we ensure regular recaps of subject content and opportunities to deepen the children’s understanding of their learning.

At the heart of our curriculum is the use of storytelling to promote understanding and to frame the details into part of a whole.

‘Cognitive psychology has shown that the mind best understands facts

when they are woven into a conceptual fabric, such as a narrative.’

Stephen Pinker

Professor of Psychology, Harvard University

Each term begins with an overarching narrative where children hear the different ‘voices’ of the past, present and future.  Through these ‘voices’, the children empathise, using the story to ask questions and seek answers.