Intent
At Slingsby C P School we are a small school with big ideas and we all have the best interests of the children at our heart. Our aim and vision is to provide all our children, no matter their starting points, with a curriculum which enthuses them to develop a love of learning and to empower them with the skills to want to be inquisitive and to find out more.
Our intention is to provide a caring, stimulating, family environment to develop the full potential of each and every child and each and every member of staff. Our Slingsby Values for Life of respect, honesty, resilience, expectation and caring for others are interwoven into all aspects of learning and daily school life.
Our curriculum design ensures that academic success, creativity, problem solving, responsibility and resilience as well as physical development are key elements that support the holistic development of our children. Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development ensure that our children are ‘world ready’, a skill we feel that is vital in this world of cultural capital and particularly in rural North Yorkshire.
We encourage our children to be open about their feelings and emotions and good mental health is a top priority for both children and staff. Mindfulness is practised in different ways throughout the school. Our desire is to maintain high expectations, foster a feeling of family throughout school and for children to have pride in what they do.
Implementation
Our curriculum incorporates the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum 2014 alongside a bespoke, team designed curriculum produced from thorough knowledge of our children to stimulate and promote a positive attitude towards learning. Dedicated time is allocated each year for the whole school team to meet off-site at a place of reflection to evaluate the current curriculum and design the next year’s curriculum moving forward.
The children’s school community, its heritage and traditions are frequently used as a starting point to engage interest. Children are shown that to learn we do need to get it wrong sometimes, and to be comfortable with this. ‘To fail is just a first attempt at learning’ is our mantra.
Impact
Our innovative practice across school provides every child with a strong foundation. Opportunities for collaboration and develop social skills both in school and through working with other schools are made. Enjoyment of the curriculum promotes a sense of achievement, confidence and good behaviour and manners. We have created a family school with an ethos of caring for each other whilst enjoying our learning.
A varied selection of after activities and school clubs support our curriculum alongside those that develop specialist skills such as golf and skipping. Our children leave us having been taught that to ‘learn to disagree well’ and to have confidence in their own opinions is a skill that will take them forward in life successfully. They leave us as aspirational, courageous, independent learners who are confident in themselves as people.