We have decided to add a section to the newsletter to demonstrate everything that has been going on in terms of our curriculum. This will include any major updates, key events and fun activities that have been taking place around school. 

As part of the development of our curriculum, we have been focusing on instilling our key drivers of outdoor learning and digital strategy. We decided on these as we want to develop an engaging curriculum offer which caters for all of our children and allows every child to reach their goals and shine.

Outdoor learning

Our outdoor curriculum offer is multi-faceted. Miss Shepherd (qualified Forest School practitioner) and Mr Foulds-Byczok have worked tirelessly on developing the 'forest classroom' which is an educational programme that takes place outdoors and encourages children to learn practical skills and explore nature. It focuses on developing the physical, social, cognitive, linguistic, emotional and spiritual aspects of the learner and provides opportunities for learners to take supported risks. Children are encouraged to work together on activities such as building dens or shelters, role playing, exploring and developing their practical skills.By the end of the academic year, every child will have experienced a sequence of learning as part of our forest classroom provision.

As part of our outdoor learning curriculum driver, we will be developing each subject to ensure there is a thread of meaningful learning that can take place in our outdoor spaces. Art was the first foundation curriculum subject to incorporate an aspect of outdoor learning. An example of this is where Y3 and Y4 children were encouraged to utilise their digital skills and take pictures of our school linked to a botanical theme. They then studied botanical examples from other artists and created their own versions of the pictures they had taken.

Digital strategy

We want our children to be prepared for the 21st Century and feel that a robust digital strategy is key to supporting us with that. Over the Summer holidays, we purchased 463 Lenovo tablets for our children to use to support them with their curriculum learning from Year 2 to Year 6; this has been a huge financial investment, made possible by specific funding for this purpose.

Up until now, we have been 'onboarding' the tablets which means that we have been getting the children set up on them. As you can imagine, this process from start to finish took a very long time - we still have some Year 2 children left to onboard their tablets. Our aim is to develop each curriculum subject to include an aspect of digital learning, utilising technology to support our children with their learning. We have begun this process in both reading and art and will continue to develop each subject as we progress throughout this academic year. 

To go alongside the introduction of the tablets, we have recently begun teaching our children the digital citizenship pathway. The pathway is designed to teach our children to become efficient and safe users of the tablets. Our long term aim is to allow our children to take their tablets home to support them with their learning; this could be through reading on myON or by developing their times tables on Times Tables Rock Stars. 

We are at the start of a very exciting curriculum journey at Kingsholm. Keep an eye out on the next newsletter for further updates on what our children have been up to!