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Our Curriculum
Intent, Implementation and Impact
At Bamford Academy we have created an ambitious curriculum designed to help every child thrive. We focus on growing the whole child - nurturing their unique skills and talents - so that each pupil leaves us with the best possible start in life. Our curriculum prepares children for life in modern Britain, and gives them the knowledge, skills, values and learning habits they need to become confident, lifelong learners.
Background
The National Curriculum sets out what primary schools must teach, and the standards children should reach. Schools decide how to deliver this content. At Bamford Academy we have shaped a curriculum that is tailored to our children and our community. It celebrates diversity, draws on the strengths and cultural richness of our local area, and supports every child’s spiritual, moral and cultural development. It also promotes fundamental British values - democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect, and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs - which are woven through our lessons and everyday school life.
Our Curriculum Intent - What we want for your child
Everything we do is guided by our five core values: Respect, Responsibility, Perseverance, Kindness and Acceptance. These values give us a shared, everyday language for talking about fairness, kindness and respect, and they sit naturally alongside the British values we promote.
We believe in educating the whole child. This means looking after their emotional, physical, academic, social, moral, spiritual and cultural development. We recognise that every child is unique and we value that uniqueness.
Our curriculum celebrates the diverse backgrounds and experiences of our families. Children learn about different faiths, cultures and ways of life, so that they develop understanding, empathy and respect for people whose beliefs or backgrounds may differ from their own. We adapt learning to meet children’s needs and interests, offering a broad, culturally rich education that prepares them well for the next stage of their schooling. We teach knowledge, skills, concepts and values, and we design lessons that challenge every pupil and encourage them to think hard. There is no ceiling on what children can achieve.
We also provide a wide range of extra opportunities so children can discover and develop their individual talents and ambitions. Community involvement is important to us - children learn about local traditions and take part in events throughout the year. They also learn that their voice matters, through class discussion, pupil leadership roles and our House System, which builds belonging, teamwork and shared responsibility.
Your child’s mental and emotional wellbeing is a priority. Through our PSHE curriculum, which follows the myHappymind approach, we help children understand their brains, recognise their feelings, learn ways to manage them, and build self-esteem and resilience. Children also learn what makes a good friend and how to build kind, respectful relationships, which are the foundation of mutual respect.
When children leave Bamford Academy, they do so with confidence, the ability to make decisions, evaluate their own learning, make connections, and continue learning throughout their lives. We want every child to understand what it means to live in a democratic society, to respect the law, to value individual liberty, and to show mutual respect and tolerance towards others - whatever their background, faith or beliefs.
How we deliver the curriculum - Implementation
We carefully plan our curriculum so that children build knowledge step by step and practise the skills they need. Skills are mapped progressively across each year group and subject. Knowledge is revisited regularly so children remember and can use what they have learned.
Subjects are taught clearly and separately so children know exactly what they are learning and gain a solid understanding of each subject. At the same time, we help them transfer useful skills across different areas of learning. Our classrooms are designed to be stimulating and to support independent learning.
Feedback - from teachers and from peers - is an essential part of every lesson. We use a range of teaching approaches to help children remember and apply what they learn.
How we teach
Our teaching is guided by well-researched principles. In every lesson you can expect teachers to:
- Start by reviewing previous learning
- Introduce new ideas in small, manageable steps
- Ask lots of questions
- Show clear models and examples
- Give children time to practise
- Check understanding regularly and correct mistakes quickly
- Aim for a high success rate
- Provide support (scaffolds) when needed
- Allow independent practice
- Review knowledge and vocabulary weekly and monthly
Wellbeing and British values in everyday school life
Our PSHE curriculum follows the myHappymind approach, which we use from Reception to Year 6, and we are proud to be a myHappymind Bronze Accredited School. myHappymind is a whole-school programme, grounded in science, that helps children understand how their brains work and builds resilience, confidence and self-esteem. It also teaches children how to manage their emotions in stressful times, so that they can be their very best selves.
Through five modules - Meet Your Brain, Celebrate, Appreciate, Relate and Engage - children learn how to look after their minds, celebrate their character strengths, practise gratitude, build positive friendships and set meaningful goals. Alongside myHappymind, children take part in Healthy Relationships Education. To help your child at home, the myHappymind Parent App is available - please ask at school for the link and your own login code.
British values are not taught as a separate subject. They are woven through our curriculum, our daily routines, our relationships and our wider school life, and they sit alongside our core values. Here is what this looks like for your child:
- Democracy - children learn that their voice matters and that fair decisions can be made through listening, discussion and voting.
- The rule of law - children learn why rules and laws keep everyone safe and make our community fair, and that rules apply to everyone. We support this with clear, consistent expectations of behaviour.
- Individual liberty - children are encouraged to be independent, make informed choices and take responsibility for their actions within a safe and supportive environment, while understanding the rights of others.
- Mutual respect - respect is one of our core values. Children learn to treat others with kindness, consideration and fairness, and our House System brings children of different ages together.
- Tolerance of different faiths and beliefs - through RE, assemblies, stories and discussion, children learn about different faiths, cultures and perspectives. We challenge prejudice and promote inclusion.
You can find out more on our British Values page, and on our Mental Health and Wellbeing, myHappymind and Healthy Relationships Education pages.
The difference it makes - Curriculum Impact
Every lesson has a clear learning goal (often called a WALT – We Are Learning To/That). In many subjects these goals are framed as questions. Teachers know each child well and plan support so that every pupil can succeed. They note any child who needs extra help and use this information when planning the next lesson.
Teachers continually assess learning during lessons (Assessment for Learning). This means they can adapt teaching on the spot and plan the next steps effectively.
Progress is checked regularly through a mix of tests and teacher judgement. At the end of each term, subject leaders and the senior leadership team review the data. We expect children to make good or better progress. Where a child is not progressing as well as we would like in English or maths, we put targeted support in place quickly.
Children leave Bamford Academy with a secure understanding of the academic content they have studied. They also leave knowing how to be responsible, respectful and caring members of their community and of modern Britain, with the emotional understanding, ambition and resilience to be the best they can be. Our aim is that every child leaves us respectful, skilful, ambitious, and ready to enjoy all that life has to offer.
English
The national curriculum for writing aims to ensure that all pupils:
- acquire a wide range of vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for writing
- write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
In Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 there are two dimensions for writing:
- transcription (spelling and handwriting)
- composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing)
Additionally, pupils will be taught how to plan, revise and evaluate their writing. Pupils will learn how to spell quickly and accurately through knowing the relationship between sounds and letters (phonics) and understanding the morphology (word structure) and orthography (spelling structure) of words. Pupils will also be taught that effective composition involves forming, articulating and communicating ideas, and then organising them coherently for a reader. This requires clarity, awareness of the audience, purpose and context, and an increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. Writing also depends on fluent, legible and, eventually, speedy handwriting.
INTENT
At Bamford Academy, we want all children to enjoy becoming writers. The writing curriculum is designed to provide a broad and balanced education that meets the needs of all children. It provides opportunities for children to develop as independent, confident and successful writers, with high aspirations, who know how to make a positive contribution to their community and the wider society.
Our intent is for all pupils – irrespective of their needs, abilities or background – to learn to write fluently, developing their own writer’s voice. The quality of language that pupils hear and speak is vital for developing their vocabulary and grammar and their understanding writing. We believe that children need to develop a secure knowledge-base in Literacy, which follows a clear pathway of progression as they advance through the primary curriculum. We believe that a secure basis in literacy skills is crucial to a high quality education.
We strive to foster a love of writing and communicating through vocabulary rich and high quality literature, using Ready Steady Write by Literacy Counts. We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children take pride in their writing; can write clearly and accurately and adapt their language and style for a range of contexts.
IMPLEMENTATION
Ready Steady Write uses engaging, vocabulary-rich texts to create a wealth of writing opportunities within and across the curriculum. The books provide a wealth of opportunities:
- to develop grammar and punctuation knowledge and understanding to use and apply across the wider curriculum, through sentence accuracy sessions;
- explore the writing structure and features of different genres, identifying the purpose and audience;
- plan and write an initial piece of writing with a clear context and purpose before evaluating the effectiveness of writing by editing and redrafting.
Building on this foundation, we teach literacy using a range of strategies which include:
- Modelled writing – Teachers model writing and editing to demonstrate the high expectations they have. They verbally ‘think aloud’ in order to make the writing process explicit and provide a rich and varied vocabulary for the children to utilise in their own work. This happens daily, through sentence accuracy.
- Shared writing – Teachers use the ideas from the children to create shared pieces of writing. This enables the children to see the writing process in action as well as having pride and ownership over the finished piece.
- Scaffolding - To develop writing ideas and language acquisition.
- Editing - Using sentence checkers and modelling how to edit writing.
IMPACT
The innovative practice across the school provides a strong foundation and opportunities for children to collaborate and develop their written skills. This curriculum design ensures that the needs of individual children can be met within the environment of quality first teaching, through the use of modelling, scaffolding and independence. Developing children's independence and motivation as learners is at the heart of all our teaching and learning. As a result, we strive to have a community of enthusiastic writers who enjoy showcasing their developing literacy knowledge and skills. They are confident to take risks in their writing, and love to discuss and share their ideas.
Assessment
Teachers draw upon observations and continuous assessment to ensure children are stretched and challenged and to identify those children who may need additional support. Formative assessment of writing is completed through teachers’ daily feedback to inform future planning. Teachers use the children’s everyday writing and adapt models and input to meet their current needs. Daily sentence accuracy work is carefully monitored to ensure children are constructing sentences both coherently and accurately. Staff development meetings allow for whole school moderation of writing to deepen understanding of standards.
Bamford-Academy-English-Intent-Implementation-and-Impact-Statement-1.docx
Reading - Expected Outcomes EYFS and KS1
Reading - Expected Outcomes KS2
Mathematics
At Bamford Academy we work hard to ensure children are capable in all areas of Mathematics. We are focusing more and more on the strength of mental understanding and recall. Alongside knowing multiplication and division facts. We track and test children's progress through from simple number bonds to division with remainders and beyond.
We complete all these steps because they provide us with the skills to perform higher level tasks further on in school.
By helping your child at home with these targets they will grow significantly in confidence. They will also gain understanding of future more complex tasks as they are broken down.
We have adopted a published scheme for the teaching and learning of Maths from Reception to Year 6. Power Maths is a whole-class mastery programme, created in partnership with White Rose Maths, and recommended by the DfE. Using this resource ensures consistency within our maths teaching all through school, and is designed to spark curiosity and excitement and help nurture confidence in maths.
At Bamford Academy, we also use Numbots which is an online Maths learning platform that helps children learn how to add and subtract, improving their fluency and recall in basic mental maths, and equipping them with maths confidence and Times Tables Rock Stars which is a Maths learning platform where children can practice their times tables through games.
For more information about Numbots and Times Tables Rockstars see the parent guides using the links below or visit their websites:
Numbots Parent Guide and Parentletters-parentletter.docx
https://numbots.com/ and https://ttrockstars.com/
Intent-Implementation-and-Impact-Maths.odt
Science
Through Science, all children at Bamford Academy will become confident explorers and investigators. We promote excitement and curiosity so that they can ask questions and explore the world around them with confidence.
Art
Art gives children the freedom to express ideas, build skills and take pride in what they create. Our pupils explore a range of techniques and artists as they progress through school. See what each year group creates and find ideas for creative projects at home.
Explore Art at Bamford
Design Technology
At Bamford Academy, we aim to provide children with a Design Technology (DT) education that is relevant in our rapidly changing world. We want to encourage our children to become problem solvers who can work both independently and cooperatively whilst thinking creatively on a shared project. We believe that high-quality DT lessons will inspire children to think independently, innovatively and develop creative, procedural and technical understanding.
Geography
Through the Geography Curriculum, children will learn about the Earth’s key physical and human processes whilst deepening their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes and how this affects landscapes and environments. Strong links will be made to the environment and the challenges we face in protecting it in this modern age.
History
Our History curriculum aims for children to gain a coherent chronological understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world, to develop a community of respect and understanding for the future. Our History curriculum will inspire curiosity to know about the past and its relevance to the present and future through enquiry based learning.
Music
Our Music curriculum provides a comprehensive, engaging, and inclusive learning experience that equips pupils with the skills, knowledge, and passion for music.
PE
At Bamford Academy, Physical Education is an integral part of our curriculum, and we strive to create a culture which aims to inspire an active generation to enjoy PE and encourage each other and achieve. We provide a safe and supportive environment for children to flourish in a range of different physical activities, which is essential in supporting their physical, emotional, spiritual, social and moral development.
Physical-Education-Impact-Statement.docx
PSHE
Our PSHE curriculum follows the MyHappyMind approach it provides a comprehensive, engaging, and inclusive learning experience that equips pupils with the skills, knowledge, and passion for PSHE. As part of our PSHE curriculum, pupils also take part in Healthy Relationships Education
Bamford Academy PSHE and RSE policy 2026
Religious Studies (RE)
Religious Education plays an important role, along with all other curriculum areas, particularly PSHE, in promoting social awareness and understanding in our children. We encourage our pupils to ask questions about the world and to reflect on their own beliefs, values and experiences. We include and promote British values, ensuring that children are aware of their rights and responsibilities as UK citizens.
Our curriculum is designed to encourage creativity, imagination, enquiry, debate, discussion and independence.
RE-Intent-Implement-Impact-Statement.docx
PLEASE NOTE: Parents and carers have the right to withdraw their child from all or part of RE. Please contact the academy office by emailing: office@bamfordacademy.co.uk in order to request withdrawal for your child.
Phonics
How We Teach Phonics at Bamford Academy
At Bamford Academy Phonics is taught though a highly structured programme of daily lessons across FS/KS1 using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised phonics programme. This programme sets out a detailed and systematic programme for teaching phonic skills.
How we teach phonics
- In Reception and Y1, children follow the progression within Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme. Phonics is taught daily and there is a review session on a Friday.
- Phonics starts in Reception in week 2 to ensure the children make a strong start.
- By the end of Reception, children will have been taught up to the end of phase 4.
- By the end of Year 1, children will have been taught up to the end of phase 5.
- Reception lessons start at 10 minutes, with daily additional oral blending – increasing to 30 minutes as soon as possible.
- Y1 lessons are 30 minutes long.
- In R-Y1 there are planned phonic ‘keep-up’ sessions following a set model to address specific reading/writing gaps. These are short, sharp sessions lasting 10 minutes in length and taking place at least three times a week.
- In Y2 we begin the year with a 5 week block of phonics teaching to review phase 5. We then follow this up with reading sessions that use a range of Little Wandle Fluency books to embed their phonics learning.
- In Y2-Y6 there are 'Rapid Catch up' sessions use with children in Year 2 and above who need more support with mastering the phonic code and becoming fluent readers.
Reading practice sessions
- Children across Reception, Year 1, Year 2 (and beyond if appropriate) apply their phonics knowledge by using a full matched decodable reader in a small group reading practice session.
- These sessions are up to 30 minutes long and happen three times a week. There are approximately 8 children in a group.
- The sessions follow the model set out in Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised.
- The children then take the same book home the following week to ensure success is shared with the family.
How do we assess phonic knowledge?
- In Reception and Year 1, at the end of each week there is a review session which recaps the learning. There are also whole review weeks (pre-planned and bespoke review weeks to address gaps identified by the class teacher’s ongoing formative assessment).
- Children identified in Reception and Y1 as in danger of falling behind are immediately identified and daily ‘keep up’ sessions are put in place – sessions follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme.
- In Reception and Year 1, the children are assessed at the end of every half term using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessment tracker.
- The children in Y1 sit the Phonics Screening Check in the summer term.
- Children who do not pass the Phonics Screening Check in Y1, will re-sit this in Y2.
- Children who are in Y2-Y6 and need ‘Rapid Catch up’ sessions are assessed through teacher’s ongoing formative assessment as well as half termly summative assessments.
Computing
Our Computing curriculum provides a comprehensive, engaging, and inclusive learning experience that equips pupils with the skills, knowledge, and passion for computing.
Modern Foreign Languages
Children begin learning French at Bamford, building vocabulary and confidence while discovering another language and culture. See what each year group learns and how to practise at home.
Explore French at Bamford