Our curriculum is designed with the intention of providing our pupils with the background knowledge of the world that they require in order to gain an understanding of and make links in their world.

At Carr Hill, we aim to provide experiences beyond the classroom to provide our pupils with the ‘cultural capital’ which is needed to prepare them for their future success.

Through providing experiences of the wider world we also aim to develop an understanding and tolerance of differences in race and religion.

Cultural capital is the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours, and skills that a pupil can draw upon and which demonstrates their cultural awareness, knowledge and competence; it is one of the key ingredients that will enable a pupil to be successful in society, their career and the world of work. Cultural capital gives a pupil power to achieve their goals, become successful, and rise up the social ladder without necessarily having financial capital. Having cultural capital gives pupils the desire to aspire and achieve social mobility whatever their starting point. There is a view that this will increase their life chances – effectively creating a more equal playing field for our pupils in society.

At Carr Hill, we recognise that for children to aspire and be successful academically and in the wider areas of their lives, they need to be given rich and sustained opportunities to develop their cultural capital.

Through #learningeverywhere we aim to provide opportunities for our pupils to build on their general knowledge, knowledge of culture and of the wider world as they move around school.

Significant People

Each year, class teachers choose a significant person to name their class after. Years 1-6 choose from:

Year 1/2-Explorers
Year3-Sports people
Year4-Musicians
Year5-Scientists
Year 6-Philanthropists

Each year, classes present their significant person to the rest of the school in a class assembly and information about their life and work is displayed on classroom doors, allowing all children to learn about each person and build their knowledge of a variety of significant people, from varied cultural backgrounds, both modern-day and from history. Past significant people are displayed in the hall as a reminder.

Timeline

Mrs Piper, our History Coordinator commissioned a 10-metre bespoke timeline, including significant dates to the Carr Hill community, such as the school’s opening and the date Retford town hall opened. As well as its use for History lessons, the pupils pass this regularly as they move around school, learning about the order of events through time.

Celebrating Nature

Throughout the school, we draw children’s attention to the wildlife in our grounds. The ‘hide’ viewing points we have along the corridor windows encourage pupils to keep an eye on how our Wildlife Garden and trees around the grounds change throughout the seasons.
Throughout school, plants are displayed with name labels, giving pupils opportunities to build on their knowledge of seasonal pants and house plants. Teachers support children in learning these names as they move around school.

Musical Culture-10 Pieces Trailblazers

We use BBC Trailblazers, introducing a new composer each month in assembly. This music is used on entry and exit to assemblies.

Through termly Music Weeks, pupils explore different genres of music, along with associated artists (see
Music Curriculum pages for more information).

Art and Artists

In addition to learning through the Art curriculum, we introduce pupils to key work from a variety of artists through PowerPoints on entry into assemblies. As the hall fills up, pupils have the opportunity to learn famous (and some less famous) works, with titles.

Financial Education

We have a school bank, run through ‘Lifesavers’, Not only can pupils use this facility to save money, the scheme supports teachers in adding financial education to Maths lessons. The bank is staffed by pupils.

Aspiration

As our school motto suggests, aspiration is a key theme running through opportunities available to pupils at Carr Hill. Each year, the pupils have three ‘Enterprise Challenges’. Classes work together to develop a project or product to raise money. Each class is loaned £30 to fund their Christmas enterprise project. They learn about how businesses function and, once complete, choose how to spend any profit they make. They think about spending it in three areas:

• A treat for their class.
• Giving back-Either funding a small community project or donating to charity.
• Reinvesting-Saving some of their profit to fund their ‘Easter Enterprise’.