Curriculum

Unique • Confident • Valued

At White Cliffs Primary and Nursery School, the unique nature of each child is valued greatly and at the forefront of our minds. The diverse backgrounds and experiences from which our children originate are recognised and celebrated. Due to this, the learning journey that our children embark on is constantly adapted to meet their needs and interests. We provide an ambitious, broad and balanced curriculum which enables each child to reach their full potential through high-quality teaching. Our curriculum is driven by the need to prepare our children for lifelong learning, in which we develop the essential knowledge, skills and understanding which are the building blocks for later life. We urge our children to celebrate the things that make them unique and grow in confidence throughout their time with us.

Our curriculum encompasses not only the formal requirements of the National Curriculum but goes beyond the experiences of the classroom to ensure that our children are exposed to the richest and most varied opportunities that we can provide. Our curriculum is enriched with trips and experiences that reflect the individual nature of our school and community, and which ensure more meaningful and purposeful learning experiences for our children. For example, this year, all children will be visiting a local place of interest to support their learning in Art Week, such as Dover Transport Museum, St. Andrew’s Church, Dover Castle, St. Margaret’s Bay and South Foreland Lighthouse.

Cross-curricular links are made where the learning of both subjects is enhanced, and this leads to creative and exciting learning opportunities for our children. Skills and knowledge are taught discretely in subject areas, so the children gain a broad and in-depth understanding of each subject and are aware of which subject they are learning. Subject leaders have carefully chosen and sequenced our curriculum content in a meaningful way that enables children to make connections and progress across sequences of lessons, terms and years.

We aim to encourage all children to reach their full potential through the provision of varied opportunities and scaffolded lessons. All children are entitled to access the curriculum at a level appropriate to their needs. To ensure inclusion, staff have aspirational aims and use a range of strategies to make sure learning is accessible to all. Independent tasks, as well as teaching, are also well-adapted to ensure full accessibility, as well as to provide appropriate challenge to different groups of learners. 

White Cliffs Primary and Nursery School is at the heart of our community and strong links with those within the community are valued greatly. For example, we have and continue to raise money for a local charity which provides opportunities for disadvantaged children and young carers to take part in a wide range of creative activities. In addition to this, our children benefit greatly from those within the community coming into our school, who support our children both academically and pastorally. As a result, children leave White Cliffs Primary and Nursery School with a sense of belonging to our community and have the skills and confidence to make decisions, self-evaluate and become lifelong learners.