Our Curriculum Vision

Through collaboration with parents, governor’s, staff and children we have created a school vision that enables, us as a school, to deliver a high quality curriculum that stimulates all pupils so that they can achieve well.

We pride ourselves in our welcoming and friendly ethos where both working as a team and every individual is highly valued. Across the broad and balanced curriculum, our topics promote experiential learning both in the classroom and outdoors so that children are fully engaged in relevant and ambitious new learning. Where it is beneficial, we make connections to our local community and the area in which we live. For example, we have great connections with our local churches, Police Community Support Officer (PCSO), Allestree library, local shops, Mercy Care home, parents and grandparents as visitors either sharing their story or their job role, local authors, music workshops and ukulele teacher, plus taking advantage of our woodland areas and parks. We bring together our experiences and further develop our learning within our wonderful Forest School, located within the school grounds. We feel this really connects our learning to access a broad and balanced curriculum.

At Portway Infant school, it is our belief that every child is our future and thus our curriculum is deliberately designed to prepare children for their next stage of learning and to grow, flourish and realise their potential. Through effective teaching we nurture and care for each individual preparing them by immersing them in fun and challenging learning that they will remember as their building blocks. This is achieved through a carefully constructed and sequential curriculum demonstrating how all children make progress at our school.

We provide a safe, happy, inclusive and caring learning environment in which all children can develop their academic, personal and social and emotional skills. Indeed, we deliberately support our children to become increasingly independent, healthy and responsible members of the school community equipped with the skills and attitudes to be lifelong learners.

We have developed partnerships within school and the wider community such as Bridge the Gap and Allestree’s Local Area Coordinator to support children’s well-being. Our pastoral team is a critical feature at Portway, our learning mentor works with children and their families offering support and advice. We show how well staff know their pupils' unique circumstances so they can learn effectively. We pride ourselves on the quality of relationships, strong partnerships, high expectations and how staff respond to the needs of specific pupils and groups. Parents are encouraged to actively share in their child’s learning and wider school life.

 Our Forest School gives children the opportunity to learn through experience within a woodland setting, to develop their self-esteem and confidence in a hands-on manner. We enable them to develop an inquisitive and positive relationship with the natural world, respect for each other, co-operation, motivation to learn and persevere through challenges and problem solving and opportunities to make decisions in their learning and play.

We continually evaluate our curriculum to ensure it provides progression from EYFS to the end of KS1. We have designed our curriculum to ensure it meets the needs of our children and that lessons are sequential to help children build upon what they have learnt in each lesson. We have clear building blocks that take into account our children’s prior knowledge and what they need to know to move onto their next phase. This is monitored by subject leaders with an emphasis on how children make progress through the knowledge and skills they are taught to support children to know more and remember more over time.