Our Curriculum

Intent - What do we want our children to learn?

At Greentrees, our curriculum engages all our pupils in challenging and interesting learning, which promotes our core values of curiosity, achievement, determination, collaboration, equality and kindness.

We want our young people to ‘speak up’; to make choices and feel that they are part of a global family where everyone matters. We place our young people in the context of what it means to be human and by taking a people-centred approach to the curriculum, better understand our impact on the world, past and present and future.

We believe it is our duty as humans to look after nature and the world around us. Using an enquiry-led approach, our young people are challenged to be critically curious about the world.

Our curriculum has two primary aims: to ensure that all pupils, irrespective of their background or level of need, are equipped with essential knowledge so that they are prepared for the responsibilities and experiences of later life and to provide opportunities and experiences that promote positive spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development.

Implementation - How do we enable them to learn it?

From Foundation Stage to Year 6, pupils develop their substantive (know of) and disciplinary (know how) knowledge. They encounter learning experiences that are progressively matched to their cognitive development, exposing them to the wider world in carefully planned stages.

Our curriculum framework enhances the National Curriculum, using an enquiry-led approach. Cross-curricular learning objectives are woven into enquiries, placing an emphasis on ‘being’ rather than ‘doing’. Our pupils are historians – they don’t simply ‘do’ history; they are scientists – they don’t just ‘do’ science.

Enquiries allow pupils to seek answers to questions that are too big to answer straight away. In doing so, they will experience different states of being and recognise the essential links between them.

Some areas of study, including English and Maths, are taught discretely and we use a number of proven, evidence-based schemes of work to provide high-quality learning experiences.

Using Guy Claxton’s 4 Rs of learning, we promote a ‘learning to learn’ ethos, encouraging children to take ownership of their learning and develop high levels of self-efficacy – recognising that what they do and decisions they make have a real impact on how successful they will be.

Our curriculum is bespoke to our school and pupils are inspired by the people, places and stories of our unique setting. Our curriculum has been continuously developed over several years, building on what has worked well and incorporating new approaches based on evidence of excellent outcomes in other settings. In addition, and in keeping with our human-centred approach, our curriculum is enhanced further still by also focussing on three key areas of global significance:

Equality and diversity
Sustainability
Careers

Impact - What is the impact?

Our pupils leave us with a rich, age-appropriate understanding of the world around them, ready for the next stage of their journey towards being life-long learners and valuable members of a global society.

While experiencing a genuinely broad and balanced school experience, Greentrees’ pupils perform well in the core subjects. Outcomes in statutory tests are routinely above the national averages – further strong evidence that by the time they leave us, our pupils are very well prepared for the next stage in their education and beyond.

The school has designed an ambitious and coherently sequenced curriculum. The school is highly inclusive, and pupils thrive.

Ofsted Inspection Report, May 2025