The Anstey Curriculum 

At Anstey First School, we want pupils to develop the key skills and knowledge they need to progress to their next stage of education. To do this, we have refined and adapted our curriculum over years to ensure that our pupils are getting the absolute best learning opportunities and can make the progress they need. Our curriculum is tailored to meet the needs of each pupil, and we work hard to remove barriers to learning to enable progress. The core principle of our curriculum is that ‘learning is a long-term change in memory’. 

Selection and design  

We use an adapted version of the Essentials Curriculum, which was developed by Chris Quigley. This is a widely used model for curriculum delivery and is underpinned by extensive scientific and education research. Our curriculum is set up so that learning and progress happen over time and allows for multiple opportunities to repeat content and develop understanding of key concepts. This is an approach that is adopted by many schools and is generally referred to as a ‘spiral curriculum’. 

Anstey’s approaches, values and curriculum are integrated. This means that the way we teach our pupils is designed to develop their resilience and independence as learners, encourage them to take responsibility for their learning and respect the importance of the act of learning. We take inspiration from Maria Montessori as well as the best education research: evidence informs our practice. 

We aim to grow our pupils’ knowledge and skills by instilling a love of learning, feeding their curious minds with stimulating questions, and providing them with the time and opportunity to practise their newly acquired skills within well-sequenced, highly engaging lessons. 

The roots of learning 

Our values are at the heart of our school. We talk about them daily and pupils are encouraged to celebrate these values in others. From your first day, we build a sense of belonging, togetherness and mutual support through our establishment activities that take place at the beginning of each term. We show our pupils that they are safe and valued, giving them the nurturing environment they need to start their journey with confidence. 

Our Steps to Success come next. These are the eight key skills that all our pupils will develop over their time at Anstey. They promote hard work and creativity as well as compassion for others.

Big Questions and Big Ideas 

“The fine art is about asking questions and how we understand our world and our place in it.”
― Oliver Jeffers

Our curriculum is sequenced so that pupils return to previously taught concepts throughout their time at school. We carefully consider prior learning and build using small steps to ensure that new information is retained. 

Units of work begin with a Big Question. Teachers work hard to develop questions that are stimulating and engaging. We strive to nurture curious minds and introducing new learning through questions works. Straight away, pupils begin thinking of the information they need to answer these Big Questions. Teachers act as guides and facilitators, introducing key Big Ideas to children in carefully planned and sequenced lessons. In this way, we cover the most important concepts and knowledge that are required, while building in multiple opportunities for practising new skills and vocabulary. 

Assessment for learning 

We act quickly and decisively based on the assessment information we gather. Almost all our assessment of pupils happens in-the-moment, at the point of learning so that we can support and challenge individual learners. Our teaching team spend time refining our approaches and making sure that we are giving each child what they need next. 

Progress for every child 

We work hard to ensure that all pupils access our curriculum, and that all pupils are challenged and supported in the best way to enable them to progress to their next stage. 

During our assessment process, we can pick up the signs that children have gaps in their knowledge. These gaps are addressed by class teachers and they look to fill them as part of their everyday quality-first teaching in the classroom.  

If knowledge gaps are significant, we use our Strong Foundations map to identify which strand of learning needs to be addressed. We use this to track back and focus precisely on the required skills and knowledge. This allows for rapid progress to be made.