Our bespoke ‘New Islington Curriculum’ has now been delivered for a year.

Using the National Curriculum as our starting point, and partnered with global learning approaches, we have developed a very clear Learning Journey for all our children. It is built on the Ways of Being Co-op: Do what matters most, Be yourself always, Show you care and Succeed together. Underpinned with an expectation that our children will develop a love for learning.

The Golden Thread through our curriculum from EYFS to Year 6 reflects our unique pupil population – we have over 24 nationalities with as many different languages spoken. The Global / International and Cultural element of our curriculum offer is embedded in all year groups and across all subjects.

Our Early Years Curriculum is bespoke to our pupils. Building on the expectations of the Development Matters Early Years Curriculum, every year the themes change to ensure we engage and inspire through relevant units, whilst being challenging and aspirational. Our Early Years Curriculum ensures that we narrow the gap from entry on baseline, to their end of year attainment.

Throughout Key Stage One, we establish a secure foundation – well-defined blocks of understanding, skills and knowledge, with clear progression and sequence that the children develop so when they move into Key Stage Two, they are confident and competent learners. This building block approach encourages a systematic approach to knowledge and skills acquisition.

We teach Maths using the White Rose scheme; professionally, the team have been on a journey and feel that for our children the White Rose approach best fits our pupils who need the challenge of greater reasoning and problem solving opportunities.

Our Writing units follow the New Islington Writing Pathway – an aspirational flow of learning that is based on quality texts as the springboard for quality writing. As with the ‘New Islington Curriculum’ our Writing pathway is bespoke to New Islington.

Foundation subjects are taught discretely – children are clear about the subject they are studying and whether it is a skills-based subject or a knowledge-based subject. We have ensured a mix of British and Global themes to reflect our pupil population. The Autumn term starts with a whole school focus on ‘Our Community’ and the year ends with a whole school focus ‘Going Global’. We have also ensured a real sense of chronology so children can make links to prior and future learning.

For more information about any aspect of our curriculum, please contact us via the website, and we will forward your question to the appropriate subject leader.