The Inspire Curriculum

At Tor Bridge Primary School, we are proud to have an ambitious, knowledge-rich curriculum which supports our children in becoming independently minded, confident and kind citizens of the future, who aspire to ‘go out into the world and do well, but more importantly go out into the world and do good’.

Reading is at the heart of our curriculum which is engaging, innovative, built on first-hand experiences and celebrates all curriculum areas, helping to ensure that our children develop the knowledge and skills they need to excel, and to achieve academic excellence at secondary school and beyond. Our curriculum has been designed to encompass a knowledge and understanding of the locality in the South West of England, and also the events that have shaped it in the past to make it what it is today.

We understand our curriculum as narrative in that we acknowledge it is not only the journey, but the story of that journey understood as a whole.

Our curriculum is far more than just a clearly sequenced set of facts. The concepts are the holding baskets for all we want our children to learn and this is developed through narrative and high-quality texts. When we structure the information we wish to present under a broader narrative structure, each piece of knowledge becomes important. Without each Area of Study, the story won’t make sense. Like a novel, it is possible to read it quickly to get the gist of the story but the deeper themes, conventions and nuances won’t be appreciated. The Inspire Curriculum as narrative is just like this: each piece of knowledge builds on the next and takes on deeper meanings and understandings as children progress both within and across year groups.

Each of the Areas of Study have been coherently designed to build on one another with clear progression and links so that in subsequent year groups, they will be able to explore concepts more deeply, applying their knowledge in different contexts. The curriculum at Tor Bridge Primary School is grounded in the strongest available evidence about how pupils learn and retain knowledge in the long term, focusing in particular on research from cognitive science. Our teachers explicitly help their pupils make links between the information they learn, they help them build a detailed, easily recalled web of knowledge from long term memory.

The Inspire Curriculum

Tor Bridge Primary School’s Curriculum Map celebrates all of the Areas of Study that the children will be learning.

Subject Overviews

High quality subject progression overviews that value knowledge and skills and ensures progression and National Curriculum coverage for each subject.

Knowledge Organisers

The document identifying the key knowledge that children need to have learned by the end of an Area of Study.

Learning at Home

Each term, a Learning at Home Booklet, will be provided to children to support them with the Areas of Study for that term.

Curriculum Letters

Each term a curriculum letter is sent home to parents outlining the Areas of Study the children will be studying over that term.

Whole Class Reading

At Tor Bridge Primary School, we value Reading at the core of our curriculum and ensure text selection complements and enriches the wider curriculum.

Early Reading and Phonics

At Tor Bridge Primary School, we begin teaching Phonics from the first day of Reception which is later built upon as they move into Key Stage One.

British Values

At Tor Bridge Primary School, we are fully committed to promoting British Values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.