At Captain Shaw's, we believe every child is entitled to an ambitious, inspiring and inclusive curriculum.

Our curriculum is carefully designed to help children know more, understand more and do more as they journey from Nursery to Year 6. It builds knowledge and skills progressively, while giving children meaningful opportunities to use what they learn, develop their character and make a positive difference to the world around them.

Our curriculum reflects our school vision: we want every child to belong, achieve and flourish.

How Does Our Curriculum Work?

Big Idea

Each whole-school topic begins with a Big Idea, such as Let's Invent, Superheroes or Right or Wrong?

These ideas provide an engaging shared context for learning and encourage children to think deeply, ask questions and make meaningful connections between their learning and the wider world.

Vehicle – Learning With a Purpose

Each topic has a Vehicle – a real-life project or outcome that gives children's learning a genuine purpose.

Children might use their learning to benefit our school, serve our local community, care for the environment, support others or contribute to the wider world.

Through these experiences, children learn that knowledge is powerful: what we learn can help us make a difference.

Our older pupils increasingly take responsibility for planning, decision-making and leadership as they move through the school.

Values – Learning How to Live Well Together

Each topic is connected to one of our Christian and school values and one of the British Values.

Our values are actions:

Children explore what these values mean and, importantly, have opportunities to put them into action through their learning, relationships and real-life projects.

British Values – democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs – are integrated naturally alongside our own values, helping children develop as thoughtful, respectful and active citizens.

Subjects – Building Powerful Knowledge

Each subject has its own carefully planned knowledge, skills and disciplinary thinking.

We make meaningful connections between subjects where these strengthen children's understanding, but our curriculum is not simply a collection of activities linked to a theme. Subject content is carefully sequenced so that children develop increasingly secure and sophisticated knowledge as they move through school.

Stepping Stones – Building Learning Over Time

For every subject, we have mapped the important knowledge and skills children need to develop. We call these our Stepping Stones.

They help teachers understand what children have learned before, what they need to learn now and what they will encounter next.

This is particularly important in our mixed-age classes. Children may learn through a shared topic, enquiry or experience, but expectations develop as they move through the school. Our Stepping Stones ensure that learning remains progressive and appropriately ambitious from Nursery through to Year 6.

Inclusion – Ambition for Every Child

Inclusion is not separate from our curriculum – it is part of how we design and teach it.

We believe every child should be able to participate, belong and achieve well. Teachers maintain ambitious learning for all while anticipating and removing barriers, adapting teaching and providing additional support where it is needed.

Children may need different routes, resources or levels of support to reach their goals, but our ambition for them remains high.

Find Out More

At the bottom of this page, you can explore our curriculum content and long-term plans for Nursery, KS1 and KS2.

Our subject Stepping Stones show in greater detail how knowledge and skills develop from Nursery to Year 6. If you would like to find out more about our curriculum or see the progression for a particular subject, please contact the school.

 

Our Mixed-Age Curriculum in Practice

Being a small rural school is an important part of who we are. Our mixed-age classes give children opportunities to learn together, collaborate across age groups and develop independence and leadership.

Our curriculum is deliberately designed for this context. Children can explore shared ideas and enquiries together, while carefully planned curriculum progression ensures that knowledge, skills and expectations build as children move through the school.

Our approach to mixed-age curriculum design has also been shared more widely as a case study for Cornwall Research School.

Read our Research School case study: