The Curriculum Team
Estelle Scarth
Headteacher
Rachel Coyne
Core Curriculum Lead
Wendy McNerney
Assistant Headteacher
and Inclusion Lead
Emily Mansfield
Foundation Curriculum Lead
Curriculum Overviews
Curriculum Intent
We follow the National Curriculum to deliver a varied, aspirational curriculum to all pupils. We have used our knowledge of our pupils and community to develop three curriculum threads. These threads are weaved through each subject, alongside individual subject pedagogy, to ensure our learners benefit from a purposeful curriculum.
- We promote equality and diversity
- We provoke curiosity
- We embed safety
Our Vision
At Oatlands, our curriculum is rich, inclusive and innovative. Learning extends beyond the classroom through our outdoor environment and extra-curricular opportunities, involving pupils, parents and the local community. Our children are immersed into interesting and fun topics, that develop lively, enquiring minds as they gain essential knowledge, skills and understanding. Our curriculum encourages children to imagine and create, to make links through well-connected knowledge and celebrates diversity. They learn how to keep themselves safe and interact with the digital world as independent and enterprising learners.
From ‘Our World of Learning’ we want all our children to go out into the world as responsible, confident citizens in a global community, making a positive contribution as life-long learners.
At Oatlands Junior School we provide a broad, creative and balanced curriculum, which inspires children to develop a lifelong love of learning and prepares them for life in modern Britain. We aim to offer excellence and choice to all our children, whatever their ability or needs. We strive to ensure all children, including those with Special Educational Needs, experience a fulfilment in learning every single day, delivered through our broad, ambitious curriculum. We aim to develop enquiring and lively minds as well as the knowledge and skills to enable children to thrive in an ever changing world.
At OJS, we have high expectations of all our children and challenge individuals so that they can go on to achieve their full potential. We aim to achieve this through the removal of barriers to learning and participation. We want all our children to feel that they are a valued part of our school community. We understand and acknowledge that some of our learners require additional support and / or provision for them be able to embrace learning and to experience success and enjoyment within school.
Our curriculum, both inside and outside the classroom, actively promotes the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.
English and mathematics are core skills which children need to develop in order to progress further in other subject areas. These are taught in discrete lessons with cross-curricular links where appropriate to enable children to apply lifelong skills in a variety of scenarios.
OJS Passports
Our OJS Passports are bespoke experiences that enhance our pupil's learning journey, during their time at OJS. Each experience has been carefully selected to help to enrich our pupils' social, moral, spiritual and cultural education.
RED Award
Following a thorough assessment from Red Kite Alliance, we achieved the RED Award in July 2024, in recognition of our work to embed a culture of mutual respect, to champion equality and to celebrate diversity. ‘We are tolerant and respect one another’ is an important OJS value and we are committed to ‘promoting Equality and Diversity’, as this is one of our golden curriculum threads.
The Red Kite Alliance RED (Respect, Equality and Diversity) Award has been developed to support schools to review, strengthen and celebrate their provision in terms of equality, diversity, respect for individuals and community cohesion. Our engagement with the award signals a clear commitment to place this agenda at the heart of life and work of Oatlands.
As educators, we know that we are uniquely placed to help to shape the attributes and values of the pupils we work with every day – and to make a positive contribution to wider society through our work with parents/carers and the local community. We also know that we have a unique responsibility to maximise the opportunities which this privileged role presents.
Within the feedback report, we were praised that this “…infiltrates many important facets of your school life beyond the day to day, as evidenced via assemblies and displays which all promote Fundamental British Values and the Protected Characteristics and celebrate the diversity of your pupils and staff. An inclusive ethos is impressively peppered throughout school policies, such as anti-bullying and the curriculum vision. You entice the curious minds of each year group to ‘go further’ and ‘be diverse’, by exploring ‘diverse opportunities’ to enhance their cultural capital. Many congratulations on all that you continue to do to promote and celebrate diversity as a school – keep up the great work!”