To excite and engage our children, each topic starts with a launch day where the teachers plan a day of exciting activities to 'hook' the children into the new topic. Some examples of Launch Days are when a space craft landed in the school hall and the children organised a press conference to interview the occupants, and the time that the children were learning about natural disasters and the children walked into wrecked classrooms as if there had been an earthquake!

The work that the children do throughout their topic must have a purpose to ensure they put maximum effort in and so Celebration Days allow the children to show off their work to different audiences - parents, other children in the school, children visiting from other schools, senior teachers and leaders. The important thing is that they know that work will be looked at and that they will be talking through their learning.

We are lucky enough to have a cookery room and a pottery room at Connaught and much of the work created in these is linked to our Creative Curriculum. WW2 recipes are used to bake Carrot Cookies, Potato Shortbread and Bread and Butter Pudding to help the children experience what life was like during WW2. We are also delighted with the very high standard of work that comes out of our pottery room too, much of which is linked to the Year group theme.

Our Cookery Room was made into a STEAM Lab, expanding it's use to encorporate more subjects. This enables the children to use this space, not only for cooking but also for Science investigations, Technology, Engineering projects and Maths. This allows all of our children to experience areas of the curriculum in a dedicated and well-resourced space. Children with a specific interest and aptitude will especially benefit, and our aim is to light a flame in girls who may otherwise be put off by these largely male-dominated subjects. We wish to give our children opportunities that they would not normally get until they reach secondary school.

The Creative Curriculum planning is truly inclusive at Connaught with a variable mixture of topics, projects, out of class experiences and themed weeks to motivate our pupils and give them enthusiasm for their learning. The implementation of this curriculum has given the children a broader outlook on life and raised their own aspirations. The children are actively involved in the planning, delivery and evaluation of each topic and therefore have complete ownership of their curriculum.

We have worked together to devise a series of themes for each year group which provides wide and varied opportunities for academic achievement across all subjects. These themes also link to current topical issues or fun stimulating environments. The themes include new titles such as Passport to Europe as well as the more traditional ones of The Battle of Britain. Through this cross-curricular approach, we aim to nurture and develop pupils' skills and talents through the breadth and creativity of the curriculum in school and in extracurricular activities.

‘I love the fact the teachers at Connaught give me the tools to explore and investigate for myself without giving me the answers.’

Isabelle

‘I am growing in confidence and becoming more creative with each activity.  I like that we do so many exciting and varied things.’

Amy

‘This half term I have learnt a lot of interesting facts about space and I hope to learn more about space in the future.’

Daniel

‘We have investigated how natural disasters occur and recreated some of these. We got to make our own volcano and explode it in the playground too!’

Ollie

‘During cookery we made banana bread. Pottery was also fun, as we made frogs. Mine was blue, with a few spots, a purple mouth and a red, curved tongue, which had a vertical stripe on it. Making 2D tribal huts from matchsticks was another thing that we did. Some of them had stilts.’

Amy

'Leaders are determined for all pupils to benefit from a high-quality education and have designed an ambitious curriculum to realise this expectation. They have ensured that in every subject, there is coherent and thoughtfully sequenced planning that identifies the precise knowledge that pupils will learn. Staff follow this skilfully to ensure that pupils build secure knowledge and skills over time.' 

Ofsted May 2023

'Leaders ensure that staff have excellent subject knowledge and explain new content clearly. Staff accurately and routinely assess pupils’ understanding. This means that teachers have a very clear understanding of what pupils have learned. They use this to adapt activities and make sure that all pupils, including those with SEND, are able to confidently link new learning to what they have learned before. As a result of this, all pupils, including those with SEND, achieve very well across the whole curriculum.'

^{Ofsted May 2023}

As we move around our school, children's work is being celebrated in every corridor.  The corridor displays celebrate the children's learning whilst the displays in the classroom both celebrate and support the children's learning.