Curriculum Overview

Our Curriculum Intent

At Longmoor Community Primary School, we serve a community of remarkable determination, resilience and potential. Many of our pupils experience significant socio-economic disadvantage, which can limit access to early language, experiences and enrichment. Our curriculum is designed deliberately to overcome this context — to remove barriers to learning and build the strong foundations every child needs to succeed in school and in life.

Our curriculum intent is rooted in the belief that every child deserves access to an ambitious, knowledge-rich education that develops them academically, personally and socially. It ensures that pupils know more, remember more and can do more over time — enabling them to thrive, regardless of their starting points.

Our BARRIERS Curriculum Principles

The Longmoor curriculum is underpinned by our BARRIERS framework, which defines the key principles guiding every subject and phase of learning:

• B – Broad and Balanced
  • Our curriculum is inclusive, carefully sequenced and ambitious for all pupils. While we prioritise the core skills of reading, writing and mathematics, we ensure equal emphasis on the arts, humanities, sciences and sport so that every child experiences joy, creativity and challenge in learning.
• A – Academic
  • We are unapologetically academic. Our curriculum is intellectually demanding and knowledge-rich, ensuring that pupils master the key concepts, vocabulary and cultural capital they need to access the next stage of education.
• R – Research-Based
  • Our curriculum design and pedagogy are informed by the best educational research. We apply evidence-based approaches to teaching, learning, memory and assessment so that every pupil benefits from practice that is proven to work.
• R – Rigorous
  • Each subject is planned with precision and coherence. We build knowledge cumulatively and revisit it systematically, ensuring deep understanding and long-term retention. We hold the highest expectations for what every child can achieve.
• I – Fosters Independence
  • We develop self-regulated, reflective learners who can think, reason and solve problems for themselves. From early years upwards, pupils are encouraged to make choices, take responsibility and lead aspects of their learning.
• E – Provides Experiences
  • We enrich the curriculum through purposeful trips, visitors, outdoor learning and real-life contexts that bring knowledge to life. These experiences are especially vital for our pupils, many of whom may not otherwise access such opportunities beyond school.
• R – Rooted in Reading
  • Reading is at the heart of our curriculum. From phonics to fluency, from storytime to subject texts, we teach pupils to read widely, deeply and for pleasure. Reading unlocks every other subject — it is the gateway to learning.
• S – Enables our children to be ‘Secondary-Ready’
  • By the end of Year 6, our pupils are academically secure, emotionally resilient and socially confident. They leave us ready to take on the challenges of secondary education with curiosity, courage and belief in themselves.

Strong Foundations for Success

To address the impact of deprivation, we ensure strong foundations are built in the four key areas that underpin all learning:

• Early Reading and Phonics – ensuring every child can decode, comprehend and enjoy reading.
• Writing and Language – developing vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure for clear expression.
• Mathematics – securing number fluency, reasoning and problem-solving.
• Communication and Oracy – equipping pupils to think, speak and listen with confidence and respect.

These areas provide the platform for success across the wider curriculum and beyond.

Curriculum Impact

The impact of our curriculum is seen in the knowledge, confidence and character of our pupils. They achieve well across subjects, speak with clarity, write with purpose and read with enjoyment. They embody our DRIVE values—showing Determination, Respect, Integrity, Valour and Excellence in all that they do.

Our pupils leave Longmoor not only ready for the next stage of education but also ready for life. They have secure foundations, a sense of pride in who they are, and the belief that there are no barriers too great to overcome—because at Longmoor,

Together, we grow, explore, discover.

The Longmoor Learner

It is our aim that children leave Longmoor ready for the next stage of their educational curriculum:

The school’s BARRIERS curriculum, combined with the high quality teaching and learning that takes place, ensures that children leave our school ready for the next stage of their formal education. Our children know that through our rigorous studies, we have extremely high expectations of the standard they work at, the standard they achieve and the diligence that they work with.

British Values

As part of the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of all pupils at Longmoor Community Primary School, we are committed to the promotion of those fundamental British values which will prepare our children for life in modern Britain – democracy, rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs. These values are exemplified in the words, actions and influences of everyone in school, rooted in our values and ethos and reflected in the school’s mission statement and aims.

They are seen in our curriculum – in particular our PSHE programme, Philosophy4Children and R.E. lessons; in our promotion of spiritual, moral, social and cultural development; in our assemblies and collective worship; in our visits and visitors – including links with community and charity groups; in our democratically-elected School Council and our House System; in our relationships with local police, fire and other community services.

Further detail is given in the statement below of how we promote each of these fundamental British values:

• Democracy
• Rule of Law
• Individual Liberty
• Mutual Respect and Tolerance of those of Different Faiths and Beliefs