At Bluecoat Primary Academy, we believe that memorable and meaningful learning will occur through acquiring knowledge and skills alongside real-life, practical and enriching experiences. This approach is at the heart of our ethos and commitment to providing a holistic education for our children. We are aware that our pupils start with us with varied life experiences and we therefore believe that it is our responsibility to open up as much of the world to them as possible and offer them opportunities to encounter new experiences. Therefore, each theme within our curriculum includes enrichment opportunities – this may be an off-site visit, an experience within school or an opportunity to showcase their learning for others. These activities are not only planned to allow children to apply their learning or to engage in a shared experience to build learning on in the future but to develop pupil’s character and give them the best opportunities to find their own interests and skills and start to think about what they might aspire to in the future. Within our overarching curriculum themes we plan three layers of enrichment at different stages of the learning journey.
These are:
- Experience: usually at the beginning of a learning sequence and used as a ‘launch’ for new curriculum theme. The purpose of this experience is to give children a broad introduction to the subject matter and to engage an excite children for subsequent learning.
- Enhance: Once children have developed their base knowledge of a theme or subject matter, they are provided an opportunity to deepen their understanding through enrichment. This usually involves an off-site visit or specialist visitor to school. The purpose of this opportunity is to enhance children’s learning, allowing them to apply and develop their classroom learning from a specialist provider, place or experience.
- Exhibit: Children’s learning journey culminates in them having an opportunity to ‘exhibit’ their newly acquired knowledge and skills. Children work towards this end product, giving them a clear purpose for their learning. End products could include: performances, products, exhibitions, campaigns or film projects. Wherever possible, we aim to involve and invite our wider school community to be part of these events.