Northowram Primary School

Leaders have recently introduced a curriculum for foundation subjects that is highly ambitious. There is a clear sequence of learning, with regular opportunities for pupils to link learning from previous topics or across different subjects. For instance, learning in art and design often links to a history topic. Leaders have thought carefully about how the curriculum in early years prepares pupils for the curriculum they will learn later in school. (Ofsted January 2023)

I can honestly say that we thoroughly enjoyed the curriculum deep dives during our inspection! We have been using the PKC for History, Geography, Science and Art for over 12 months and we took great care to choose a curriculum written not only by subject experts but which came with the highest quality bespoke support and CPD for our teachers and subject leaders. Having researched lots of options, we chose the PKC curriculum because it closely matches our vision of ‘Inspiring Success Beyond Expectations’ – it goes further than the national curriculum and incorporates the very best of what is known about successful approaches to teaching and learning.

The inspector chose to undertake a rigorous deep dive into Art and our subject leader spoke with passional and deep knowledge about how the PKC curriculum was structured for progression both across a year and between years. The inspector said he had rarely seen such strong links through to the Early years and was hugely impressed with the learning from Nursery through to year 6 (he visited all year groups!). Our Art leader relished the opportunity to discuss her subject and no question phased her – ‘Tell me about progression in sculpture and 3-D work’ was one – she calmly brought out the children’s sketch books and showed photographs of a variety of 3-D work from Islamic clay tiles in year 5, Matisse mobiles in year2 to Maquettes in year 1 and architectural sculpture in year 6 – job done! In pupil interviews, our students (including disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND) spoke confidently about their skills and knowledge, how retrieval helped them to remember and how having an hour of Art each week helped them to develop their expressive skills and showed off the range of their work with real knowledge and enthusiasm.

Every day, I am amazed by how much even our youngest learners know and do in all PKC subject areas. We’re so proud of our curriculum and grateful to the team at PKC for all their support and inspiration!

Jane Scardifield, Headteacher 

Northowram Primary School, West Yorkshire