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Beaconside C of E Primary School & Acorn Nursery

Learning to live, Learning to shine.

Beaconside C of E Primary School & Acorn Nursery

“Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works” (Matthew 5:16)

As well as delivering the national curriculum, we also have three additional subjects that we have prioritised. these are taught to the children regularly and the programmes of study have been written by our staff. Below is a brief description of each area. 

Outdoor Learning

The children will have a block of outdoor learning once per term every term from reception. In Nursery, the use of the outdoors is more fluid and the children get the opportunity to explore this at any given opportunity. 

Throughout their time at Beaconside, children will have four main strands of learning. These are: 

  • Nature and Wildlife- Opportunities to look at the vast amount of wildlife and nature reserves in our area as well as contribute to conservation campaigns both locally and nationally. 

within our local area, develop self help skills such as navigation, water safety and first aid.

  • Self-help skills- The children will learn about water safety, have plenty of opportunities on hikes to hone their navigational skills and also begin to learn the basics of first aid. 
  • Basic living skills- This will include cooking in the outdoors, foraging, a progression in fire making as well as revisiting and increasing the complexity of shelter building. 
  • Experiences in the outdoors- There are opportunities to follow trails and go on hikes in every yar group. In year 3 and 5 the children will have camping opportunities and from Year 2, the children' will take part in at least one outdoor pursuit each year. 

Outdoor pursuits

Year 2- Eden Rock

Year 3- Canoe rafting at Derwent Water

Year 4- Canoeing at Derwent Water

Year 5- Camping at Ratlingate, Kayaking at Hawes End, Indoor climbing

Year 6- Paddle boarding and ghyll scrambling

Beaconside's Outdoor Learning Programme of Study

Mental Health

Proactively learning about mental health is a crucial part of our curriculum. The children will learn about mental health in their PSHE lessons. On top of this, from year 4, children will receive two additional lessons per half term. This will cover a wide range of areas such as the importance of sleep, mindfulness and yoga. Each year, every year group will also have a mental health learning week where the children will learn about different aspects of mental health each year. We have also embedded daily exercise into our curriculum as we recognise how this can contribute to a positive state of mind.

Below is our own programme of study we have written in order to ensure progression year on year and also prioritise important areas of learning we feel passionately  about exploring with the children. 

Beaconside's Mental Health Programme of Study

Race and Equality

Race and equality is something that is focused upon within the national curriculum but we want to ensure it has an even higher profile. We are aware that our children perhaps do not have as many opportunities to experience cultural differences and people of different race and ethnicity as other parts of the United Kingdom and therefore think its even more important to spend time exploring these key learning areas. One of our key learning threads is "A deep understanding of the diversity in people" and therefore a lot of our learning is threaded through themes in every year group. For example, the children learn about Ade Odeyipitan in Reception, experience wheelchair basketball in Year 2, study Anne Roth in Year3 and Nelson Mandela in Year 6. We also have a planned learning week each year where children will learn about different asoects of race and equality. 

We are currently developing a Programme of Study for Race and Equality