Crofton’s uniqueness is in its size – we are large six form entry Infant and Junior schools. This we embrace, to ensure children get the benefit of our diversely talented staff, community and exceptional facilities.
Staff are given a wealth of opportunities to further their development - using the expertise within the schools as well as multiple outside providers.
At Crofton we provide a broad, balanced, rich and relevant curriculum; supporting our aim of empowering young minds for future success. Crofton uses a knowledge and skills driven curriculum which builds upon previous learning. Through lessons, academies and clubs, children are encouraged to pursue their own interests and passions. We work to provide opportunities for children to become life-long learners who are resilient, enthusiastic and curious to learn. Technology and engineering are embedded both inside and outside the classroom with a ‘dare to try’ approach used to ensure children are challenged and think deeply.
Wellbeing and character development is implicit in all that we do and through a highly inclusive environment, all pupils are taught to aim high and reach their potential. Children are provided with a variety of enrichment opportunities to support their wellbeing so that they are comfortable, healthy and happy.
Crofton uses a variety of resources and schemes of work to develop the sequence and content of the curriculum. We ensure National Curriculum coverage and have created logical and systematic progression to achieve the knowledge and skills required. We don’t rely heavily on schemes but ‘Croftonise’ our curriculum by using what we believe are the best elements of research-based programmes of work, when we use them, to create excellence!
Teachers have become experts in their subjects and have worked hard to ensure progression throughout the key stages. Each subject has been carefully planned to guarantee that the sequence of learning is mapped out to support connected learning, taking into account cognitive load.
Reading is at the heart of our curriculum with the aim that every child will leave Crofton with a love of reading. We use the Read Write Inc scheme for teaching Phonics. Once we unlock this passion for reading, we develop and nurture it by promoting different genres, authors and reading materials - ensuring reading material is challenging, diverse, as well as thought provoking. This is achieved in a variety of ways including: through trained reading mentors, book clubs, small group precision teaching and even reading to one of our reading care dogs.
The breadth in our curriculum has been shaped by our curriculum drivers, enhanced by our values, which have been carefully selected in relation to the cultural capital we believe Crofton children may require and are not only celebrated but embedded in our curriculum. Our curriculum drivers are:
We are aware that many children at Crofton know a good deal about life in Petts Wood, however we want to develop their understanding that there are vast differences in places and communities - not only in the world and the UK, but also in London. We aim for children to know about the world, different countries, seas and other physical features along with how one might travel to these different areas and what they may see.
Crofton has an ethos of high expectations; we encourage our children to be broad minded and to develop understanding of their various future prospects and life choices. For example, we aim to inspire all pupils to be engineers, doctors and scientists and not to be limited by stereotyping. Through our curriculum we ensure that we teach children about a wealth of different jobs that could spark their interest in the future, inviting visitors to talk about careers through the year and in an organised event for our older pupils.
Through our curriculum, children are taught to reason and make considered decisions based on facts and their well-thought-out values. This teaches the children to take responsibility for their decisions and consider the impact upon the local community and world as a whole. We develop the children’s thinking so they understand the impact they individually have, and the difference it can make collectively for our local community and the future of our planet.
We value our diversity within the Crofton Schools. Open-mindedness and respect are at the forefront of our curriculum and ethos. We aim to create an inclusive environment where all children feel included and valued. We celebrate the different cultures, languages and religions of the children within our schools and explore the benefits of differences, similarities and diversity within the schools and wider world.
At Crofton we ensure coverage of the curriculum over each term using long, medium and short term planning. Plans cover the relevant progressive vocabulary, sticky knowledge (recapping on previous learning) and important facts. We also develop every opportunity to build on sticky knowledge, for example in Maths, if a class has recently learnt about fractions, if they then learn about measure, fractions may be bought into this new concept by way of a measure problem.
Every opportunity throughout the day is used to develop reading and comprehension skills, and to develop the knowledge and acquisition of relevant vocabulary in the different subjects.
There is a good deal of curriculum coverage to fit into a day. We therefore use a continuous curriculum to teach children different facts. These might be looking at countries on a world map during lining up or frequently referring to an analogue and digital clock to tell the time.
We use consistent pedagogical approaches and are focused on immediate formative assessment within each lesson using methods such as Guided Practice, Think Pair Share and Show-Me Boards work to ensure teachers are extremely confident of where children are with their learning and being able to give extra support and different teaching strategies when needed. Children are encouraged to be independent with their learning and are given resources and strategies to be resilient when working. When children are ready, the split input method is used to ensure children are moving on to deepening their learning. Clear and thought out questioning is used to ensure that challenge is given where needed.
Achievements are highly recognised in year group and whole school assemblies and all talents are celebrated, such as sport, reading, spelling and times tables. Crofton runs academies to develop talents in different areas of the curriculum, such as Art, Language, Music, Performing Arts and Sports. Subject specialists teach the academies to enable gifted children to excel in these areas of the curriculum.
At Crofton, standards and achievement are consistently high and well above the national average. Staff help the children to develop resilience and independence as well as aspire to achieve excellence.
Crofton Schools utilise a wide range of strategies to enable children to achieve their full potential. For instance, the use of additional teachers to make class sizes smaller – so every child can receive more learning support. Regular pupil progress meetings and formative assessment, concentrating on addressing pupils’ gaps in knowledge, ensure that teachers are aware of children’s individual learning needs to progress to either their expected level or challenged further. All groups of learners, such as children with SEND and disadvantaged pupils are regularly monitored to ensure that any funding or interventions are being effectively used.
Through different reading experiences, engagement in reading is high and ensures children have an interest in a wide selection of literature.