Intent

‘An exceptional curriculum that brings Norfolk & Norwich into every classroom and the school environment whilst providing rich experiences and opportunities to recognise what lies beyond to celebrate the history, culture and diversity of our world.’

We have strong values, developing in every child the skills to be responsible, ambitious, active learners who are great communicators and respectful global citizens. Our children will be empowered with a great range of skills and experiences to feel not only proud of their local community but the courage and resilience to take on the world.

We respect each other, ourselves and the world around us. We understand the feelings of others and seek to help by showing compassion and forgiveness. We do not merely tolerate difference and diversity, we actively celebrate the uniqueness of all individuals. We encourage all within our community to learn about and engage with our nation’s democratic processes both locally and nationally to help to support, protect and sustain for the future the respect due to every citizen. We promote curiosity and respect as we learn about the diversity of beliefs and social backgrounds that make up modern Britain’s society as well as the global population. 

We aim to provide outstanding teaching so that every child learns new things every day and is motivated to attend school. Learners and teachers inspire each other by offering hope and encouragement and by setting a good example through our own behaviours. We encourage the children to be creative and innovative and to use their special talents to express original ideas and solve problems. We strive to be the very best that we can be. We nurture endurance, resilience and hope by persevering in all things. In our school, we don’t fear making mistakes because we know that this is part of the learning process. We have growth mindsets and believe that anything is possible with hard work and commitment. Our curriculum has been organised through a subject specific approach in which our teacher’s own subject knowledge is supported by high quality resources of work and collaboration with subject experts to ensure that children at our school achieve strong outcomes.  Each subject is carefully planned to incorporate the key knowledge, skills and understanding set out in the National Curriculum whilst also reflecting the needs of our children as part of the local and wider community. Where appropriate teacher make links between subjects,  use technology in both the teaching of the specific subjects and in the opportunities for children’s independent learning and link key texts to subjects to enhance opportunities for writing across the curriculum and a context through which English can also be taught.

We recognise each child as an individual, so that our teaching specifically targets their learning needs, develops their social skills and nurtures their talents. We put thinking and questioning at the heart of our curriculum so that children are encouraged to explore, enquire and extend their learning by talk. We support our children to be active, independent learners and people. We teach them to show courage by never giving up, going for their goals and standing up for what they believe to be right. We foster confidence in their own abilities and encourage them to try new things, as well as being confident in those around them

We provide a calm, purposeful environment in which to learn, with a clear focus on rewarding positive behaviour. We encourage the children to take responsibility for their learning and actions. We teach them to be honest and to understand that knowing the difference between right and wrong will be of only partial use if we do not have the courage to speak the truth and do what is right. We teach the children to understand that a person’s understanding of the truth and truthfulness will sometimes be influenced by their religious and cultural experiences. 

Talk is at the heart of all learning. Communication and chat is actively encouraged across the school from the very start of their journey at Mile Cross Primary so that every child will become an avid reader, a fluent writer and a confident speaker. We want the children to be approachable, willing to listen and to go the extra mile to help and be kind to others. We encourage them to be supportive, warm, friendly and caring and show respect and friendship towards others at all times. We would like the children in our school to be confident to speak their minds and respectful of the many differing views of others. We provide many opportunities to learn new vocabulary and for the children to apply this knowledge in context across different areas of the curriculum. 

We believe that excellent teaching and learning, combined with a high-quality academic curriculum and the highest levels of support and nurture for all pupils, will ensure the highest standards are met.

We help our pupils build independence, character, resilience, leadership skills and a love of learning.  Our culture is focused on promoting excellence; supporting our pupils to achieve academic success and developing aspirational children with bright futures ahead.  We encourage our children to develop a lifelong love of learning so they are confident, motivated children who are open-minded, positive learners who believe, succeed and achieve.  

We have set high standards for everything we do and strongly believe in the importance of the core skills of communication, reading, writing and mathematics.  

All staff share in the belief that all of our children can achieve success, with the right teaching, guidance and nurturing environment that we promote in our school.  We encourage our children to develop self-belief and we set high expectations for them, because we know that they achieve their best when they are challenged, engaged, and motivated.