Our Curriculum at Cherry Tree

At Cherry Tree, we believe that every child deserves a curriculum that inspires, motivates and enables them to achieve their full potential.

Our curriculum is carefully designed to ensure that learning is meaningful, connected and built to last. All learning is underpinned by rich, experiential opportunities that bring the curriculum to life and deepen understanding. Every lesson we teach and every concept we deliver is rooted in the acquisition of skills and knowledge, taught sequentially and deliberately linked to prior learning so that pupils can build secure and lasting understanding over time.

What Our Curriculum Is Not

Our curriculum does not:

• Teach random or disconnected facts that result in cumulative dysfluency.

• Prioritise skill development at the expense of strong knowledge acquisition.

• Compartmentalise learning into isolated subjects or standalone components. Instead, we intentionally connect learning across subjects to deepen understanding.

What Our Curriculum Ensures

We ensure that:

• The curriculum acts as a driver for learning, enabling pupils to make meaningful connections between their learning, the City of Colchester and their immediate surroundings.

• Knowledge is revisited and built upon over time, allowing pupils to develop strong schema across different subject areas and commit learning to long-term memory.
  For example, when pupils in Year 6 study the Inca Civilisation in History, they also learn about South America in Geography and explore Latin American art.

• The curriculum begins in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) — not in Year 1.

The Importance of EYFS

As you explore our curriculum sub-pages, you will see that each subject has a clearly defined EYFS learning pathway. This reflects our belief that children’s experiences in the early years are vital in establishing the foundation blocks for future learning across Key Stages 1 and 2.

For example, in History, before entering Key Stage 1, pupils in EYFS:

• Learn about different cultures and religions.

• Understand that some things were the same and some were different in the past.

• Begin to make sense of the past through stories and books they have read.

The knowledge and skills we have chosen for pupils to learn are carefully sequenced to ensure that understanding is built progressively and securely over time, enabling every child to succeed as they move through their educational journey at Cherry Tree.

Our subject leads: