Creative curriculum

Our Creative curriculum predominantly covers the following 4 subjects:

• Geography
• History
• Art and Design
• Design Technology

Each subject is taught discretely, so the children know what subject they are learning within the topic which is taught. 

However links are made to the following subjects where possible to enhance learning and curiosity:

• Religious Education (RE)
• Science
• Computing
• Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE)
• Music
• Maths
• Modern Foreign Languages (MFL)

Where possible, the Creative curriculum links to the core subject English. Some texts have been chosen as a school link to topics in each year group. 

Our Creative Curriculum at Beacon is:

Our Curriculum teaches the children about real life and current issues we face in the world like: Global Warming, The Royal Family, Poaching, Deforestation, Recycling, The Media, Parliament, Import and Export, Endangered, Rare and Extinct animals, World disasters such as Earthquakes, Flooding, Tornadoes, Volcanoes, Farming, The Local area and lots more.

Each half term prior to a new topic there will be a ‘Homework Project’ where the children will be asked to find something out or create a piece of work linked to what they will be learning about in school.

For each topic we encourage the children to bring in any books, objects, postcards, artefacts they may have linked to the topic to share with their classmates. Please ensure any items are named, it is the child’s responsibility to keep these safe, so please do not send things that are valuable or irreplaceable to school.

Where possible a trip linked to the topic will be planned to extend the children’s understanding and knowledge of what is being taught. Each year group will go on one trip per school year.  For example Year 3 visit Cadbury World as part of their Chocolate topic, Year 1 visit Cannock Chase Toy museum as part of Memory Box, Year 4 visit Dudley castle as part of their topic Romans and Celts and Year 5 visit RAF Cosford as part of the topic Inventions and Machines. Trips are beneficial to the children because they exposure them to new cultures and increase their confidence and motivation.

Two times per year, in every year group from Year 1 to Year 6 we invite Parents and Carers into school to complete a parent workshop linked to the current topic. This involves a morning or afternoon 1 hour session of creative challenges, where children are encouraged to work with their chosen adult to complete a range of crafts from castle making, to Viking ship building to rocket making and many more. These sessions have been a great success and enjoyed by all. Not only are the children supported in their learning, but, we also encourage quality one to one time with a parent or relative.

During the topics we aim to bring learning to life, and make memorable experiences; ones which the children will remember when they are adults. In some topics, we invite visitors into school or encourage the children to dress up to learn about what it was like in the past. Here are some examples:

• Year 1- Dinosaur topic. Children had excavation kits to dig out the dinosaur bones like archaeologist.
• Year 2- Wriggle and Crawl topic. A visit to school from the animal man.
• Year 3- Tribal Tales topic. Visitor perform a play about Prehistoric Britain.
• Year 6- World War 2. Ruth Barnett - the Holocaust survivor talks about her experiences.