Curriculum

Our Curriculum 

From September 2025 we have been using the highly regarded Cornerstones curriculum, chosen because it is ‘A sequenced curriculum rich in skills and knowledge. Perfect for those schools who want an ambitious, well-structured curriculum.’

For us at Sherborne Abbey, this allows us to ensure our standards are high, whilst meeting the educational and creative needs of our lovely children and supporting teacher creativity and imagination. Amendments and adjustments can be made through the year to ensure that we adapt to the  needs of our children, the interests of different cohorts and of course, local influences. However Cornerstones allows us to ensure a comprehensive coverage for our young people.

Due to the fact that we almost always have some mixed aged classes in school, we operate a 2 year cycle of themes in all phases so that pupils do not repeat content unless planned.

Our Curriculum Overview

So, what is the Cornerstones Curriculum and why is it beneficial?

https://cornerstoneseducation.co.uk/cornerstones-curriculum/

https://cornerstoneseducation.co.uk/cornerstones-curriculum/pedagogy/

The Cornerstones Curriculum is a creative and thematic approach to learning that is mapped to the 2014 primary national curriculum to ensure comprehensive coverage of national expectations.

It is based on a child-centred pedagogy called The Four Cornerstones and is delivered through Imaginative Learning Projects (ILPs) and Knowledge Rich Projects (KRPs), which provide a rich menu of exciting and motivating learning activities that make creative links between all aspects of children’s learning. We believe children learn better when they are encouraged to use their imagination and apply their learning to engaging contexts. Our curriculum provides many learning challenges throughout the academic year that require children to solve problems, apply themselves creatively and express their knowledge and understanding effectively. Cornerstones also provide a rigorous skills and knowledge framework that outlines the end of year expectations in all subjects.

These skills and knowledge are tied to activities and are age-related so that staff can track children’s progress and identify their individual learning needs.

Foundational Skills Approach

We believe that strong foundations in reading, writing, spelling and handwriting open the door to all future learning.

This policy explains how we support children — from their first phonics lesson through to confident, fluent reading and writing in Key Stage 2 — using approaches recommended in:

The Reading Framework
The Writing Framework
The National Curriculum

National guidance emphasises that systematic phonics, fluent handwriting, secure spelling and strong language skills create the “firm foundations” children need to succeed throughout school.  

English & Literacy Skills

At Sherborne Abbey Primary School, we aim to develop each child’s ability to speak, listen, read and write effectively. A minimum of an hour each day is devoted to developing vital literacy skills, which are also used and practised in many ways across the whole curriculum.

Our children learn by actively engaging with a broad range of texts – from poetry to newspaper reports, mystery stories to letters of complaint. They read and write a wide variety of genres and, in doing so, learn how to communicate in the most effective way. Whether it is the youngest children experimenting with a story mat or the Year 6 children recording each other in video advertisements, we hope to make literacy fun and exciting, encouraging a love of books and the ability to share their thoughts, feelings and knowledge with others.

This journey begins in our Reception (Foundation) year through the use of high-quality phonics teaching. For this we use the highly regarded scheme – ELS (Essential Letters & Sounds).

The aim of ELS is ‘Getting all children to read well, quickly’.  It teaches children to read by identifying the phonemes (smallest unit of sound) and graphemes (the written version of the sound) within words and using these to read words.

Children are taught phonics from the very beginning of Reception where it is explicitly taught every day during a dedicated slot in the timetable.  Children are given the knowledge and the skills to then apply this independently. These daily sessions continue into KS1 and beyond for pupils who do not pass the phonic check before they transition to KS2.

Throughout the scheme, children learn to read and write the ‘harder to read and spell’ words which are listed below, alongside some further useful information about ELS:

This strong phonics knowledge is extended in Year 2 through Essential Spelling, which reinforces and deepens understanding while introducing children to broader patterns, rules and strategies.

From Key Stage 2, the progression continues through Essential Spelling and Word Knowledge, where the focus develops beyond simple spelling rules into a richer understanding of how words work. Pupils explore morphology, including prefixes, suffixes and root words, alongside spelling patterns and etymology.

Reading

Once children have mastered the foundations of reading, we know that helping them develop a love of reading is the best way forward to ensure academic success in all areas. Because of this we have completely overhauled our reading system to focus on making reading a basic skill for all, and every morning at Abbey starts with a focus on reading.

Further information about our approach can be found here:

We also use the Accelerated Reader scheme for children in Years 3 to 6, as we find the children enjoy the quizzes and independent element of this reading, and it helps our parents understand their child’s reading journey.

The final piece of our Reading jigsaw is our curriculum map for Reading where we map out our reading for every year group, ensuring that we have a wide range of genre included and specify the skills we are teaching. This is our Year 6 map.

Writing

In line with the recent Writing Framework, our ultimate ambition is for our children to become successful writers, writing with fluency and flair for a variety of reasons, and our revised Writing Plan reflects this. To ensure children have the foundational skills to be able to write fluently and with ease, we ensure that handwriting is a regular feature of our week with all classes starting the afternoon this way.

Our PenPals Overview shows how this works from Reception through to Year 6.

Our overall aim for English is to ensure that our children understand the importance of reading for both knowledge and pleasure; writing for a purpose, as well as to entertain;  and speaking with confidence – being able to articulate their thoughts and feelings successfully.

Details of how we implement writing can be found here:

Maths

At Sherborne Abbey Primary School, we follow the White Rose scheme for our maths, and this enables us to develop each child’s ability to be mathematically proficient. A minimum of an hour each day is devoted to developing vital mathematical skills, which are also used and practised in many ways across the whole curriculum.

We are fortunate that as part of SAST we have worked closely with our partner schools to create a maths calculation policy that ensures coverage and continuity in maths from our Reception year through to Year 13.

CURRICULUM INTENT, CURRICULUM LEADERSHIP & CHAMPIONS

Further information about our curriculum is detailed here in our Curriculum Intent & Implementation documents.

Curriculum leadership at Sherborne Abbey CE Primary School is monitored and led by our Senior Leadership Team, with subjects allotted to subject champions who oversee, develop, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of their subject within our school.

Our subject champions are carefully chosen because of their expertise, enthusiasm and experience.

ENHANCED CURRICULUM

We know that learning is not restricted to the classroom and we regularly enhance the children’s learning with visiting speakers and workshops, external visits from museums, zoos and local industry to ensure that our children can be inspired. One of the ways in which we monitor this is by using our in-house Abbey Activity Passport. This is based upon the 2018 Activity Passports introduced by Damian Hinds (then Secretary of State for Education). Mr Hinds asked everyone he met what they wanted for their children. The instinctive answer that came back was never about the curriculum or qualifications, as important as these are. What parents wanted first and foremost was for their child to be happy and healthy.

Mr Hinds agreed with this as a father, and as Education Secretary, that’s what he wanted for all children in this country. (Of course, he also wanted them to be safe and cared for, to have a world-class education and to make a successful transition to adulthood, to be fully equipped grown-ups, active members of society and to get a job and be able to provide for themselves and, in time, their own children.)

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, he wanted more than that for our children. He wanted them to lead a fulfilling life, to enjoy learning, to read for pleasure, to be excited by music and drama, to be curious about the world and people around them. He regularly heard from teachers that it’s important that children have the chance to try things out, to get a taste of the world around them, to see and do things that they wouldn’t normally do, or go to places they wouldn’t normally go and to meet people they wouldn’t normally meet.

These things are important because a world-class education is about much more than qualifications: it’s also about your character and wellbeing. Character is developed from taking on challenges and pursuing interests, by doing things that are worth doing even when they are difficult and which may not give an immediate reward.

That’s why Activity Passports were produced to cover a range of activities which it was believed children would enjoy and learn from, and as a school we wholly endorse this.

We know that our children have had a very strange few years (as have their families), and before the pandemic many of our families would have engaged in a similar venture with the National Trust’s ’50 things to do before you’re 11 ¾’ list. So we have created an Abbey Activity Passport that reflects the enriched curriculum here, and ensures a greater array of cultural capital for all our children regardless of their family circumstances, or indeed national circumstance!

One of the incredible learning experiences for our Year 6 children is their residential trip to Pendarren in the Brecon Beacons. Please do see our Year 6 class pages for further details of this residential which is so much more than a trip – it’s really a celebration of resilience, teamwork and personal growth. By the end of their week, the children return to school and family with greater confidence, stronger friendships, and a sense of achievement that they carry into their final year of primary school and beyond.

We also have an excellent array of extra curricular clubs provided by professionals in their field (art/football/dance etc), as well as clubs run by our staff team to expose children to skills they may not have experienced before (sewing/knitting/ballroom dance etc).

As part of our Cornerstones Curriculum we also begin each new topic with a memorable experience intended to engage the children in their learning and give them a spark of excitement to stimulate their curiosity. This might be a visit from Lyme Regis museum to bring Mary Anning to life, or a Viking Day to truly appreciate the wonder of that time.

Do have a look at our Abbey Activity Passport here: